Giving things up

Some people think that a lifestyle that isn’t the typical American consumer lifestyle means you have to give a lot of things up. Not true, I say. The lifestyle Chris and I are leading just takes a little forethought, but I don’t feel deprived at all. It’s amazing how amazing you feel when your priorities shift… and I can’t wait to get down to 5 kwh/day!

But this post is about things I’ve given up/fired from my life in the last couple months.

In order:
Starbucks
Coffee
Alcohol

I won’t get into why, because it’s not important right now. But I want to talk about some of the benefits I’m feeling. Please note, I’m not trying to persuade anyone to give these up.

First, I fired Starbucks about 2 months ago. I was a regular 3-day-a-week-Starbucks-gal, but I was getting sick and tired of a) their poor service, b) the consistent decline in consistency of the simple-ass drink I used to get (Come on! It’s 2 shots espresso and fill the cup up with hot water. How hard is that??!!), c) the drain on my wallet, d) my caffeine addiction keeping me on the spiral of needing more and more of it to fend off headaches, and e) them being a “big box” when it came to my local coffee shops. So I just decided to stop going. And it worked. I haven’t been since. (Not that I haven’t wanted to.)

Second, after firing Starbucks from my life, I took a long look at the caffeine I was consuming. I still had to drink it because of the physical side effects of withdrawal, so it was like being hooked to an IV of life every morning. About 2 weeks ago, I started to wean myself from it. I had small headaches most of the week, but now, I don’t really need it anymore! In the mornings, I don’t feel sluggish, but can now get out of bed after the sleep button has been pushed twice instead of a dozen times. I’ve never been a morning person, but I feel much saner in the mornings without coffee.

Thirdly, I gave up alcohol at the same time as coffee. I think of all of them, this was the hardest. I really love beer and wine. Maybe too much? I did have a tiny glass of wine the other night, but that’s been it, and I don’t plan on repeating that any time soon.

I’m finding that getting off the upper-downer treadmill has let me sleep better, stay asleep and sleep deeper than before (I’m actually dreaming again – crazy whacked out dreams that I actually remember when I wake up!), and allow me to get up earlier without turning into a monster. And the money savings isn’t bad either!

I’m not planning on a complete ban of these items in the future, but gave them up just to see if I could, more than anything. And I feel great! But how I miss my good friends.