Sunday evening I started a cleanse. While I don’t have to starve myself this week, I’m only eating raw fruits and vegetables. Additionally, I only drink pure water with lemon at the most. That means no coffee.

For some that’s not a big deal. For me, it’s really serious. Coffee is precious to me. I’m the type that makes it first thing in the morning like it was a companion or something. My coffee intake was up to 8 cups a day. It’s not that difficult to reach that level without knowing. Everything related to food in America is super-sized, including the cups we use to drink coffee. So swigging two of the large ones already gives me four cups. Then by afternoon, I’m ready for more. Without realizing it, I consume more coffee in a day than some people do in a week.

Going cold turkey is the only way I know to stop this habit. If you ever wondered if this was a form of detox I can vouch that it is. I have been having the worse withdrawal symptoms ever. In fact, I had to do some research online to be sure I was experiencing something normal in a detox situation because I’ve never been through this before.

I thought it might be helpful for you to know what it’s like to withdraw from coffee addiction. The reason being that I hope you also take the step if you’re as addicted as I am. In order to really experience a new start with my health, I have to go all the way to getting better. That starts with letting go of what’s been holding me back and coffee consumption is a start. I’ll chronicle the next few days and leave a trail of information for you to access when you decide to make the coffee withdrawal.