Coffee is the glue that holds a lot of us together.
Maybe it’s the aroma. Maybe it’s the caffeine. Maybe it’s all in our heads. Either way, coffee is love.
Growing up, it never really made sense how folks on TV could casually sip this black stuff, and look super cool while doing it. To me, it looked like they were drinking tar out of a mug. An occasional Starbucks Frappuccino was all the coffee I needed, until my senior year of college. While trying to juggle studying, being active on campus and working, the naps were not enough. And like most college students, I sometimes performed these activities hungover. Such is life. Between the free coffee at work, and balling out on Starbucks with my refund check–I didn’t even bother buying a brewer for home. That eventually changed a few years later, and my daily cup of joe became a bare necessity. (Yes, I saw the new Jungle Book over the weekend.)
Last month I stumbled upon a 4-day “cleansing” challenge on Facebook. It seemed doable:
- No chips
- No red meat
- No pork
- No candy
- No fried food
- No alcohol
- No coffee
Wait…no alcohol OR coffee? What kind of cruel and unusual punishment is this?
Here’s what happened during my 4 days without coffee.
I fell asleep in the middle of a webinar.
It was like a drunk nap. In my mind, I thought I could close my eyes for 15 seconds, and magically have more energy when I opened them. Instead I woke up an hour later. Didn’t see it coming.
I tried to read my shirt in the mirror.
While brushing my teeth, I squinted to get a clearer vision of how awful I looked. I asked myself, “Where did I get this shirt from?” “What does this say?” Turns out I was trying to read the words Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…backwards.
I ignored 40% more phone calls than usual.
I just couldn’t be bothered with anyone else’s foolishness. COULD NOT. I barely had the energy to deal with myself, so actually listening was a lot to handle. Even pretending to listen was a lot to handle.
My nightly meditation session turned into 7 hours of sleep.
Seriously? Seriously. I had the nerve to think I could survive being on a couch in silence with my eyes closed for 20 minutes. THE NERVE!
Kudos to people who function without coffee. You deserve all the awards! Anything is possible, but I need an effective substitute before going without coffee again! As I type this I’m sipping on hot lemon water to see if it does the trick. I’ll keep y’all posted.
How long have you gone without your caffeine fix? What alternatives did you use to keep you energized?
Awwww! LOL! Thanks for the laughs! How did the “No Alcohol” go? I really struggle with that one…you know..because if you cut me, I’d bleed rosé.
Girl, yes. No alcohol was easier, because I could wait until the weekend for a drink but NEEDED my coffee. I definitely put a little rum in my coffee to celebrate though. ? -Ace
Ha ha! I am reading this while sipping an iced vanilla latte. *Yum*. This made me laugh!! I love coffee. So much. I developed a distressing eye twitch so I switched to decaf for a few months, and that was a HARD transition. Ugg. Now I am back on full leaded coffee. No eye twitch yet. 😉
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Happy I could be a part of your morning laugh! A latte would’ve been perfect this morning! -Ace
You are hilarious! This is so true, right! We so easily become reliant on stimulants (my vice is zipfizz) and it is such a shock to the system when we go cold turkey off them!
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Haha, thank you for reading! I’m looking into effective substitutes like matcha! -Ace
OH MY hahaha! I love this!! I used to hate coffee, but now I can’t live without it. And with two special needs kids it’s the only things keeping me going most days.
I had no idea what I was missing out on! Sending love and light to you and the kiddos! ? -Ace
Oh man, I didn’t go this far but I did give up sugar for 3 weeks. It was 3 terrible weeks. I hope that you adjust but more than that, I hope that you get some darn coffee.
3 weeks without sugar? Okay, you win! -Ace
I love it! I don’t drink coffee everyday but it would be really hard to go 4 days without it! And now I need to go and find myself a cup before I can read anymore blogs!
I didn’t think it would be that hard, and my allergies didn’t help! -Ace
This cracked me up! I’m pretty sure this would all happen to me if I gave up my coffee habit!
Haha. I can laugh about it now, but I was definitely struggling at the time. Thank you for reading! -Ace
Aww man! I can’t even remember the last time I had to go multiple days without coffee! Perhaps it was a couple of years ago when I had a major surgery…
Kudos to you for giving it a go and having a sense of humor about it!
The struggle was real! Thank you for reading! -Ace
Lol, the your post, the same goes for me I can’t seem to function without my coffee. I tried to go without myself but didn’t work so I decided to go decaffeinated. I now what many of you might be thinking…. Huh DECAFFEINATED?!? What’s the point of having coffee without caffeine?!? Well… What most people don’t know is decaffeinated coffee still has a tiny bit of caffeine but not enough to harm you. I have at least two cups during the day and it helps me function. Have a great day 🙂
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The idea of decaf didn’t make sense to me at first. One day I was running low and mixed decaf coffee with a little of my usual coffee, and it was great! -Ace
Too funny. I laughed out loud!!! I’ve had to cut out most caffeine because of my acid reflux, so it’s a daily struggle over here. But, it does get easier!
Thanks for laughing with me. 🙂 I think if I went a little longer, it definitely would’ve gotten easier. -Ace
Thanks for sharing the laugh! Coffee is life for sure! I did a cleanse and went 10 days without coffee – I was so happy to get it back!
My little 4 days has nothing on your 10 days, but you made it!
-Ace
hahaha TMNT! Also how great was the new jungle book?
I love me some coffee, but I stopped drinking it every morning a few months back (sometimes I cave). It was hard for about 2 weeks, I ended up drinking a LOT of water. But I have to say once I got over the hump I felt really good, more awake during the morning and less agitated during the day.
No alcohol though? no thanks.
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I didn’t even get over the hump! I’m sure I could get used to it, but those 4 days were rough! I went from Baloo to Shere Khan REAL quick. ?
-Ace