Drug of choices.

I love caffeine. The older I get the more it's the idea of caffeine that I love and less the drug itself but I still love it. It's an awkward, sometimes mutually abusive relationship that I just can't let go of. The truth is, I just don't want to.

Well, today I went to Tim Hortons on my lunch break and instead of getting a delicious steeped tea with two creams I opted for apple cinnamon. You may be thinking to yourself that something about that sounds herbal. I don't know if herbal is the right category, but there is a distinct lack of caffeine in this cup of tea. I thought that weening myself off of my lunch time fix would be difficult and even painful. So far, though, I haven't hit the withdrawal wall. I did have my morning cup at home today, without which I'm practically certain that I would be grumpy bear by the time I got to work.

I have an addictive personality. Addictive like a drug a addict. Caffeine gets me really bad. One day I'm on it and the next I can't go off. It's bad news. I've noticed another surprising drug addiction pop up recently: ibuprofen. This one I just ignore. If I need to take it for a few days in a row by the end of the second or third day I start to get tiny little headaches wanting more drugs. My body clearly just wants crack. Thankfully, my drug addiction hasn't spilled over into anything else. I did battle a minor London Fog addiction and, more recently, an addiction to Starbucks scones, but it's never translated into anything like alcohol which is, you know, probably a really good thing. I prefer to get my excess of sugar from icing as opposed to alcohol.

Since this baby step of avoiding the delicious and amazing afternoon steeped tea seems to be a huge success (and it's also a big plus because I'm now consuming less cream) I'm feeling really good about my plan to simply cut out caffeine on a daily basis aside from my morning Tetley. I'm not saying it's an everyday avoidance, but it is certainly more intentional and regulated. Weekends are good for steeped tea, but general week days don't need it.

Cutting back on caffeine also means that I get to add something back into my life that I have been missing almost as much as my body misses ibuprofen: BANANAS! I'm excited to bring back the banana into my diet because it is my miracle food. Smoothies just aren't as appealing without them so I've inadvertently cut those out of my life, too. Bananas are fruit as well as filling snacks. They make good bread. They taste like joy. They go well in yoghurt. Yes, I say bring on the bananas. If I had to I think I would leave caffeine for good for bananas. But only if I had to.