My body
Yes, my body. Back to anecdotes from my personal experiences. This week (week loosely defined as it is Tuesday) has been marked by two major physiological changes: a) starting to exercise again and b) quitting coffee, cold turkey.
To explain how this is playing out, it is best for me to walk you through a given day.
8 am: I wake up feeling less groggy than one would expect. I pause as I walk past my jar of instant coffee sitting on the shelf. Pushing onward, I stumble into the kitchen and make my breakfast.
9:30 am: I arrive at the office. There is a pot of Folger’s waiting for me, which I must also resist. I do my best to pep myself up and then commence working.
10:30 or 11 am: By now I am positively ravenous and eat the small bag lunch—roast beef sandwich, carrots, and an orange—I packed for myself. I am momentarily satisfied.
12 pm: Despite the fact that I have already eaten my lunch, it is lunchtime and I am hungry. I could go out, but I am trying to save money. Therefore, I resort to scavenging the office for food left over from recent office parties (i.e, Oreos, Chips Ahoy, potato chips and cake, mostly). One of my primary motivations in giving coffee is the fact that it is yellowing my teeth. Instead, I now coat my teeth with sugar; instead of consuming the caffeine in coffee, I consume the caffeine in the numerous chocolate products I consume.
2 pm: I now begin to lose steam. Fast. I doze off at my desk and am forced to slap my face and splash cold water on it to wake up.
3 pm: I am starving and cannot take it anymore, so I leave the office to work from home, so that I can eat sandwiches as I work.
4:30 pm: I go for a run and then come home to lift weights.
5:30 pm: I prepare and eat dinner.
It is now about 6 or 6:30 and, having exercised, I feel more energized and rejuvenated than I have all day. However, unless I have a night meeting, my day is effectively done. I commence reading, writing, and watching Hulu.
12 am: I go to bed, getting 8 hours of sleep—supposedly sufficient for an adult.
I may start running in the morning, to see if that corrects my daily rhythm. Also, I am hoping to run a half marathon in March and a marathon (maybe) in June…We’ll see.
