40 Days Without Vices

As you very well know, coffee is a very important part of my life. I mean seriously, it's the first word in the title of my blog! A few weeks ago, I was thinking about what to give up for Lent. I'm not really religious, so Lent serves more as a 40 days without something, just to see if I can actually do that. Last year, I gave up cough drops, which was okay. This year, I decided to go a little more hard core. I gave up caffeine and excess sugar (dessert, candy, pastries, etc.). Honestly, eating no candy and dessert is much easier than trying to just eat a little amount. However, life on Thursday was far from fun. My head was throbbing so terribly and, as I was sitting in a busy dining area on campus, I wanted to strangle about half the people I saw. I am normally very tolerant of people talking loudly, coughing constantly, or chewing with their mouth open, but this was different. I was the definition of strung out. All I could think was how if I could just have a cup of coffee, it would all be better. I didn't even care about the fact that I couldn't eat dessert, I would have given up food in general for just a little caffeine fix. Since I had lots of work to accomplish, and having this headache would affect my grades negatively, I took a caffeine-containing Excedrin and that night had a Coke Zero. Cheating? I know, maybe weaning myself off would have been a better idea. I had never realized how addicted I was! Craziness. Hopefully, by Easter, I will be completely adjusted to a new diet of less sugar and caffeine. When I start drinking it again, perhaps I should stick to a one-cup-a-day limit.