Bark Water
Feb. 17th, 2024 06:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pshaw_ravenI'm quitting coffee. Let me explain. No! There is too much. Let me sum up.
Ordinarily coffee is regarded as a fairly healthy thing to indulge in. But I've been drinking so much for so long that I felt it's time to step back significantly and change that habit. I figure that I was frequently consuming well over the recommended upper limit of 400 mg of caffeine each day, and I don't think there's any benefit to continuing to do so. I don't intend to quit coffee entirely, but to have it as a treat. And, hopefully once my sensitivity to caffeine returns, it'll give me a nice boost ahead of hard workouts or races, instead of me needing to suck down multiple cups just to feel functional.
So I'm not exactly going cold turkey, but for the last three days I've avoided coffee entirely and had tea instead. I've learned a few things so far. One, I have way too much tea sitting around and getting stale. I may need to just throw some out, though my brain is arguing the "sunk cost" fallacy the whole time - it was expensive when we bought it, you ought to drink it anyway. If it's gone stale, it's just going to make weird-tasting bark water, and not the blend it was originally intended for.
Two, lapsang souchong is WAY too much first thing in the morning. I mean, I like it, but it's like a punch in the face. I have strong English breakfast that's nice, I've been drinking that one as an afternoon cup for a while now. But yesterday on a whim I decided to have chai and ... I think I found my morning cup. I spent a long time reading up on how to make one's own chai masala, how to brew it, etc. I found a neat Reddit thread where an Indian lady described some of how her mother made chai, mentioning that sometimes she added a few bruised lemongrass stalks to the steeping chai to help fight off colds. Sounds delicious.
Three ... being a tea nerd is kind of fun. :)
So I'm not exactly going through withdrawal, but my body is definitely reacting to the severe reduction in caffeine. And considering how long I've been drinking coffee as heavily as I have, it could take another week or so before my system readjusts. After that, it'll feel almost like a super-power to be able to get up in the morning and not require several cups of coffee just to get going.
In gaming - Broforce - I've gotten to the part where I'm now clearing out aliens rather than "just" terrorists. I've unlocked Bro-ffy the Vampire Slayer, who has some pretty damaging attacks. So far, she's right up there with Indiana Bro-nes, though now that I know how to use Indy's whip as a grapple, he's the one I look forward to getting the most.
Hyper Light Drifter - I didn't realize this game had a reputation for being difficult until I started playing. I can see why - if you want to get ALL the stuff, you have a lot of hard dungeons to get through. Some of the sections are just incredibly, stupidly hard. Chain dashing is a very useful skill once you master it, but holy crap is it hard to master. And let's not even talk about the soccer mini-game, because I'll end up going on a major rant about how much I hate the soccer guy. Right now I'm poking around and looking for collectibles, so I've run into a sort of arena fight with waves of enemies that I had a hard time getting past and so logged off for the night.
I haven't played much aside from those two, but I'm looking to clear out my backlog before buying much of anything new. And I mean, not every single game I own, but I picked out a dozen or so I've half finished, and a few I'm interested in trying and they've just been gathering dust in my Steam library.
Ordinarily coffee is regarded as a fairly healthy thing to indulge in. But I've been drinking so much for so long that I felt it's time to step back significantly and change that habit. I figure that I was frequently consuming well over the recommended upper limit of 400 mg of caffeine each day, and I don't think there's any benefit to continuing to do so. I don't intend to quit coffee entirely, but to have it as a treat. And, hopefully once my sensitivity to caffeine returns, it'll give me a nice boost ahead of hard workouts or races, instead of me needing to suck down multiple cups just to feel functional.
So I'm not exactly going cold turkey, but for the last three days I've avoided coffee entirely and had tea instead. I've learned a few things so far. One, I have way too much tea sitting around and getting stale. I may need to just throw some out, though my brain is arguing the "sunk cost" fallacy the whole time - it was expensive when we bought it, you ought to drink it anyway. If it's gone stale, it's just going to make weird-tasting bark water, and not the blend it was originally intended for.
Two, lapsang souchong is WAY too much first thing in the morning. I mean, I like it, but it's like a punch in the face. I have strong English breakfast that's nice, I've been drinking that one as an afternoon cup for a while now. But yesterday on a whim I decided to have chai and ... I think I found my morning cup. I spent a long time reading up on how to make one's own chai masala, how to brew it, etc. I found a neat Reddit thread where an Indian lady described some of how her mother made chai, mentioning that sometimes she added a few bruised lemongrass stalks to the steeping chai to help fight off colds. Sounds delicious.
Three ... being a tea nerd is kind of fun. :)
So I'm not exactly going through withdrawal, but my body is definitely reacting to the severe reduction in caffeine. And considering how long I've been drinking coffee as heavily as I have, it could take another week or so before my system readjusts. After that, it'll feel almost like a super-power to be able to get up in the morning and not require several cups of coffee just to get going.
In gaming - Broforce - I've gotten to the part where I'm now clearing out aliens rather than "just" terrorists. I've unlocked Bro-ffy the Vampire Slayer, who has some pretty damaging attacks. So far, she's right up there with Indiana Bro-nes, though now that I know how to use Indy's whip as a grapple, he's the one I look forward to getting the most.
Hyper Light Drifter - I didn't realize this game had a reputation for being difficult until I started playing. I can see why - if you want to get ALL the stuff, you have a lot of hard dungeons to get through. Some of the sections are just incredibly, stupidly hard. Chain dashing is a very useful skill once you master it, but holy crap is it hard to master. And let's not even talk about the soccer mini-game, because I'll end up going on a major rant about how much I hate the soccer guy. Right now I'm poking around and looking for collectibles, so I've run into a sort of arena fight with waves of enemies that I had a hard time getting past and so logged off for the night.
I haven't played much aside from those two, but I'm looking to clear out my backlog before buying much of anything new. And I mean, not every single game I own, but I picked out a dozen or so I've half finished, and a few I'm interested in trying and they've just been gathering dust in my Steam library.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-18 11:37 am (UTC)ACV gummies probably won't hurt anything, and in gummy form it might taste pretty good. I was trying to think of this, and finally remembered people will take that or pickle juice for muscle cramping and dehydration. You wouldn't think so, but vinegar can help rehydrate you.
https://plantyou.com/switchel-recipe/ - switchel is the name of a concoction I have not been able to talk myself into trying, but some people swear by it!
no subject
Date: 2024-02-19 08:10 pm (UTC)The therapist also mentioned pickles or sauerkraut - something fermented.
Switchel: that's interesting! I'd not heard of that before. Sounds kinda good as long as the vinegar flavor is masked enough.