Just Say "No" to Joe

So it's been an interesting week.
First I gave up coffee once and for all, it's been 7 days since my last cup of Joe, someone please give me a frakking medal for that. Or at least some applause.
My friend Jenna leant me Skinny Bitch (http://skinnybitch.net/). I read it in three days. I had already thought about giving up coffee.
Not that I don't like coffee. Believe me, it's been my friend, Joe is there for me in good (writing) times and in bad (tired or hungover) times. He helped me go to college, work at 4am and still smile, and get through a dual masters program while working full time. But lately he's not my friend so much.
I need him too much. I couldn't imagine a day without him, and that scared me.
Skinny Bitch says coffee "is for pussies." Think of how addicted to it we are. And how many of us think that it's perfectly ok. To be on drugs. So after months of thinking about it and weeks of talking about it, I gave it up.
I read http://www.caffeinedependence.org/caffeine_dependence.html which had some good info on how the drug affects our bodies and brains. I was in the "but it's good for me- right??" party until I realized the good was outweighed by the bad. And the more I read the more I realized that was true. Yes, it has antioxidants that may prevent cancer. So do other things, like green tea, fruits and veggies, which I already get enough of.
Wanna be scared some more? Here you go,
http://www.teeccino.com/caffeineeffects.aspx
Had enough yet? No?
http://www.teeccino.com/motivation.aspx

So day one (last Thursday) I had two cups of tea, fatigue, a migraine, nausea, and my less than scientific vocab would call "general poopy feeling." Day two (Friday) I had all the above plus trouble concentrating at work, my brain was functioning at less than 50% capacity, and I wondered what I was doing this for at all. Then that night I went to restorative Yoga, had a nice relaxing evening, and woke up Saturday feeling human again!!
I worked out Saturday, had a cup of green tea, and made it all day without any side effects! It was bizarre.
Now, I will say I am still drinking 1-2 cups of green tea a day, which do have caffeine, but MUCH less than my two cups of coffee. In about a week I'm going to switch to only herbal or decaffeinated green tea.
My faves:
Yogi Tea http://www.yogiproducts.com/
Mostly organic, lots of herbals, no bad "grassy" green tea flavor. And cute sayings on the bag strings which kind of brighten your day in a borderline cliche way. This morning mine said "share your heart with other people's heart" or something. Very new agey.
I like the green tea energy, green tea with ginger lemon, and plain ginger. They cost less than $4 at Mothers, Whole Foods, for 16 bags, which is not bad!

All my facebook postings and tweets about this experience raised both praise (you can do it! I'm proud of you!) to shock (what? For the love of all that is holy, WHY?) to general disbelief (I was a barista for 5 years, after all).

This morning I was particularly tempted to take Joe back, and apologize for leaving him, since I had a particularly restless night due to some emotional crud. Joe would help me get through it, I thought. But, like Nancy Reagan taught me when I was a kid in the 80's, I just said "No" to Joe.