in my quest to feel better and live better, i am horrified to notice that one of my grandest pleasures in life makes me feel truly awful.
and that, dear friends, is coffee.
i didn’t make coffee’s acquaintance until i was well into adulthood, and even then, i only drank it in a rather childish way: lots of milk and about 6 teaspoons of sugar. you may remember me waxing rather rhapsodic about the coffee cooladas from dunkin donuts in detroit (i realized just how much i miss them when i went back for my son’s wedding over the summer), and i haven’t found anything near as good to take their place in my heart.
for the last few years i have been drinking general foods international coffees (now called maxwell house international coffees)- hardly an adult beverage still, but yummy enough to start the day with a bit of caffeine and lots of sugar. they suppress the appetite and give me a kick start.
but they also make me feel like crud.
after starting back on real food after my recent extended hiatus one of the first things i was looking forward to getting reacquainted with was my daily morning coffee. it’s a small thing, but it makes me so happy to sip it for the first hour or so as it cools down and i know i am really treating myself to something outstanding.
but as i read on another blog- and this was a real “aha!” thing for me to read and then say in my mind over and over: you do not need to give yourself food treats; you are not a dog.
wow, huh?
so after the third day in a row that i had my delicious coffee and then felt really sick and nauseated and draggy within a few hours i just couldn’t deny it: my coffee was making me feel awful.
oh, rats.
if i want to have integrity about this whole diet thing, and if i want to start turning around the way my family eats, i have to get real about the consequences of what i ingest.
and i think it might have to start with my beloved coffee.
but it made me feel so adult.
and it made me feel so pampered.
and everybody else is doing it.
oh.
yeah that does sound as weak as it sounds.
so guess what?
it’s time for some new and better habits.
today i’m going to celebrate by taking my daughter out to the indian buffet.
because i may not be a dog who needs food treats, but i’ll admit that i’m not quite there yet 😉
Oct 29, 2012 @ 12:54:37
Same thing happened to me. I had fallen in love with expresso in South America and made it part of my daily routine. My body kept saying “this makes you feel crappy” but I wasn’t listening. Even before coffee I was pretty revved up; after a cup or two and I was flying off the walls. Finally, one morning (and this may sound a little weird, but I swear it happened this way) I was sitting at the kitchen table drinking a delicious latte and I “heard” my body tell me to dump it and STOP drinking coffee. It was so insistent that I did dump it and gradually began to feel better, easier to focus, more grounded, less bouncing off the walls, no crashes after the high. I figure I’m just one of those people who reacts badly to caffeine, especially caffeine mixed with sugar. I’d never picked up the soda habit so I didn’t have to kick that. Had a brief relapse this summer as we were traveling through western Canada and Alaska. Turns out McDonalds is a reliable place to find free Wifi in small towns. We would stop, make a small purchase and hook up. After a few lattes. I saw the same ugly pattern appearing. An initial buzz and feeling of well-being and then a crash. Good luck!
Oct 29, 2012 @ 13:00:21
Julie m’luv — I haven’t had coffee (full caffeine) in many decades! It gives me VIOLENT palpitations — feels like my heart is jumping oit of my chest. BUT some of the decafs, incl your Int’l brands, are darn good. And in my case I can still drink tea. It must contain some excipient that blocks the JOLT. In your case., if decaf is out, just know that it really isn’t all that important — and you’ve just told us you get it!
Lotsa love.
Oct 29, 2012 @ 13:49:49
“but it made me feel so adult” yikes, did she real write that in her blog for everyone to see?? (what a confesssss)
“and it made me feel so pampered”. now this one really got me, coz we all likes to be pampered, but recently i shifted my treats (i’m a good doggy!) to things that are very good for you, like: blueberries (tons of them, organic if poss.); raspberries (see previous comment); organic fruit jam that has grape juice sweetener (i know, who knew being healthy was soooo delicious right?)
“and everybody else is doing it” this confess really is the max in teenage angst, i have to say i laughed my *beep* off when i read this one, but i pretty sure that’s mostly because we’ve all been guitly of trying too hard to fit in.
so glad to hear that you’re making informed choices and that you’re listening to your body. so many people just take a pill to mask the symptoms and then wonder why they get cancer (or some such other life-threatening thing) 20 years down their road.
lotsa luv, keep on track
Oct 29, 2012 @ 13:54:33
Ok. I’ve been reading your blog occasionally since I started following it. The whole not having a garden in your front yard sparked my interest. The posts I’ve read are so very much like me, then I read you moved to Seattle… We had moved to Seattle just last year… ANYWAY, I realized today that as I once again prepare to “go off” coffee, you are too…
Our lives seem to be so similar in so many ways! I would love to meet you for tea some place if you ever have the time!
I’m near Green Lake & North Seattle Comm College. If you can access my e-mail address from this blog, send me a message.
Blessings to you and your family as you prepare for the upcoming Holidays and have a safe & happy Halloween! {I’ll be celebrating my 50th b’day on 10/31}
Oct 29, 2012 @ 15:19:05
bravo *j, for-go the cup o joe.
Oct 29, 2012 @ 17:23:47
All that sweet factory chemical junk isn’t really coffee. You may still be able to enjoy coffee if you used real coffee, the kind you grind and brew yourself.
Oct 29, 2012 @ 17:34:06
and left out the mounds of sugar and non-organic dairy milk. Maybe. But best to cut it out entirely if you can. Good luck!
Oct 29, 2012 @ 18:52:47
If it has a label, read it, and if it has ANYTHING that is not coffee or milk be warned, it is a chemical mix: ‘processed’, preserved, stabilized, colored,flavor enhanced, sweetened, maybe even anti-caking agented . Good luck!
