I have a problem. I am addicited to caffeine.

There, I have said it. That’s the first step toward beating my problem.

Back in October I noticed a trend that was having a lot of trouble sleeping on Sunday night. I basically thought that it was cause I slept in those mornings, or it was the stress of the week ahead. However, no matter what I did, I couldn’t get to sleep easily on Sundays. So I decided to visit my doctor.

He went through the basic list of what it could be, but decided quickly what he thought the problem was. You see, one of the first questions he asked was if I drank a lot of coffee or other caffeinated beverages. Of course the answer to that was yes. I was up to as many as 8 cups of coffee a day at that point. However, I had ruled that out because I could sleep most nights, just not Sundays. And I purposely avoided coffee on Sundays. What I didn’t know was caffeine could linger in your body for up to 2 weeks. Bingo! I think we had a winner.

Therefore, starting Halloween of last year, I gave up caffeine. All caffeine! No coffee, tea, soft drinks or anything that contained what the experts would call a “significant dietary source of caffeine.”

The first two weeks were awful. Headaches and a general feeling of malaise. With a little will power, I got through them and then it got easier. In fact, I went caffeine free for 6 months. That was the goal, and after that I planned to only have a cup of coffee a day since I enjoy it so much.

However, this is where I realize I have a problem. The cup of coffee slowly became a cup and a half. Then it was two cups. I am now back to 3 cups and starting to see a trend.

So, it is with this decree of my newly admitted problem, I am going to go back off caffeine. This time the goal is one month. After that, I’ll just have to play it by ear.