Energy Drinks

[KorroddyDude]

It's been almost two week since I've cracked open a can of Monster.

I've been trying to quit alcohol and overeating for a decade now, and it turns out that those two things weren't the problem at all.  Energy drinks were the problem the whole time.

These energy drinks, I found, caused a whole lot more problems than I realized.

I had two side gigs - Uber and DoorDash - but I got kicked off of Uber after 8 years back in October.  Complaints of "dangerous driving" (which have nothing to do with the energy drinks, by the way - I do admit that I'm an impatient driver at times).  Most of my side gig was done on Uber.  In fact, I didn't make enough on DoorDash to get a 1099 from them for 2023.

I don't have to do these side gigs.  Certainly not the extent that I did them.  But I was addicted to them.  If I was at home, the road was calling my name.  And I always drank 2 to 4 energy drinks per day to be able to keep driving.  What I learned later was that energy drinks was causing this impulsive behavior.

When Uber went away, DoorDash took over.  The money for DoorDash wasn't as good (because I hadn't reached "Platinum Status" until about two weeks ago, so it's as good now), so there was less motivation for me to be on the road.  I bought a coffee maker two weeks ago - a cheap one for $10 at Walmart, and I only drank it in the morning.  I stopped the energy drinks, feeling that coffee in the morning should get me through the day.

I noticed that my alcohol cravings every night were completely gone.  I also noticed that I had the ability to easily ignore snack foods that caught my attention at the convenience store later in the day.  But I couldn't ignore them in the morning.  So after a week of drinking coffee, I stopped.

It turns out that all that caffeine I was consuming had me in a place where I was perpetually seeking calmness and comfort - and I always found it in food and alcohol.

Caffeine was the problem the whole time.  It made me impulsive.  While it did not curtail my ability to do things that I'm supposed to be doing, it did curtail my ability to resist doing the things that I should not be doing.

While the temptation to grab an energy drink hasn't gone away completely, I find that resisting energy drinks is way easier than resisting alcohol after I've had energy drinks.

When I dropped the coffee, I decided to go all out and eliminate caffeine completely.

So for anyone having an issue with eating and/or alcohol; if you consume large amounts of caffeine - especially through energy drinks of coffee - start there first.  The rest will follow.