I've been running from house to house at the speed of snore helping elevate the heads and lives of the good citizens of Lake Norman. These days the Tyrano-snore-us rex, king of the dino-snores, is out there gaining strength. While I wait for the next snore signal, I have a moment to tell you about how I recently defeated the Caffeine Chameleon!
With the guidance of my favorite sleep sources, I learned the true nature of the Caffeine Chameleon. He takes on many forms and sneakily saps your sleep cycles one by one. He appeared to me as a delicious cup of coffee! With his caffeine camo, I drank too much coffee on a daily basis and I didn’t know it. After I became aware, I set my sleep schedule and attempted to form a new habit. A morning routine coffee free! Take that Caffeine Chameleon!!
It wasn’t easy. Throughout the process I did a little grieving for the habit that once held me. My family and my coworkers enjoyed their morning cups around me. The smell brought on cravings but thanks to being well rested, my personal fortitude was stronger than some silly urge. Plus, I gave up coffee for Lent. The Big Buy upstairs was holding me accountable and I didn’t want to let him down! According to my Google Mini, Lent ended on April 1st, so on April 3rd I woke my wife at the crack of dawn for coffee! Being the wife of a sleep superhero has its challenges and on this Saturday, I was one of them. But she's a good sport and all roads lead to a delicious cup of coffee so she struggled out of bed and accompanied me to our favorite spot.
Lo and behold, my first cup of coffee was underwhelming and overwhelming all the same time. The underwhelming part of it was the flavor was not as I remember it. Not exactly. Maybe in a few weeks after another cup or two I'll know whether or not I got a bad batch of coffee. Or perhaps just the memories of how good it was are exactly what they are, memories. My palate has changed since all I’ve had is tea with no sweetener or dairy. A customer of mine sent me some jasmine petals and it’s phenomenal. I enjoy that every morning instead!
The overwhelming part was how caffeine gripped my system for the next few hours. Holy smokes. On that first day, I remembered exactly why I wanted to stop in the first place.
You see, I can go from zero to “we're going to win” on a normal day with no caffeine in as quickly as I just did. No problemo. It's one of my super powers! High bursts of energy and voice volume. And with a great night's sleep I can harness that power and usually keep it in check. Add a cup of coffee to that superpower, throw in a busy showroom with customers asking questions a mile a minute, supply chain issues to wade through at 101 mph and it’s too much. I don’t have the emotional control to keep as cool as a Tempur-Pedic Breeze bed wrapped in bamboo sheets in a perfectly maintained 68 degree bedroom on a hot summer night.
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