The Unhealthy Behaviors We Justify

What Unhealthy Behaviors Do We Justify?

 by Andrea Rodgers

The other morning, as the sun was rising outside my kitchen window, I poured the usual 24 oz of coffee into my to go mug. My day began the way it always does. Coffee, 24 oz, since my sophomore year of college. I started personal training that year which meant getting up between 4-6am. And that has been my routine ever since. 

One of my “vices” = coffee.

Why was I consuming it? To get myself up in the morning. And also as an appetite suppressant. 

Removing or even reducing caffeine from my diet has been on my mind for a while. I know that caffeine has some ill effects which I can get into later, but I didn’t want to give it up. It is my vice. My “thing” that I deserved for getting up so early in the morning. 

That same morning that I described earlier, I started to feel weird after drinking about half of my coffee. I felt jittery, a bit nauseous and just not right. I questioned, why was I drinking so much coffee every day? Did I really need that much? Was it healthy for me? Did it serve me? Was it making me feel anxious and sick?

Sometimes it is not until we are in a hole that we realize that our behavior is unhealthy. Because of course, in the moment when you feel fine, you think that you are getting away with it. Now trust me, I don’t think that coffee is THAT bad for you. But for someone who drinks 24 oz every single morning and also tends to have more anxious tendencies, it is something that may not serve me.

As we reach another spring equinox, a season with less clothes :), it is a good time to reassess some of our goals. What have we been trying to achieve, FOREVER, and still are having trouble? Better yet, what are some of the behaviors that we justify that are stopping us from reaching our goals?

For my goal of finding more calm in my life, is caffeine helping or hurting me? Is it healthy for me? Does it serve me? What would happen if I took a look at this behavior and reconsidered the 24 oz caffeine spike? Could I survive with maybe half of that? Maybe I could buy myself a new mug and try a different pattern?

By recognizing these habits, you start to realize that although they may have had a purpose when you first adopted them, they may no longer be appropriate in your life. Especially if you are trying to find more zen in your life while drinking triple the amount of recommended caffeine.