Wednesday, November 19, 2014

What Happened When I Unintentionally Gave Up Caffeine/Coffee for Two Weeks

I swear this story is related to living with diabetes - At least part of it is~
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Same coloring, logo in the same place. OK, now I see the word DECAF.
But when I make my coffee, I normally just grab the bag, measure out my life in coffee spoons and be done with it. Also: See what I did there ;)  
I didn't intentionally plan to give up coffee for almost two weeks on purpose. Nope, that's not how I roll -I REQUIRE my morning coffee. 
It happened by mistake and FTR, I blame Starbucks packaging more than I blame myself. 
Backstory: 
A month ago, CVS had Starbucks 1 pound bags on sale for $6.99 instead of the normal $10.99 a bag. I dig Starbucks coffee, I love a bargain and I had 5 CVS Bucks burning a hole in my pocket so I bought 4 bags. JACKPOT. 
I emptied out the first bag within two weeks time and opened a fresh bag O'Joe two weeks ago.
I'd just returned from Northern California and I was dealing with jet lag and the tail end of wicked sinus infection, so I chalked up my extreme tiredness/feeling both spacey and bitchier then normal and for no reason, demeanor to jet lag and sinuses. 
I even mentioned to a friend last week that I felt like I'd been running on decaf as of late.
Cut to this morning when I took a really good look at the bag of coffee I was pouring into my coffee maker and realized that it was actually decaf instead of whole caf. 
FTR: I usually prep my coffee the night before, but not last night.
And then I was like: Well shit, no wonder I've been feeling like crap! And this totally explains why I've been  feeling both spacey and bitchy at the same time, the headaches & feeling like I've been walking around on decaf all day! 
SHOCKER - I had been. 
Also, damn you Starbucks graphics department for making your regular/decaf packaging look ridiculously similar to one another!  
So what did I learn about this whole experience? 
1. I'm not zippy in the morning until I have my two cups of coffee - I only need 2 cups a day, but I need them. 
2. Decaf doesn't do it for me, but Starbucks Breakfast Blend Decaf is pretty tasty.
3. Caffeine is a drug and caffeine withdrawal is a bitch. And in all seriousness and sincerity, I thank God I don't have a more serious addiction.  
4. I slept better. But I was constantly wanting to take a nap because I was super tired and sluggish and I had a continual headache. 
FTR: I'm not a person who gets a lot of headaches. 
5. The skin on my face was slightly less dry - I think.
6. Diabetes wise, and this is the real kick-in-the-pants part of it all: I didn't find that my blood sugars were better mid morning because I'd unknowing switched myself to decaf. 
As a matter of fact, there were more than a few unexplained mid morning spikes that I couldn't account for. 
Hell, you'd think if I was going to drink decaf, maybe my numbers might be better?! 

Anyway, I rectified the situation as soon as I realized what I'd done & I'm feeling all sorts of zippy today. Seriously man, it's like #Imrunningwithscissors!!

I  even without finishing  my second cup of fully loaded java, I still felt great and plowed through the day.

Did some good come out of it? Yeah.... but for the most part I felt craptastic during the whole "learning experience." 
So live and and take the lessons learned, but for God sakes make sure you don't buy decaf by mistake!   

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