Breaking up with coffee

Dear Coffee,

I love you, but you’re killing me.

We’ve had an awesome run. And I will miss you dearly. But I’ve gotta take a break right now.

Very truly yours,

Maggie

Per my resolutions, which I mentioned here, I’ve decided to dramatically decrease my coffee intake and switch to tea in the coming year. It’s been a long time coming; in fact, I gave up coffee for Lent last year as a trial run, but fell off the wagon after Easter. Coffee, I couldn’t quit you.

You see, I really love coffee. I loooove, loooove, looove coffee. It’s a warm, inviting friend that greets me each morning. It’s the perfect accompaniment to a sweet dessert. It is pure loveliness.

But I’m getting old. And in the past couple of years I’ve sensed an annoying correlation with coffee consumption and reflux. My body isn’t quite what it used to be and I suppose at age 37 that’s to be expected. I thought maybe this issue would work itself out and, sadly, it has not.

According to this article (this topic has been written about extensively), there's a whole host of things that affect reflux and I'm guilty of consuming nearly all of them. However, coffee is a trigger I'm dealing with on a regular basis. Less so chocolate and carbonated beverages.

Now I can’t quit 100% and I’m not sure I have to in order to resolve my issue. Coffee could be a mostly weekend thing. Tea could be a week day gig. 

I don’t have the love for tea that I do for coffee. It is a completely lesser substitute, but I recently stumbled across a tea that I drank while I studied abroad in Ireland a million years ago and bought a box. It was really nice. In fact, Barry’s Tea has already become a regular morning drink for me as I slowly work myself into this new way of life (so dramatic, I know).

So it’s out with the old:

And in with the new:

Got any advice for me? I'm all ears...