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“Coffee Cup Kat” No More
Posted on March 9, 2009 by Kat French in managing attention, real lifeThis is sort of about the fact that I’ve given up coffee and caffiene.
Yes. I know. Break out the bomb shelters and flack jackets. ”Coffee cup kat” is quitting Joe. The end must be nigh.
Mostly, though, this is a post about change.
I’ve been reading (and really enjoying) Havi Brooks’ blog, which is mostly about change, or in her words “destuckification.” Having gone through a really long process of destuckification myself in the last five or ten years or so, much of what she writes resonates with me.
Over the weekend, I went to a really lovely women’s retreat with my very cool church. The theme was “Big God, Strong Women, Tough World.” I’m going to be writing a blog post about it later today, so I won’t go into too great a level of detail here, but it was a very well-timed and overall awesome experience.
You might ask what all this has to do with coffee. More than you’d think.
I was reading Havi’s post about quitting smoking, and this stopped me cold:
“How good are you at taking breaks when you need them?”
Um, pretty much ”I suck at taking breaks when I need them.”
How badly do I suck at taking breaks when I need them? So badly that I’ve nearly passed out while working on stuff because I wouldn’t stop to eat. So badly that I’ve caught myself, a fully grown adult who should know better, doing the pee-pee dance like my five-year-old because I refused to go to the bathroom.
Why do I drink coffee? Partly I like the aroma (which the taste never lives up to). Partly, I use it to camoflage my messed-up sleep cycle (which coffee helps perpetuate).
But mostly, I need a way to give myself permission to take a freaking break, and walking to the coffee pot for a refill provides that.
I wrote recently about the difference between “retreat” and “running away.” I got a true retreat last weekend, and one of the insights that came from it was that coffee was probably a bigger part of my identity than Christ. At the very least, the identity that others see and notice. Ouch.
There are some health-related reasons that giving up coffee was something I needed to do. For one thing, I have “tummy troubles” that are aggravated by coffee specifically. For another, I’ve always had trouble with insomnia, and caffeine does not exactly help that.
Also, if you’ve ever met me in person, you know that most of the time, I talk at about the pace of the squirrel on Hoodwinked! after they gave him the coffee. Perhaps weening off it might help my in-person communication skillz a bit.
5 Responses so far.
Who is That Darn Kat?
Jesus Freak. Web Geek. Writing Fool. Psychology Nerd. Drama Queen. Coffee Addict. Tea Lover. Comic Fangirl. Movie Nut. Book Worm. Navel Gazer.
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Hi, I’m Kat French: gen-x wife, mom, writer, web nerd & follower of Christ.
Hi Kat — Props to you for being brave enough to make some big changes in your life. Change is very hard! And boy so is kicking caffeine addiction. Manufacturers keep pushing caffeine on us because it is addictive and guarantees they’ll continuously have repeat customers. The world’s most popular drug, caffeine is in EVERYTHING! Beverage (think energy drinks), food and pharmaceutical products have more and more caffeine — even chewing gum and potato chips!
The problem is that people have no idea just how much caffeine they consume every day. And now “caffeine intoxication” is a real problem. America’s poison control centers and hospital emergency rooms are seeing increasing numbers of people who are ill from caffeine intoxication — more than half are under 18 years old.
Again, when it’s health versus profits, the winner is profits. It’s so important to be aware. Ethic Soup blog as a series of concise, informative articles on caffeine at:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/caffeine-the-worlds-most-popular-drug.html
You are a very, very brave woman! I too have fought to call it quits but cannot muster the strength to see it through…
I think it has something to do with having worked at Starbucks years ago (therein grew my addiction).
On a serious note though, I really do think it’s a good thing. It’s a great feeling when you can go through your days and weeks without having to grab a cup of coffee (or redbull in my case).
Kat – great post. I’m doing the “pee-pee” dance as I type because I did not want to take a break. ?
The church retreat sounds like it was awesome! Can’t wait to read your blog post about it.
Sharon,
Thanks for the reply–that’s an interesting article. I’ve fortunately never been a big energy drink fan, but I had no idea that the levels of caffeine in some were that high.
Ricardo,
If I had ever worked at Starbucks, I probably would have never gone home at night. I’d have just camped out drinking till I passed out…
And I think it’s going to be a good thing. Once I get used to it.
Crystal,
It’s funny, and yet it’s not, that we push ourselves like that, isn’t it? And I’ll probably post a link once the blog post is up–but it’s not going up here–it’s going up on my church’s blog.
A good alternative that I’ve enjoyed is decaf herbal teas. The hot drink aspect fills at least part of the need that coffee hits.