Bang & Reign are Toxic but I Love Caffeine

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So today, I learned something about myself that is obvious as night and day. My body loves caffeine. That’s right, I awakened this morning cranky as hell. At 6AM, I ate a good breakfast and by 9 AM I was tired, anxious, irritable, easily annoyed and took a two-hour nap. By 11:00, I was mad at my lack of motivation or ambition and not being able to get anything productive done on a Saturday.

About 3-4 days ago, I quit drinking Bang and Reign which I usually enjoy every morning as a sort of a Mormon Coffee!  Mormons can’t drink coffee, it’s a joke. I’m not a practicing Mormon but I still uphold many standards but have been  addicted to caffeine since drinking Mountain Dew at 11 years old. It’s  been a solid 3-4 years when I switched to an energy drink a day; namely the zero calorie ones.

This three day streak of not drinking these brews as been hard to withstand temptation to buy them. It’s not the caffeine I’m against – It’s the sucralose in the drinks. I suspect it’s causing a sort of metabolic syndrome? I’ve been unable to lose weight even with daily consistent exercise over the last month and week. So I made the conscious effort to boot these energy drinks.  I’m sick of paying $2 dollars a day and it’s going up in price. Now it’s 2 for $4.50 and this is getting ridiculous.

Now, I’m determined to quit. I’m calling these drinks corporate poison brews because they are most likely toxic? Their intent is to keep us addicted. They are not concerned about me! I suspect these drink and beverage manufacturers use a proprietary blend in their drinks with other substances (besides caffeine) to cause dependence? I suspect it because I’m taking a 200mg caffeine pill in the mornings to mitigate the stress of going without the drinks, and I’m still habitually cra. Formerly, my favorite Bang was Birthday Cake Bash.

So lastly, TODAY, I couldn’t figure out why I was so anxious? I ate a good breakfast, drank plenty of water and by noon I was so stressed and ready to go straight through the roof. I purchased a Kombucha drink, a lb. of red seedless grapes, and cracked open a can of premium chili. I thought maybe I just needed a little sugar in my blood because I was having some sort of hypoglycemic attack? This could be causing the moodiness?  Nope, the sugar didn’t help or the grapes! Then, I realized I hadn’t taken the daily 200mg of caffeine!? I had totally spaced the caffeine pill. Dang it! That had to be it!?

And guess what? It only took about 20 minutes for the caffeine to kick in and I was feeling pleasant, focused and ready to get something done, finally. So much so, I felt inspired to write this post even at 5PM today. In the grand scheme, it’s too early to tell what kicking energy drinks are going to accomplish in my overall health but I suspect any sucralose is not good for humans…

Trying to Boot Reign & Bang Energy Drinks

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Yesterday was the FIRST DAY in like three years I went without an energy drink. I avoid the sugary ones: only usually pick Bang or Reign. Well, I went without for the first time, and took a 200mg caffeine tablet instead but still caught some withdrawal symptoms and even a headache this morning.

Upon waking up this morning I realize, how much of a slave I’ve been do these drink products but I have been rationalizing that relationship as some sort of twisted liberating freedom! When I’m forking out over $2 a day for this drink, I realize that is a toll and it’s not liberating me.

Water is fairly dirt cheap in comparison and while $2 a day might not seem like much, it does add up! I’m feeling a sense of strength to try and see if I can completely boot this otherwise mundane and toxic energy drink intake?

Listen, it’s NOT the caffeine I’m against. I think caffeine has certain health benefits; it’s everything else in these proprietary corporate brews that I’m concerned about where long term health is concerned and even though I’m taking caffeine tabs to wean me away from these drinks, I’m still suffering symptoms of withdrawing from these energy drinks and this is going to also include beverages like Diet Sodas. It’s all-too-easy to drink our favorite poisons.

IFTTT (If This…Then That)!

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One little service called IFTTT just completely revolutionized and reinvigorated my desire to start blogging again. Please see ifttt.com/ for more details. They also have some pretty amazing iOS apps for the iPhone as well that you should install. Be careful because these apps are LOADED with potential! I’ve started automating my postings on social networks to my wordpress blog and vice-versa; a solution that even a decade worth of WP Plugins would not be able to achieve without a lot of tedious hacking of the platform. For example: whenever I post an image to 500PX, Flickr, or Instagram my images automagically appear on my home photoblog at talkingtree.org – as independent posts. Combine this with the magic of Jetpack’s Publicize tool, and you pretty much take out the leg-work of posting on each social network to update the content. Yes, not everything should be automated, I know but weren’t computers supposed our slaves or at least work for us? Instead, we have become slaves to them being chained to the mouse!