The Coffee Purge: Day 23

Fresh Pot of Coffee

I just got into work today and saw a fresh pot of coffee that has just finished brewing. In times past, this was a huge weakness for me, inducing tremendous desire to drink, and often times, breaking my iron will. This morning, I glanced over, smiled, then boiled a pot of water. Routine.

New Energy

Today I woke up early to catch the GO train. I got less sleep, but started my day earlier. I recovered from the weekend on Monday, but I was worried that I would relapse into more tiredness today. It was a fight this morning, however, I'm feeling strong right now.

The Coffee Purge: Next Phase

So to update you, in my last post, I mentioned how I needed to make it to Friday to "earn" my instant coffee. So I made it! And it's now just over a week of no coffee (I have been drinking tea on and off). I now have 12 "vials" of instant coffee, and can only take 1 per week! If I follow through with this, this plan will take me to Christmas, earning me a Christmas present!

The Bigger Picture

The fight to get off coffee is symbolic of a deeper fight that I wrestle with. For me, coffee has been something that has been hard to control. It is indeed a wonderful drink, but like anything, if abused (think 8 cups / day), coffee can wreck havoc on my life. I am training myself to be disciplined. To overcome the smaller battles in life. If I say I won't drink coffee, I want to be strong enough to not give into a craving. Satisfying my body's cravings brings only temporary pleasure. Whether it's surfing the net, sleeping in, procrastinating, drinking coffee, ... What I desire to pursue are cravings that bring eternal pleasure (soul cravings, if you will), satisfying desires with no regrets. And to join in that pursuit, integrity. To have a consistency in what I say and in what I do. For me, this would be what a 4-Dimensionally Fit individual looks like.

The Coffee Purge Reloaded: Day 16

The above picture is taken from Nescafe's website (here). This is definitely a smile-inducing page. So, as an update, I had coffee Fri, Sat, Sun, and Mon. One cup each day, but still. My coffee "fast" was great and I look forward to the next round, today being the first day.

The goal? Get to this Friday. Without coffee. Why? Then, I will get packs of "instant coffee" by Nescafe. Okay, admittedly, they may not taste the best and it's much different than freshly brewed coffee. But the "prize" is from one of the "coffee police" and it's more the "idea" of the prize that makes this fun and exciting! Besides, I'd hate to see them disappointed / upset because I "caved". So here we go -- onwards and upwards!

By the way, today.... was ... hard. As it always is. To fight it, I drank some Masala Chai Tea (I have a box of "Tea India" from a grocery store). And throughout the day, I had lemon water =)

I'm feeling better right now ... but it's 9:30pm. Let's try to get Josh awake and alive before work tomorrow :p

The Coffee Purge Reloaded: Day 12

Coffee Purge Reloaded: 12
Days without coffee: 6*
*Would have been 7 today, but I just filled up a cup of office coffee (:

The last time I had coffee was last Friday. To think that it's been a week since my last cup of coffee is amazing. I look forward to this cup and hope to enjoy it. Overtime, I will be "free" from coffee. But until then, I'm going to enjoy the journey.

The Coffee Purge Reloaded: Day 10

Coffee Purge Reloaded: 10

Consecutive Days without Coffee: 5

The journey continues. I've been feeling much better recently. My inspiration to continue comes from many places. One of my inspirations comes from Matt Frazier, the no-meat-athlete (www.nomeatathlete.com). He has a few posts on how he quit coffee. One of the things he did was drink decaf, going with half decaf and half coffee.

So I was passing by Shoppers' on my way home today and guess what I found on sale: Instant Coffee, 1/2 decaf, 1/2 coffee. I decided to pick it up as an indulgence. Next time I have an urge or feel I really need it, I have this half decaf to help ease any temptations to go overboard. As it stands, this container remains unopened.