Knight of cups part II

I quit coffee the day after labor day. I wanted to see if my stomping upstairs neighbor would annoy me a little less if I wasn’t so tweaked on caffeine. It was a long shot, but I was down to play with something new.

I love coffee. It gets me up in the morning. And when I have my last cup around 2pm, I’m sad to say good-bye.

The day I quit, I think my body was a good sport, as all I had was a slight pinch in the back of my head. So, not a full-on headache, but something akin to tightness just low of my dumb ol’ brain.

The next day, my lower back was incredibly tight. I don’t typically hold any of my stress there, so this was certainly new. It was the first day where I thought: I think withdrawals from caffeine are messing with my body.

The third & fourth day without caffeine came blaring tightness in my glutes and hamstrings (rear thighs). To be fair, my leg muscles are always tight for me, but this wasn’t just tightness. The whole region had a dull ache all day & night. And any exercise I typically did was not relaxing them.

I had to wait the leg pains out, and it took several days. It certainly was a longer process than I was expecting, but figured to ride it out without pain killers or muscle relaxers.

Body aside, my mind became quite clear, and stresses came like a blip on the radar, then went away in a flash.

I believe this differs from before, when normally, stresses would accumulate, and not fade all that quickly.

My spirits are a tad lifted, and that’s saying something. Berkeley was one of the first places in the States to close due to Governor mandates, and eight months later, and while the rest of the country plows ahead with their lives, we are still closed. If caffeine was lifting me up a bit, a little like alcohol, it’s all for naught. I feel a bit more optimistic without caffeine.

In sum, I think there’s a benefit to abstaining from caffeine. A week later, my aches were history, so nothing to worry about there.

I’ve become intimately acquainted with the decaf teas in my cupboard, and probably will the jump the shark with exotic teas in the near future.