Vakkotaur

In the last several weeks I've found that my caffeine intake had crept up quite a bit. About a week ago I think I really noticed it. I had a headache that didn't go away until I had some caffeine. Not good. I don't think I truly got away from caffeine for any real length of time since RCFM and perhaps Penguicon. While I don't avoid caffeine at conventions, for the last few years I have been largely avoiding it at home. So it was time do Do Something About It, again.

I started about a week ago. I restrict myself to one cup of caffeinated coffee in the morning. Any more can be decaff. And I bought a six-pack of 24 fl. oz. Diet Dr Pepper and had half a bottle at lunch and the other half at supper. I finished the last bottle today and so bought an eight-pack of 12 oz. bottles of Diet Coke (there were no six-packs in that size at the store) and I'll have a bottle with lunch for the next week or so. Then I either drop the non-morning caffeine completely or ease back with another week of those little "sawed off" cans of Diet Coke. After a week of just the coffee, the caffeinated coffee will stop as well.

While at the store, I also picked up a couple 2 liter bottles of caffeine free pop, as I expect I might have some cravings for something carbonated. And once I'm finished with those, I'll be keeping the bottles around rather than toss them in the recycle bin. They will be useful for a little project.

The 4 AM wakeup call wasn't the bad part. The waking up several times during the night wondering if was anywhere near 4 AM (it was midnight or 1 AM when I bothered to check once) was the bad part. Final packing and loading the car went fairly well and the drive to the airport was pretty uneventful. Then I got to drive home solo, my first time driving the RX-350. Fortunately it was also rather uneventful. It was early enough that I missed most Detroit traffic and I didn't get to the Gary-Chicago area until after their anything-but-rush hour had passed. There was a drug checkpoint around the Quad Cities but I wasn't stopped to partake in that bit of theater. I did stop at an A&W, well a Long John Silver's and A&W, in Iowa as it was near a gas station and I hadn't been to an A&W that still was an A&W in several years.

One note: Water Joe, the caffeinated water that claims to "taste just like regular water" doesn't. It has the expected bitter note of alkaloid from the caffeine. It's sort of like very dilute tonic water, I'd say. Maybe enough that some people wouldn't notice it. I did notice it. It's not nasty about it, but it is there.

Now I'm home. The car is unloaded. My luggage is unpacked or close enough. A bunch of stuff... can wait. I rather doubt I'll be waking up wondering what time it is tonight.

I stayed up way too late last night, making sure the VCRs taped the Jimmy Kimmel show. $!#% ballgame throwing the schedule off. I got the show taped, though I likely clipped a bit of the intro on both tapes. $!#% ballgame throwing the schedule off.

The result is that I'm tired today. Tired enough to resort to drinking a can of Mountain Dew for the caffeine. Now I'm sort of awake. I'm still tired, but the nerves seem to be firing a bit more, if that makes any sense. It's interesting to watch myself appear to be awake but still not feeling like I'm really awake. The last time I really noticed this was in college after pulling a rare all-nighter and using way too much caffeine. I felt caffeine's other, non-stimulant, effects for a few days after that. I hope that doesn't happen this time - those effects are rather annoying. So no more caffeine for me today. Maybe I should have had something other than a Mountain Dew.

( Music abuse )

I think I'll take a nap after supper tonight.

It's been about two months since I stopped using caffeine. I've noticed that I feel better, or perhaps I should say that mood cycling is more neutral. I'm not sure if it's due to the absence of caffeine or to other factors.

What happened before was that something would get me down, and I'd seem to stay rather down for some time. When I did feel good, it was all too easy to feel down again. Now, it seems to take more to get me to feel down, and recovery from that is shorter, and perhaps the low isn't as deep. One possible explanation is that giving up caffeine is a sort of poor man's Prozac. Caffeine supposedly affects brain chemistry in a way somewhat opposite of the recent family of anti-depressants. And supposedly some people adjust to this, and others don't quite adjust and are thus sensitive to caffeine's possible pro-depressant effects.

That's one explanation. Another might be a sort of placebo effect. I want something to happen, and so it does, and credit is given to something that changed. I doubt that this is it, as I didn't notice the result (if it is a result) right off. And I've wanted that result for some time. Or maybe I just sleep better. One thing I've noticed is that when first off caffeine, I went to sleep earlier. But now that I've been off it for a while, I'm staying up nearly as late as I did before.

But there are other things, not related to caffeine, that could be having an effect. There was kinkyturtle's visit, and seeing my family at Thanksgiving, seeing Gerry and the team again, and also the upcoming trip for Christmas. These things are changes from routine, and not bad ones. Also I've been actually having something of a breakfast recently, instead of just a multivitamin and water. When I ran out of multivitamins (After not having them for a couple weeks, there is a detectable effect. I'll spare everyone the details.) I didn't get another bottle of them but instead got a box of cereal (since most cereals are gorked up with various vitamins) and have a bit in the morning. It seems to work out. And it's now cold out, not hot and miserable, that could also be a contributing factor.

As noted in the last LJ post, I'm making progress on a project I've neglected, on and off, for a while. Between that and a couple things at work, I have a fair sense of getting things done, which certainly helps my mood.

I'm left wondering how much of what I feel and what I do is due to the absence of caffeine and how much is due to other things. Am I doing some of this stuff because I feel good, or do I feel good because I'm doing this stuff? Both?

I'm not going to suggest anyone else avoid caffeine. I don't know for sure that my ceasing its use is why I feel pretty good. But there's no sense in risking messing things up. I like feeling good, and if all I have to do is avoid caffeine, well, it's a cheap enough price to pay. Pass the icewater.

This post of yakko's got me to thinking about my use of caffeine and how it has become routine again when I had been almost entirely off of it for a while not all that long ago. Fortunately I was only at one or two caffeinated drinks, usually iced tea, a day. Unfortunately, one of them was almost always at supper and it did seem to be having an effect.

So last week I started to consciously change my habits. First by keeping to only one use of caffeine a day and then only around noon or earlier, not in the evening. This wasn't too bad, though at one place at which I had supper a server knew my habits too well and brought me an iced tea before I had a chance to say anything.

The weekend went by without too much trouble (at least in this regard) and I managed to avoid caffeine though I did have a mild headache on Sunday. That might have been from other things. Lunch and a nap later helped. I did get to sleep, or try to, earlier than usual, though the change to Standard Time likely was somewhat to blame as well. I did not sleep very well last night. I expect that as time passes I will sleep better and be more awake in the morning. That's one thing I remember from being off caffeine before - that I was more awake, at least in the morning.

I don't expect to never touch caffeine again, but I want to keep it to a very low minimum so that when it's needed it will have a useful effect and not be a pain to stop using. I'm already used to drinking water most of the time, so no big deal there. Chances are my biggest problem with this now will be convincing a couple people not to bring me iced tea right off.