Your reaction may not be to coffee which has been badly abused, misused and adulterated. It has long been a strong, fabulous and well known ‘medicine’,- my choice over drug store remedies for headache, the ‘blues’, or too much grease in my system from a luxury restaurant meal. Organic, grind my own fresh and love it with fresh goat milk- an Italian taught me that one!
I am so glad you are getting some traction on what gets to you. Stay attentive, some of the videos others have suggested have been great. thanks!
Oct 29, 2012 @ 19:25:35
thanks 🙂
Oct 29, 2012 @ 19:26:05
you mean like real adult coffee??? gasp…
Oct 29, 2012 @ 19:26:51
sigh… breaking up is hard to do (cue sappy music in background…) 😉
Oct 29, 2012 @ 19:29:05
ok- no idea where the places are that you mentioned, but i will for sure shoot you an email and we can see about meeting at the library or something one of these days! and happy early birthday 🙂
Oct 29, 2012 @ 19:33:00
thanks for the love- and the “everybody else is doing it” was, of course, meant to be tongue-in-cheek… but also so sad that we moved to seattle where coffee is like air, and everyone else seems to be able to tolerate not only coffee but like an unlimited number of cups per day of the stuff- and it smells soooooooooooooooooo good… and here i am wimping out… but oh well, i will feel that much better for it. so today is day 1 of mint tea (nana, in fact) and i haven’t died yet, so that’s a positive sign- very zen of me, right????
Oct 29, 2012 @ 19:33:34
thanks- i can always use extra love!
Oct 29, 2012 @ 19:34:31
thanks! doesn’t it feel good to tune into your body? (this i say to reinforce my own will power, more than anything else 😉 )
Oct 30, 2012 @ 00:30:03
for the most part, we eat really healthy. our garden is STILL producing – i cleared the last of the green tomatoes today – and will be canning the rest of the week …… also picked the last of the black bean pods – will finish drying those as well. pumpkins, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, etc are thriving. so, yeah, we eat pretty well …. LOTS and LOTS of organic veggies {home grown and home canned/or frozen for winter use} plus all of the fruit we grow as well {blueberries, plums, peaches, chinese apricots}.
but yes, i have my vice as well. i can hear you, julie, as well as all of the blog-followers here …. gasping in shock, dismay, horror …. when i say that, well, i am a pepsi-holic. i canNOT e’en tolerate the smell of coffee let alone the taste {i hold my breath in the coffee aisle at the market!} so, yes, a nice, cold pepsi to open the eyes is my morning drink of choice. it’s not uncommon for me to END my day with one either.
as i said, i eat really well overall …. but i have a weight problem. NOT what you may be thinking, either. i am anything BUT overweight. people who don’t know me well, honestly are shocked when they see how much i eat – yet how tiny i am. my weight problem is that i cannot GAIN weight. i lose weight so easily – it is scary at times. i did “give up pepsi” for a while – trying to be more careful/conscious of what i was putting into my body – and i lost so much weight it was terrifying! nothing that i did helped me to regain the weight. trust me, i DID try virtually everything. finally, i picked up a pepsi …. well, a few. after a few weeks, i realized i had regained a small part of what i’d lost.
after a conversation with my doctor, it was decided that the benefit of being able to MAINTAIN my weight by drinking a few pepsis … far outweighed {ooops – didn’t intend that pun!} the risks of it. so, i’m fully enjoying my pepsi-holic habit ….. maintaining my weight … still UNDER weight …. but not losing. {there is no reason for me to be losing weight – no medical reason – no illness – etc}
one other thing i have found is that i DO live with a pain issue. due to an injury a long time ago. and the pain medications that i need to make it through the days sometimes? well, the caffeine in pepsi {or any caffeine!} gives pain medications a kick-start.
so, on MOST levels, i am super-careful, read-labels, grow organic, etc …. but i drop the ball here …. pepsi is my vice, my habit. if it’s the WORST i do, well, sobeit. at least the wind isn’t knocking me over!
Oct 30, 2012 @ 21:30:51
very zen… hehehe
Oct 31, 2012 @ 13:16:51
If it is worth anything you have a friend in the off of coffee trenches. After my medication induced esophageal tear, my doctor insisted that I give it up, and this time I finally agreed. I miss it terribly, terribly, but I have filled the void with tea and miso soup.
Oct 31, 2012 @ 14:07:46
oh, wow- i can say i wish i had your problem, but from people who struggle to maintain their weight, i hear it really is no fun for them at all…
Oct 31, 2012 @ 14:31:25
you’re a good man, charlie brown 😉
Nov 02, 2012 @ 21:35:17
Hey. Coffee is not bad, if it’s just coffee and not, as mentioned above, coffee with stabilizers, anti caking agents, etc. Actually, science shows that caffein is good for you in moderate quantities (up to 200milligrams a day). But then I wonder about the, not one, not two, but six tablespoon of sugar, directly inside, with nothing else in your stomach.
Sugar intake provokes an insulin spike. This is bad, even if you’re not diabetic, because unless your muscle cells are glycogen-depleted, which happens after some kind of intensive sport for enough time or after a carbohydrate depletion diet, this insulin is going to promote fat gain. Extra bonus: you’ll increase your chances at insulin resistance, which is nothing less than diabetes type 2.
Bottom line: don’t give up on coffee, just use less sugar !
Nov 05, 2012 @ 12:05:09
ok, good point, but coffee is so bitter without it, i can’t get used to it. so for now, it’s a package deal 😦
Nov 05, 2012 @ 12:52:57
Hey, Diet Student! Coffee IS BAD! Unless I’m the only one in the world who can’t imbibe full caffeine without landing in the hospital, if I get that far. (See my previous comment.)