Withdrawal Symptoms

I can resist anything but temptation.
Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act I

Yes I worked from home yesterday, yes there was a great deal of temptation, no I didn’t succumb although I’d be the first to admit there were some close calls.

I tend to be a fairly compulsive eater and I do classify both chocolate and donuts as food groups, but I do like to think I have a fair amount of willpower. I have, I’ll let you know, gone without chocolate or donuts before, sometimes for several hours at a time . I mean how hard can it be?

On the other hand I’ve been reading a lot about caffeine withdrawal recently, because
I’m a father of six year olds. Look, if you’re a parent I don’t need to say anymore, you’ll understand the implications straight away.

For those who have managed to avoid the “joys of parenthood” I’ll just say I suffer from a permanent state of sleep deprivation. Now if you’re a non breeders and still unsure just what I mean then imagine the feeling you have when you wake up on a Monday morning after a “long weekend”. Look I don't mean one of those weekends with a bank holiday on either side, I mean one of those “long weekends” where significant portions were spent in a drunken haze, a weekend where you ate something from an establishment you wouldn’t have touched with a flamethrower under normal circumstances, a weekend where... well you probably get the picture, one of those weekends. Well that’s how I feel most mornings and I don’t have the funny or embarrassing stories to tell my friends afterwards.

Actually, that’s a lie I don’t feel sleep deprived most mornings, but this is largely because I drink copious amounts of energy drinks, Lucozade, Red Bull, Relentless, Kick, Bolt, Head butt, actually I made the last name up, but if it was on sale and contained caffeine I’d probably buy it.

The point is its rare for me to not have an energy drink on my desk sometimes it’s a six pack occasionally it’s a litre bottle, when things have been really bad there may be more than one.

Thankfully, we didn’t agree to giving up coffee, three days in and my coffee consumption is hovering at around eight cups a day. So there is a nagging concern in the back of my mind that while at the end of this endeavour I may be as lean and fit as a man half my age. I'll probably also be a jittery nervous wreck with ulcers.

Hey but its for charity...£433 raised so far.