The Weight of Coffee

* A meme from www.fitnessandpower.com 

I am officially back into school mode in regards to waking up early. Over the summer, I can trend later if I am off of work. To around 9:00 am. 

During the school year, I typically wake-up at 5:00 am. My body and brain don't differentiate between workday and weekend, so here I am typing and composting away early (that was a typo but I kept it in because I thought it funny. Composing is what I meant).

Waking up early is fine but it becomes problematic when I went to bed at midnight, as I did. My faithful companion is a cup of coffee that could raise the dead. When I give my brew to others, unless the person is like me with a serious coffee habituation, it almost results in folks needing an epi-pen because they get the shakes so bad. I like it dark and strong. No sugar, no cream.  

I rarely ever drank coffee, until in my 30's, except for when I had a long night of studying in college. Then, I learned in grad school (age 25-27), that all-nighters typically produced poor work, coffee notwithstanding. Better to first sleep, arise early, get some food, and then get back to work. So, I would rise at 3:00 am and work away. If I drank coffee at all, it was instant.

I think part of the reason that I eschewed coffee was a misplaced pietism. I forsook beer for the same reason. I wanted to live by the Word alone. It frankly made me judgmental and not graceful. My Dad likes to point out what a pain in the ass I was. Forgive me father. 

Thus, in my later 30's, I started to drink coffee pretty regularly but at irregular hours. I used coffee to light a fire under my arse to work-out. But, my timing was screwed up. It messed up my sleep. Then, it got to the point where I could drink coffee in the afternoon and still clock 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Yet, I was like a stone skipping on top of a lake. The quality of sleep was suffering. Because I still had the hours, I didn't put 2 and  2 together that I was burning the candle not at both ends but in the middle. And, I broke.

During the highly stressful Dissertation year of my Ph.D. and writing my book, I contracted Lyme's Disease. Two years later, my Appendix perforated, resulting in a cutting open of my gut that is still healing. I could have died...the school nurse where I work essentially commanded that I go to the emergency room or family doctor based on the sensitivity of my abdomen to touch. Since I tend to be a tough guy, without her guidance, I could have just gone home and then it may have been too late. RIP.      

With the Lyme Disease and Appendix issues, I deduced that my body was trying to tell me something. I was compromising my immune system by chronically using caffeine to boost my energy to lift and run, however my timing of afternoon and evening was the wrong place and time. I was in Cortisol City and it fragged me out. 

I should have figured out much sooner that the coffee/caffeine was having a deleterious effect because I was not dreaming which is indicative of a lack of deep sleep. My mind was still alert even as the body rested. Yet, I always felt stressed 24-7.

It was a pretty serious wake-up call. I made a decent amount of dietary changes: less alcohol, more protein, more greens and assorted spices and herbs comprising my E-8 (bought a Vitamix). Plus, and this is the kicker, I moved my work-outs to early morning and using coffee then to jump start my day.  I committed myself to working out 6 days a week for 20 minutes, alternating days with lifting weights and then riding my FitDesk--an exercise bike with a desk, a surprisingly ingenious exercise equipment invention, unlike most quirky fitness equipment that gets kicked to the  curb eventually with a FREE sign or consigned to the basement of forgetfulness. I read and ride without having to dodge all of the dumbasses who drive while looking at their smartphones.

Find a fitness routine that works for you and stick with it. Don't aim for the ideal but what you will do consistently.  Consistently goodness beats occasional greatness. Better to be both if you can be. 

Awhile back I posted on Twitter what I considered to be my most valuable out-of-the curriculum learning in the doctoral program--add on wisdom. It was this: Coffee in the am, Alcohol in the pm. There is the afternoon which is good for neither and my dictum was "Drink coffee with the rising of the sun and drink beer with the setting of the sun." Because I was in a highly difficult life situation, I decided that I need to start working with the grain of life, not against it. God has put order in creation.   

It is obviously a simple rule but it has helped me norm my behavior with the natural solar cycle. By the time I head to bed at 10:00 pm, the caffeine is all out my system because it has been at least ten hours since I last had it. And, if I delay the drinking of beer until later in the day, I get tired before I get on that roller coaster of consumption. When I posted that dictum, a buddy commented on Twitter that this was the wisest thing I had ever tweeted. Captain Obvious for most people. I had to learn the  hard and harsh way. Story of my life. 

I make an occasional exception to this rule so don't be one of those pointed-heads who screech when I break the rule. It is proverbial. The Scriptures say don't talk sense to a fool and do talk sense to a fool.   

I have perfected the brewing of coffee which I may reveal in a later blog. Take my word for it, I have used my existing brain cells to figure out the best manner of extracting the elements from the bean. A first tip is to buy organic coffee, not the pesticide-laden mainstream brands. Second, don't use plastic equipment. Otherwise, you will have to wait for the revelation.

My Ph.D. program has provided me the capacity to do deep research and assimilate the information into a heuristic. When I wrote my book, I searched for the most trenchant insights available and put them in-between the covers of my tome. I figured that if someone said something better than I could, let them speak. Give them credit but only add my own insight if it was original and not just some rehashed and rephrased insight from another.

Like Steve Jobs. He might  have some insight that I don't. 

The book kicks it and it is among the best of its genre (the college transition). It is not Paradise Lost, The Tale of Two Cities, or Les Miserables, but is a cut above the sorry state of college prep books written by 20 Somethings who know close to zero about real life after college or older adults who write with the romance of a phone book. Remember those? Yeah, that's the point!

You will have to excuse me. I need to get another cup of coffee and prep to lift some weights. 

Eric Bierker Ph.D is the author of "On The Edge: Transitioning Imaginatively to College." A book for the college-bound. Check it out! Satisfaction guaranteed, like a cup of my coffee. Good to the last word.