One Month Challenge: Coffee-Free January, Week Two

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. This month, Charlotte's kicking her bean habit. Her first week wasn't as easy as she was expecting. Did she get a hang of it in week 2?]

By Charlotte

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good cup of tea. I’m a British girl, tea is my fuel. But “going for a cup of tea” doesn’t have quite the same ring as “going for a coffee,” something I found far too much this past weekend.

To celebrate my final weekend at home before heading back to the States, my family and I planned a weekend in London. I thought Big Ben, The Globe, Buckingham Palace! Fab. I did not anticipate the sheer number of times my dad would utter the words “shall we stop for a coffee?” before stumbling and saying “um, sorry, tea, Charlotte.”

See in London, you can’t move more than 5 feet before meeting a Costa Coffeee, or a Starbucks or a Pret a Manger (I should know, I introduced a “count the Starbucks game”); it’s coffee paradise. Mix that in with early starts and late nights – I was desperate for a bucket cup of java.

It started on the first day. Up early for packing and getting ready, I anticipated the hot drinks trolley on the train with excitement and was quickly greeted with my first cup of tea of the weekend. Fine, it’s great, I love tea. But despite its apparent caffeinated properties, I’ve been drinking the stuff since I was a child (seriously, I used to drink it in a beaker with a straw), any sensitivity to the caffeine in tea was eradicated in my childhood. I settled for a train nap and woke up more tired, groggy as hell and with dry contact lenses.

Not the feeling or look I was going for.

Next was the first obligatory coffee stop, and with it the obligatory cup of tea. Hours upon hours of walking and little sleep was making me zombie-like. I downed a Red Bull on the second day but didn’t feel much more alive. I was craving a milky latte or a sickly sweet caramel concoction. Going to a coffee shop was now something that came with an extra shot of dread. The menu became akin to a dieter in McDonalds; filled with delicious loveliness that I couldn’t have.

But I powered through. I drank my tea and I got on with it. I even came home with the second Red Bull I had bought still unopened. Score!!

My next challenge was a cold rainy day when I had made the mistake of wearing high shoes. I dragged my heels, quite literally, to the nearest coffee shop, where I stared in a daze at the caffeinated delights. I contemplated yet another cup of tea, before deciding I was sick of paying for a cup of hot water and a teabag.
I am currently car-less so I called a cab to pick me up outside Costa. “Just had a coffee have you?” the taxi driver greeted me, before nearly crashing with shock at my revelation that I have given up coffee.

“Why?!” he asked me.
God knows, I wondered, fighting to keep my eyes open.

But I’m half way there. And besides the headaches (which I am pretending are not related to the lack of coffee), I think I’m doing OK. Plus, I am on my post-New Year’s diet and have already lost five pounds, thanks in part to swapping my 100 calorie skinny lattes for 28 calorie tea. Something I need to remind myself of as I’m salivating like a Pavlovian dog every time I see a green straw…

Now I’d better go, the kettle is on – it’s time for my second cup of tea of the day.

[Check out the other One Month Challenges we've taken on. And if you've got a challenge you want to tackle (and be held accountable for), email us and we could feature you next month. Come on - it's good for you!]