I never really thought it was a problem. Caffeine that is. I have been a coffee drinker for a long time. I wasn’t getting the jitters or shakes. Nothing like that. It was the headaches. I have had them off and on for a while but they got really bad in January. I couldn’t figure out what it was.

I have always attributed the headaches to some type of sinus or allergy. I never understood if the headaches were due to sinus why sinus medicine like Claritin never made any differences. Besides, it was too early for sinus problems. There is nothing in bloom in January. Maybe it was the dry office. I did notice that the headaches started on Monday and lasted through Friday, but I didn’t get them on the weekends. Got to be the office building. Hmmm… But there was something else different. I didn’t drink as much coffee on the weekends. I would have one espresso and that was it on the weekends. Could it be caffeine?

I started drinking decaff at work at the beginning of February. After just a few days, I noticed a difference. The headaches were gone, my mood was much better, I had more energy, I was feeling much better. My goodness, it was the caffeine.

I would have a cup of coffee at home in the morning. I would still have a bit of headache. So I finally decided to stop all caffeine on Wednesday. I don’t feel as much of a difference this time. I do yawn a lot but I’m not ready to fall in bed after a glass or two of wine.

I’ve read a bit about caffeine. It may be a while for me to totally withdraw from it. I have read a bit about how caffeine works and it may be six weeks until I have it out of my system. But it has been great.

I had also been a drinker of caffeinated soda since I was seven years old. Or at least until January 2003. I gave up sugar sodas to help lose weight which really helped. 150-200 calories per can and I was a heavy consumer of 3 cans a day. That is 500 extra calories! Soda is free where I work so it was so easy to drink. But I put on the pounds drinking soda after soda. It is much harder to not drink a soda than to avoid coffee. Avoiding coffee has been real easy. But soda, the cravings are still there. Yes, even after a year.