The Quest for Less Continues and Other Notes from the Wontpower Frontier

The caffeine diminishment plan or CDP as I've taken to calling it is yielding some minor battlefield wins. I'm at about goal plus one Starbucks Tall a day (I'm using Starbucks for sizing. My coffee doesn't come from there any more often than it comes from anywhere else. Truthfully I think Au Bon Pain has my favorite coffee these days: a patented mix of some morning roast type thing with their french roast). So I haven't given up yet but I'm also not not exactly kicking this habit's ass.

Now let me go down another couple of tried and true wontpower paths. Eating and exercising. I have been to the gym exactly 1 time in the last 2 weeks. The $30 bucks a month that the gym is running me is starting to get to me but I'm afraid of what will happen if I cancel the membership. There are couple of things behind this downward trend besides my general laziness. The first is that I recently had what amounts to my worst bad-back-episode in years. Normally I put out my back and then immediately begin a recovery that goes on steadily until I'm right as rain for 6 months to a year but this one just won't leave me. It gets better and then I'll rake my yard or say break down some concrete block steps with a sledge hammer and BAM! it's out on me again. Anyway it has been especially bad in the mornings when I normally work out. In addition to that the weather has finally gotten nice in Boston so I've been walking from the commuter rail station to my office in Cambridge in the morning which burns 30 minutes of my workout time (I know it's exercise but just barely).

As for my diet: food is like a bad-for-you girlfriend who you just can't seem to show the door. Today I ate out all three meals and expended no effort to eat something half healthy. This will be wontpower's next challenge: breakfast at home and lunch FROM home.

Solid.

The Quest for Less Caffeine!

Coffee is one of my closest friends. I love the smell of it, the feel of the cup in my hands, and the tummy-warming first cup experience every morning. My affair with coffee follows an arc whereby I drink more and more of it over the course of several months until one day I realize (usually very late at night) that I'm consuming a relatively obscene amount of the stuff... something like 6 cups of a size comparable to a Starbucks Grande. Between the sheer amount and the fact that I like cream or half and half (sugar too if I'm at Dunkin' Donuts) that's a lot of caffeine and alot of calories.

It is at these times that I undertake to quit the stuff! No, I really don't WANT to quit the stuff but I do need to get the habit under control. So it is now that I will demonstrate an attempt by your humble blogger to have only one, that's right O-N-E one reasonable sized cup of coffee a day. This cup can be a decent sized travel mug of approximately 12 ounces. I will have this coffee in the morning when I need it most. I will savor it. I will make it at home thereby saving several dollars a day. I will consume no other caffeine in the form of tea or soda.

Can it be done? Stay tuned! Tips are welcome.

Yours truly,
wontpower


P.S. I tend not to drink decaf coffee but decaf tea is ok with me for some reason.