Bitter bean juice a.k.a. coffee and I are taking a break

As part of the Roller Derby Workout Challenge, I'm going to try to follow their eating plan. It seems sensible and I'm curious to find out if proper nutrition helps me achieve my athletic goals. It includes fish, chicken, rice, lots of vegetables, cheese, whole wheat bread and peanut butter. And my favourite food, eggs.

No coffee, though. This could be difficult since I'm a hardened addict. According to Wikipedia, source of all information, caffeine is a stimulant. And "with heavy use, strong tolerance develops rapidly and caffeine can produce clinically significant physical and mental dependence."

Caffeine has many benefits though, including enhanced athletic performance and mental alertness. Coffee may protect you against a range of diseases including cancer and Alzheimer's. But, I find it disturbing how necessary it has become in my life.

Giving it up is not going to be easy. Our friend Wikipedia states: "Withdrawal symptoms—including headache, irritability, inability to concentrate, drowsiness, insomnia, and pain in the stomach, upper body, and joints—may appear within 12 to 24 hours after discontinuation of caffeine intake, peak at roughly 48 hours, and usually last from one to five days."

Amusingly, Wikimedia Commons offers an image from NASA that shows the effect of caffeine on spiders as illustrated by a spider web. That must have been one jumped up spider! Imagine that's your job, supervising jittery spiders.

Day 1 begins with me looking longingly at the coffee pot.