Portrait of a middle-aged addict

Tell me, what's the best way to make the most of your last one?

Should you draw it out and savor each extended moment? Does that work? Can you spread the effects out and extend the impact? Or is it better to hit it hard, hammer it down and bank on the most intense rush?

Which way? What should I do? It's my last one.

"For fun" here in the Home Office, a bunch of us have been playing a little healthy-living game. Each week brought a new challenge. Drink water? No problem. Exercise each day? I'm on it. Five fruits and vegetables per day? What, you think I can't?

But last week was the big one. No caffeinated or carbonated beverages for the whole week. (gulp) My head hurt just thinking about it.

I've gone a day without Diet Coke within recent memory. (I can't remember exactly when, but I know I have. I do it every now and again just to prove I can.) But a whole week? I don't know. I guess back in the Army I'd come close sometimes. My reserve unit would go to the field for Annual Training, packed for battle.

During my years in a Field Service Company, "packed for battle" generally included a full-sized refrigerator in the company command tent, running off one of our generators. But during my years in a Combat Engineer Battalion, access was a little tougher. Still, I was an officer and a logistician. There was usually some errand or excuse at some point most days that could take me close enough to civilization to score myself a fix. So, even on my worst Field Training Exercise, I never went a week without caffeine.

Other than that, I don't know... I'll bet sometime as a kid I must have given it up for lent. (Although my family always practiced Lent Lite. You know; where on Sundays you could have whatever it was you gave up. So it wasn't like you had to go a full, cold-turkey 40 days.)

But I did it this time. Six Advil, spread out over the day on Monday. Two more Advil on Tuesday morning. Then it was just a question of fightin’ off the sleepies all week.

Interesting challenge. What about you? Ever tried to go without your morning joe?


PS: Oh and here's one from the insult-to-injury file – In case it didn't sink in for you from that description of the challenge (I know it didn't for me at first), beer is carbonated. (sigh)

Comments

[Greg Skoog]

But you knew just what I was talking about, right Barb? I don't know how dogmatically sound our approach was, but it definitely allowed me to be more aggressive on what I would choose to give up. (No way I could have given up candy or pop or TV for 40 days straight! So if Mom and Dad hadn't let us take Sundays off, I probably would have "given up" bungee jumping or broccoli salad or something.)

Glad I've got my trusty DC back on my desk. Thanks for the support!

[Barb]

I am cracking up over the term "lent lite"! I may have to borrow that one. Happy you survived, happier still you are back on the coke.

[Greg Skoog]

Yikes! I think I'd rather hear a doctor say I need to have some minor digit amputated or something (do I really NEED that pinky toe?) than be sentenced to a life without Diet Coke.
Thanks for the refreshing serving of perspective, Sheila! And kudos to you for facing it head on. Next time you go to the movies, I say fight the power. Stick it to the man! Sneak in your water bottle in your purse.

[Sheila Smyre]

Oh my gosh a whole week it hard, having a dr telling you that you can never drink it again is even harder. Coffee was never my thing, but I loved diet coke and that was my morning pick me up. Now all I get to drink is water. Ever go to the movies and pay for water (the price is insane!) Plus I can't have suger. The only drink out there that is suger free and caffine free that is good for you is water. Thank goodness for me I found a good sugar free, carb free, caffeine fee is a lime fuzzy drink from safeway. So hang in there! Hopefully no one will tell us water is bad for us!

[Kellie Flannery]

I gave up Diet Coke for Lent....ONCE! Never again.

[Kathie Winscher]

I say life is too short to give up the good stuff! Unless you have a lot of bad habits, I say keep the few that are not illegal and enjoy.

[Greg Skoog]

Hmm... Wonder if there's any way I could be getting some kind of cut of these Diet Coke sales I'm generating here. Not nearly as rewarding as a CM business, of course, but it would certainly taste better. (Have you tried one of our albums? Tastes like cardboard.)

[Katie]

Seeing that beautiful image of a Diet Coke can has me drooling for a Diet Coke. Off to the lunch room to get one!

[Greg Skoog]

Oh Wendy, two full gestational cycles? You're a better person than I. (Let's just mark that down as one more reason I'm glad guys don't get pregnant.)
I'm just relieved that my week is now but a memory, softly blurring into the caffeinated haze.
I decided to stay up till midnight on Sunday so I could crack a can at 12:01. At first I worried that I'd be tired on Monday, but then I figured what the heck – I have a whole vending machine full of awakeness right here at my fingertips!

[Jenny Dammann]

Ditching the DC isn't an easy task.
I did it cold turkey earlier this year... and it was painful :)

If I was still a DC addict, I'm not sure which of the challenges in the healthy living contest would be tougher - giving up diet coke or giving up beer. :)

Either way... I'd have been first off the island, huddled up in the fetal position under my desk popping open cans of one or the other.

[Wendy Frankle]

I am sitting at my desk cuddling with my cup of coffee and laughing hysterically at your post. I gave up caffeine twice in my life... during both pregnancies. My children, now 13 and 11, don't think that story is actually true. They had to go ask Dad. He told them it was TRUE and it wasn't very pretty. Its so bad at my house that my kids will ask me how many cups of coffee I have had BEFORE they ask me any other questions. And my son finds it easier to just refill my cup rather than ask! I applaud you... give up my caffeine for a week? I think NOT.