Yoga: Decaffeinated and Sugar-free

Well, technically yoga is caffeine- and sugar-free.  However, I am not :-). I have modified my diet considerably to fit my lifestyle and enhance my practice.  The two items–and they are biggies–that I have managed to put off eliminating with much self-talk that I can quit, when the time is right (yeah, uh-huh) are sugar and caffeine. 

Why do I need to drop these from my diet? Well, to tell the truth, the caffeine does interfere with meditation, for me anyway.  The best I have been able to do is get up in the morning, practice, meditate, THEN and only THEN am I allowed to speed off to Starbucks for a venti coffee, which I would then, of course, load with sugar and half-and half until it’s just that perfect golden color.  Lately, though, with my heavy workload overriding almost every aspect of my daily life, I find my meditation has been, um, interrupted, intercepted and bombarded by an intense longing for my morning java. NOW.

So I am quitting the stuff cold turkey.  Today is my first day.  I know it is going to be fine (faint smile), I’ll survive the piercing headaches.  They’ll end, eventually (right?).  The payoff will be a more focused mind, improved meditation and a healthier body, minus all that caffeine and sugar.  I’m sure my herbal tea will easily supplant my beloved beans and sugar cane. 

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the topic, and the dependencies are primarily psychological.  So, stepping up my practice, and keying in on improving my mind-body connection should provide me with a spiritual resource for kicking both.

I am looking forward to cleansing my body and ridding myself of these delicious (and today, I’d have to say evil) substances.  It is supposed to take about 10 days to make the change.   

I am going to keep a journal here of what the experience is like. 

Today’s entry: I put on my sunglasses, hat and hovered in the background of my local Starbucks drinking in the aroma of all that coffee and proudly did not order a drop.  Although I did get some interesting looks.  I ordered an herbal tea instead, hoping they’d get my order wrong.  I told my barista buddies not to serve me any longer–coffee, that is. I’ve outed myself to them, now they are my support system. I may have to tip them big to get them to hand over the goods.  Day one, morning is over. One day at a time. Is it Day two yet?

Peace.