No Coffee April was a Success! {Monthly Challenge for April}
At the end of March, I announced on the MORE facebook page that I was giving up coffee for the month of April! The reason for this decision was explained a couple weeks later in my informative post about Adrenal Fatigue.
I wrote that I don't know for sure whether or not I suffer from adrenal fatigue, but there are two issues that really impact my day-to-day life and are very likely linked to impaired adrenal function:
- Having a very difficult time getting up in the morning, and not feeling "awake" until a couple hours later
- The afternoon slump when my energy goes down and I lose motivation and patience
As I write this, all I can say is WOW.
I was genuinely just curious to see if giving up coffee would actually make a difference or not in those two areas. I did not doubt that the break would be beneficial, since my increased dependence on coffee since Baby Bear was born was something that bothered me.
But honestly, within a few days I noticed a difference! By the end of the month, I looked back and realized that I was MUCH more alert when I got up in the morning and I rarely experienced that afternoon slump.
Sure, there were a few times when I wanted to give in and have a coffee, but one of the things that has become very important to me is to follow through on the commitments I make to myself. I am very good at following through with commitments I make to others, but I have never valued myself enough to follow through on my own commitments.
Even though it was a CHALLENGE (umm hello, it was supposed to be!) I found the experience to be so empowering and encouraging that I have decided to challenge myself with something different each month!
One of my fellow contributors on Whole Family Strong, Suzanne from Surpassing Greatness, issued a challenge and I decided to join her! I knew for the past few months that I was making and eating a lot more chocolate-flavoured treats than I needed to be, so I made the decision to give up chocolate for the whole month of May!
Now, I'm not really asking you to give up chocolate with me (unless you feel you have become reliant on chocolate, like me.)
What this is really about for me (and I hope for you too) is that I don't ever want to be mastered by food. This is especially crucial for me due to my past issues with food addiction. Being able to give something up for a month (non-essential, of course) should be easy! But unfortunately that isn't often our attitude.
We don't want to miss out. We don't want to feel deprived. We think we "deserve" it.
But as I shared above, the experience of giving up coffee was empowering and encouraging! I enjoyed following through on my commitment and it felt great to know that I no longer HAD TO HAVE my cup of coffee every day!
I have actually found giving up chocolate to be more difficult than coffee. The first four days I felt a little grumpy about it--which to me is a good indicator that I needed to give it up for a bit!
One of the things that I have reminded myself stemmed from a brief exchange with my hubby a couple days in...
I told him, frustratingly: "I can't have chocolate!"
His loving response: "No, you are choosing not to have chocolate."
This was his reminder that I made a choice, a commitment, to give this up as a benefit to me. As soon as I start with the "I can't" it leaves me feeling deprived and punished.
So if you decide to give something up with me, I encourage you to look at it as a positive thing for you. Choose something that is legitimately beneficial for your emotional, spiritual and/or physical well-being!