Addicted to Love

What an amazing video.

While I may be addicted to love (who isn't?), the addiction that has been tormenting me as of late is the one I have had to caffeine. I'm not sure when it started, but I know I started going to Starbucks a few times a week during my senior year in high school. I got really into green tea in college and when my husband and I started living together, I fell in love with homemade coffee. I usually had about a travel mug and a half a day with an iced tea or diet coke in the afternoon. I wasn't drinking a ton of caffeine, but if I waited a couple of hours later than usual to have my first sip, I would get a terrible headache. Even on the weekends, I would have to get up early to have some coffee to stave off a headache that would ruin my weekend.

I remember before our wedding two years ago I cut down on my caffeine intake to just one cup of white tea per day. I had read that it would help calm my anxiety to go caffeine free, but I couldn't go quite that far. By the end of the honeymoon, I was right back on coffee and continued until last year when we started trying to get pregnant. I knew that caffeine was ok for pregnant women to consume in moderation, but I didn't want to have to deal with the caffeine headache if I missed my morning cup due to morning sickness and I also wanted to make sure it didn't hinder my ability to get pregnant. I switched to decaf, but slipped back to regular between cycles or after a late night.

Eventually, I switched to decaf tea (chai was my favorite for a while) because I just couldn't let go of that warm beverage on my morning commute. Then, after my miscarriage the cycle before last, I went on a bit of a bender over Memorial Day weekend and had regular coffee three days in a row to fight consecutive hangovers (yes, I had too much to drink three days in a row; no, I don't usually do that). Just three days of caffeine had me completely addicted again and I had to start my detox process all over. This entails switching to decaf (usually starbucks since I hate making a whole pot of decaf just for me only to have my husband make his regular) for a few days and then to decaf tea.

I had been wanting to incorporate green smoothies into my diet for a while and originally though I'd have them as an afternoon snack when I got home from work, but I decided that I needed to not only cut the caffeine from my morning routine, I needed to cut the hot beverage. As long as I was dependent on something hot to get me through my drive in to work, I would continue to slip back into drinking decaf or regular coffee. I needed to make a bigger change, so I decided to try out smoothies as my morning beverage and breakfast in one.

As I've posted here and here, the green smoothies were an awesome change to my routine. They are so tasty and filling and still give me something to do on my commute. Plus, they have no caffeine at all so there's no risk of becoming dependent or slipping back into that cycle of addiction. I had a smoothie every weekday for about a month and then once my summer vacation began, I kind of stopped. Now I have some fruit or toast for breakfast with a little orange juice and sometimes I'll make a smoothie in the afternoon for lunch. I'll start the morning smoothie routine back up when I go back to work in August, but for now, I don't really need it since sometimes I sleep until lunch (I'm on vacation).

I'm really glad I've finally kicked my caffeine habit, but I know it'll come back one day. I still crave coffee and love the smell and taste, so I'm sure I'll go back to it eventually, but I'm hoping to remain caffeine-free until after I have a baby.

Do you have any addictions? How have you tried to kick your bad habits?