My Breakup with Coffee

Hi, my name is Allison, and I am a coffee-holic.

There, I’ve said it. 

For fifteen-plus years, coffee has been my flavor of choice, my love, my muse.  Every morning has seen me with a large, steaming cup in hand.  My favorite time of day centers around coffee time.  One of my favorite places is a cute little vine-covered coffee shop from my college days where I spent time studying and socializing.  Ask me if I would prefer coffee or chocolate—well come on, of course I need coffee with chocolate in it! (That was probably a bad example).

But coffee has its downside too, at least for me.  There are the jitters if I don’t eat something with my second cup, or the insomnia if I drink a cup after 5 pm.  There is the awful hotel coffee to suffer through when we go on trips, and the horrible, brain-crushing headaches if I skip my morning java. 

The time has come to break up with my coffee.

Why?

There are many reasons why I’m curbing my coffee habit, but the simplest is that I’m tired of being so physically dependent on anything. I want to get through a stressful day without thinking I need to visit a coffee shop in order to function.   I want to be able to visit non-coffee drinking friends without bringing a coffee stash with me.   I want to take back that corner of my kitchen where the coffee pot lives.

I want my life back. 

So I’m breaking up with coffee. 

Forgive me, my friends, if I get grumpy.  I’m sorry if the withdrawal symptoms make me do crazy things.  But eventually I’ll be a healthier, calmer me, if slower and quieter too.

Goodbye coffee, my delicious dark friend!