Tea, But Not as I Know it

Probably the hardest part of giving up caffeine, for me was giving up coffee but one shouldn’t underestimate the power of a good cup of tea when you need it. I gave up having sugar in my tea last year, though I would allow myself a sugary mug from time to time; that however comes under the banned category of ‘snacking’ in my book, be it decaf or not. Which leaves us with the important question of what to do? Thanks to Ben’s generosity I now have the solution; herbal tea!

Upon my return from work on Friday I discovered a package sitting outside my front door from America, within I found a foil bag of herbal tea and a note:

“Georgie,

I know you said you thought you’d drink some green tea, but here is some herbal tea that we really like. Katie doesn’t normally drink tea, but she really likes this. It’s called Evening in Missoula. It has chamomile, rosehips, raspberry, papaya, peppermint, spearmint, strawberry leaf, vanilla, passion flower, red clover, star anise, and wild cherry bark. Lots of wonderful things. Yes, this is a lot of tea. I didn’t realize how much 4 ounces was. Hopefully you like it and it helps you with your kicking the caffeine (and doesn’t drive you back to it :) ). If not, hopefully you can find someone that will drink it.

Enjoy!

Ben & Katie”

How lovely is that?! Thank you both SO so much, for the tea, and also for writing the very blog which made me want to start blogging again; b&k m online really is a terrific blog and I highly recommend giving it a read. But lets get down to the topic at hand; tea.

Damn this is good tea! When I first opened the bag there was an overwhelming smell of mintyness; and I’ll be honest, I was struck by fear; was I going to end up drinking a mug of hot mouth wash? Well, I am glad to report that no, I didn’t. It turns out that when you combine these 12 flavours you are rewarded with an absolutely magnificent cup of tea. I really enjoyed the mug I drank about two hours ago and I’m going to make myself another now. I’ve had green tea before, which I liked but now I’m struck with the urge to try all sorts of other herbal teas too. Hoorah for tea and hoorah for sharing!

Giving up Caffeine! [Edited]

This week I’ve been being a VERY good boy! I’ve stopped snacking, been lifting my weights and doing push-ups first thing in the morning AND last thing before bed. I’ve also been getting up at 5:30am every day and running, but perhaps the hardest part of all was my choice to give up caffeine all together! No coffee, no coke, no tea, no nothing!

[Edit] I’ve also given up beer, wine or any other alcoholic beverage on week days (monday-friday); no beer with dinner or anything like that; it’s water and squash all the way! [/Edit]

I really do love my coffee, it makes me very happy and I am somewhat hooked on the stuff; upon my return from running when I’m at university I’d make myself a coffee which would then come into the bathroom with me so that I could sip at it during my shower to wake me up. Bearing in mind that I am used to having three or four cups of coffee a day the results of having none have been interesting.

Giving Up Diary:

• Day one: Hyperactive
• Day two: Splitting Headache (honestly the worst I have ever had EVER!)
• Day three: (today): Mild headache, took pain killers as soon as it came on so not sure how bad it would have been.

Now Wikipedia says that I could have a dodgy stomach too but so far everything’s been okay! (phew!) Another interesting thing I found out about caffeine withdrawal is that un-like drinking alcohol, where a hangover’s headache is largely the result of being de-hydrated; caffeine withdrawal headaches are caused because a regularly caffeinated person has some of their neurological receptors enlarge as the caffeine latches onto them. When there’s no caffeine these receptors cry out for more in the form of  a headache, after two to five days these receptors begin to shrink back down to a caffeine free size and the headaches should go away.

It looks like it’ll be a while until I am having coffee again; no more Starbucks Espresso Frapachino for me *sob* but also no more dependence on that stuff to make my brain work; hoorah! In Barista (our on campus coffee shop) it’ll be a glass of water from now on; none of that caffeinated coke, coffee or sugary orange juice for me!

On the health side I’m also really looking forward to getting back to university and in the gym with Robin, he’s a hard task master but he’d an awfully good trainer! Not to mention he, like me, is a HUGE Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) fan, and my lovely parents have agreed to pay for my gym membership! Yay!

Now go and make yourselves a nice big (decaffeinated) coffee and enjoy!