This post isn’t really about music, but it is about something that helped me rock!
Are you sitting down? Cool. Let me ask you a question: Have you felt the universe shift, recently? Yes? Well, here’s a truth:
I haven’t had a coffee in two weeks.
I know.
I’m the guy who lives on coffee, who sings its praises. Oh that black, black coffee…
Why, oh why, you ask, haven’t I brewed a pot for myself? Simple – it was really bothering my stomach, left me feeling raw and acidic. It reached the point where the thought of another cup was unappealing, because I knew how it would make me feel.
I tried cutting it with sugar, but that didn’t help (I’d never add cream, ugh). Eventually I just stopped. I haven’t had anything to drink but water (and a glass of wine, on Friday night) for two weeks. It’s probably healthier for me, honestly, but it sure has been an adjustment!
Seriously, I think you know me by now. I’m the guy for whom it’s reflex to throw on a pot in the morning and, if there wasn’t time to make a fresh one as the day went on, an instant coffee did the trick. I couldn’t tell you how many cups a day I was having, but it was several. And the stomach thing? Likely, I just over-did it. And my body made me knock it off.
As expected, I went through some irritability, exhaustion, and headaches. This all lasted for several days. But as time passed, all of that’s stopped, and my stomach feels a whole lot better too.
Funny thing is, I never used to drink coffee at all. It wasn’t until we moved to Saskatoon in 2001, and people would offer you a coffee when you arrived at their place in winter because it was -50C outside and anything warm was welcome indeed! I started out by putting so much sugar in it that it was a dessert more than a cup of coffee, just to cut the taste. Over time, the sugar got less and less until it disappeared and I just drank it black. I was acclimated. I went from one cup per day, in the morning, and added as we went until now, here in 2016.
So, maybe this is fine, for now. I still get twitches, the urge for a cup, but so far I’ve resisted. I don’t think I’m completely done with drinking coffee, but if and when I decide to dip back in, I’m gonna leave it at one cup and see how we go from there.
As for my energy levels without coffee? Heh heh, I’m still able to give ‘er like I always do, without the help of caffeine! The KMA keeps on rockin’!
In the past I looked forward to the drunk album reviews. Once you get back on the coffee espresso train, can’t wait to read those pumped up reviews!
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The drunk reviews will still be happening, now and again (never fear)! Funny thing about the coffee, though, it never seemed to ramp me up. I could drink a coffee right before bed at night and go right to sleep. I like the taste! I have to assume it gave me a buzz but not so I noticed, that much!
Fear not, Heff, I’ve got plenty of natural energy to maintain my usual levels of craziness!
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404 error does not compute, lol.
That’s will power right there. Sorry to hear it’s hurting your stomach, but happy to hear you feel better!
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Haha error 404, I love it. Thanks, though, I do feel a whole lot better these days.I’d say it wasn’t by choice but by necessity. Will power? Maybe, although I know how coffee made the ol’ gut feel so maybe it was just do what ya gotta, eh?
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It’s just sad you won’t get to enjoy the coffee reviews the same way anymore 😦
I get it though, totally. If anyone knows stomach probs it’s me.
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Oh I’ll likely be back to a cup or so every now and again, but the scaling back has immensely helped the ol’ gut! Stomach troubles are no fun, for sure. Sorry you have them too!
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Oooft. I tip my hat to you, sir. I cut out coffee for the best part of a year a while back. I don’t think I could do it again … though I certainly don’t drink as much as I used to!
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I thought of you, actually, as I remembered you cutting it out a while ago. It gives me hope that coming back at a greatly reduced rate can work out!
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Good on u young Fella! I’m still guzzling …
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Thanks Deke, just trying to do what seems to make sense by process of elimination. Glad you’re still enjoying a cuppa, surely I’ll be back at it again sooner or later, though for now I’m thinking in much smaller doses!
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Sorry. Coffee gut sensation.
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Thanks for this, but my mind corrected it as I read anyway. Although it could be said that, before all of this happened, I truly was a coffee guy, too, so it all works!
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I understand the coffee guy sensation but I found certain coffees worse for that than others. Tim Hortons, is one of the worst. I’m not sure I have it in me to cut out the black gold completely.
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Oh Timmys, I know. It’s a road trip coffee, and I hardly ever take road trips. And even then I’m more likely to have a go cup of coffee brewed at home with me. Honestly, it was probably the volume at which I was consuming coffee that undid me and, while I don’t think I’ve given it up completely, I admit to feeling a whole lot better since taking a break.
Black Gold. Wasn’t that a Soul Asylum song?
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Of course the KMA still goes on…it is fueled by the ROCK.
I had to cut down my coffee too, to just having a few cups on weekends. Otherwise I get too anxious.
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Yup, the ROCK, and the JAZZ, and the BLUES, and the FUNK, and the CLASSICAL, and the…
Cutting back really works when it makes you feel oogy (go figure). When even Tums ain’t cutting it, it’s time for more drastic action! Coffee never made me anxious, but it became a fuel upon which I leaned quite heavily and this is the result!
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Wow. Good will power flexing. I couldn’t even begin to contemplate giving up coffee.
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Apparently it goes by degrees… I can have willpower over something I love, like coffee, but when it comes to my lovely wife and records, which I love even more, I couldn’t ever say no! 🙂
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