a new direction

It has been a while since I posted here. I got a little bored, and probably a little boring, reporting each day whether or not I bought a latte. I've been focusing a lot more on my primary blog, Ruth, the Mom. I guess my latte blog has been mostly for my own purposes, which is a good thing since up until the other day, I had a TOTAL of two readers.
The traffic has increased a little bit lately, so I thought I'd start writing here again. But, I've decided to take it in a different direction, and expand into all things caffeine.
For instance, I would like to reduce my dependency on caffeine. A big part of the equation is getting more sleep. There always seems to be some reason to stay up late. Then in the morning, in order to function, I have to turn to caffeine.
I am drinking a latte right now, as a matter of fact. I stayed up WAY too late last night. If it was just me, I'd make a pot of tea instead of just a cup. But since my husband was at home today, and he also stayed up WAY too late, I drove to the Starbucks at our friendly neighborhood Hy-Vee grocery store and handed over seven dollars so that we could each slurp down a special combination of a little bit of espresso and a lot of milk.
You can see where this doesn't really make much logical sense. What if we spent seven dollars EVERY DAY on lattes? As a family we would contribute over $200 a month to Starbucks' coffers. That's $2400 a year. Think of all the things you could do with $2400 a year.
Starbucks does not appeal to your logical self.
I just think it's good to think these things over once in a while.

I wish I had invented Starbucks

Every time I go there I think, look at all these people, like myself, who have gone out of their way to spend their hard-earned money on overpriced coffee drinks. Yesterday, we were on our way out of town and stopped by the grocery store just for Starbucks. As I was running in to grab two tall extra-hot vanilla lattes, I saw a man carrying two Starbucks cups back to his own car.
Anyway, tea is fulfilling my caffeine needs most days. Lately I've only had lattes when we are away from home.
I am almost out of black tea. I haven't bought any more because I'm trying to make the switch over to green tea, and just get more sleep. I have LOTS of green tea. The problem is I don't like it as much. We'll see.

six days in a row

Today is Saturday, and I stopped for a latte at Caribou as we were heading out of town for a trip to the Reiman Gardens at Iowa State University. We went there for the butterflies, but the gardens were amazing as well. My husband, who has recently become addicted to vanilla lattes (through no fault of mine) wanted Starbucks, so we stopped there too before leaving town.
Anyway, the latte was sort of a treat and this was the first one I've had all week. I call that progress.

maybe it's not hopeless

So, I tried this new thing, called sleep. It has really been helping out with my ability to resist lattes. And the absence of a late afternoon latte has been helping out with my ability to fall asleep.
All I can say is, this is my fourth latte-free day in a row, and this without my even really trying.

Day ???: an update

Lately I have just given up on my quest. I was having a latte nearly every day, and I didn't even care. One day, I decided a latte didn't even sound good. I didn't get one. Maybe I'm over it, I thought. Next day, it sounded good again.
However, I'd have to say that overall I have not been craving lattes as often. It may be the fact that winter is (finally!) over. Iced tea sounds a lot better.
I have this crazy idea that if I actually got enough sleep I might (a) make better decisions, and (b) not need as much caffeine. I'm going to (for the millionth time in my life) start making an effort to get more sleep.
I'll let you know how it goes, and how the latte-resistance is going. But, maybe not every day.

Day 65: a failed experiment?

I'm not sure I've really made any progress...except, at least I'm more aware of how often I buy overpriced coffee drinks. Also, I usually get a small instead of a medium. Baby steps.
I've heard it can take up to 90 days to break a habit. I've also heard you have to really, really want to break it. I think for me that is the primary obstacle. There are not really many negative consequences when I drink a latte.

Day 64: resisted for one whole day

My self-discipline is admirable.