My Month of Austerity 1: Out With the Caffeine, Booze, and Sugar

I'm not one for New Year's resolution, but for some time I've been thinking about what it would be like to cut off my daily dose of stimulants and intoxicants i.e. caffeine, booze, and sugar.

I've been consuming these, in various shapes and forms, on a daily basis for most of my adult life (and - booze excepted - in smaller quantities for most of my life).

Maybe it's Vancouver, maybe I'm getting old, but I've become much more aware of how my intake had become habitual, and I wanted to see (1) what it would feel like to go cold turkey (2) how difficult it would be to give them up for a month (3) if it caused me to change my consumption habits.

New Year seemed like a good time, being the traditional time of year for resolutions and giving bad habits up, particularly after the splurge of the festive season which is magnified by two birthdays in our household.

The one exception to my vice fast that I allowed myself was not to turn down food that would otherwise go to waste, namely some remains of the two birthday cakes (one of them pictured above) and various cookies which if I'd try to chow down by my deadline would have quickly come back up again. To compensate I'm going to continue without sugar until 7 February.

The Hogmanay festivities were quiet this year. No big parties, or galavanting around town, just supper with friends followed by a film or two. Of course, being aware of my impending deadline meant I especially appreciated my vices - the red wine, whisky, cake, coffee, chocolates, and tea consumed over the course of the evening.

Midnight struck. It began.

January 1st was payback time. I was lethargic, had a headache, and I had to nap for three hours. Without my dose of caffeine, I didn't feel like I'd woken up all day. By midnight I was a zombie.

The second day was similar, although slightly less intense. Again I had to nap for three hours. My head stung. I was glad that the new year starts slowly.

Each day, as I continued my regime of herbal teas and fizzy water, the tiredness and caffeine headache reduced slightly.

By the sixth day, the stinging sensation in my brain had subsided to a faint burr, and my energy levels were back to normal.

Caffeine

I'm now ten days into this, and have kept to my plan.

Thankfully, the hard bit - the first week - is over. The surprise, for me, was how difficult the caffeine was to give up.

I've since discovered that Health Canada's recommended caffeine intake is 400mg. I'd probably been downing that by lunch time, and then continued with teas intermittenly throughout the rest of the day.

I still find myself craving caffeine, especially when needing a jolt to wake me up first thing in the morning and my resolve is frequently tested when the waft of coffee aroma hits me when walking down the street.

I've had to de-programme myself. A couple of times I've caught myself automatically making a coffee or tea or reaching for a chocolate snack.

I even found myself on one occasion coming to, like somebody snapping out of hypnosis, to discover that I'd poured myself a cup of tea. My brain was on auto-pilot, somewhere else, while my body carried on doing something it had done many times before. I poured it down the sink.

Old habits die hard.

Alcohol

Alcohol hasn't been as difficult to give up. Alcohol, for me, at least, is more of a social drink. That said I enjoy the odd beer in the evening before supper or late night dram of malt whisky.

There's no denying how addictive it can be. One thing I've been aware of during the first few days is that each evening around 6pm, I have this kind of Pavlovian, clenching, physical expectation that needs to be satiated. That's the call of the alcohol.

"Ding, dong! Ding, dong! Time for a cold one, buddy!"

I'm sure this is a product of daily habit and mild addiction. It goes away after a glass of fizzy water. Maybe I'm also just thirsty?

Sugar

Sugar's perhaps been the hardest to cut out, simply because it's everywhere, especially in processed and tinned foods that I do occasionally find myself eating.

Of course, it also occurs naturally in fruit and vegetables as well. So I haven't given up all sugar, but am avoiding the sugar bowl, and food with added sugars.

I don't add sugar to anything (missing it in my morning porridge).

I've included honey, syrup (my bottle of maple syrup that I got for christmas will have to wait), molasses, and other sweeteners that I'd have to add myself. Definitely no chocolate, no candy, no deserts, no sugary breakfast cereals, no sugary jams and spreads. I've made one exception for a fizzy drink with artificial sweeteners as I was at a special function. But not again.

However, I can see trying to cut down on sugar being a long term commitment. Because it's so pervasive, I'm going to have to educate myself, be an avid food label-reader, and avoid eating many more foods.

There's a lot more I could write about sugar, but I'll save that for another day.