Why didn't someone stop me? I woke up from a sound sleep at 2AM with a splitting, skull-popping headache!
"What the hell is going on? Am I having a stroke? Is my blood pressure high? Am I popping a vessel? Geez, I'd better get up and check my blood sugar." I moaned.

"Oh crap! My sugar is 223!"

"How can that be right? I did not overeat at supper. "

Let's see...I had three cups of double caffeine cocoa lattes for breakfast, one diet Pepsi at lunch and one cup of water ALL day! Hmmm, this might be the answer. One cup of water all day does not constitute enough water!

Hello!

You are dehydrated!

The alarm went off exactly at 5:15 a.m. "What? Impossible, did I finally fall asleep?"
I was up until 3:00 a.m. wrestling with my thoughts and drinking water. Have you ever had one of those nights? You know, where no matter what you do, you can't turn off the brain or the body. Last night was one of "those" for me.

Needless to say, I don't feel too bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. The doctor told me I need to stop my coffee drinking ways a couple of weeks ago when my blood pressure shot up and I had a little mini-stroke. I'm all better now. Well, I have honestly tried to stop. I even went to the health food store and bought a coffee substitute. Yuck!

I'm here to tell you there is NO substitute for COFFEE. I love the stuff. Oh, the joys of coffee. The smell, the mouth feel, the warmth of the cup in my hands, the beauty of the cup. Can you tell I really do LOVE coffee?

My coffee habit goes back a long way. In fact, I guess you can say it has been a long standing tradition of my family. I can never remember a time when there was not a pot of coffee on at my parents' home. They enjoyed it and I was taught as a little girl that to not offer a guest a cup of coffee was just plain rude and unforgivable.

Over the years I have developed my own personal traditions with coffee. Like my parents, I still offer my guest a cup of coffee. I also enjoy a fresh morning cup on my front porch in the spring, summer and fall just sipping and meditating. In the winter, I like to get up early before the rest of the household and sit in the dark watching the flames in our fireplace and let the warm liquid get the old motor going.

I'm a firm believer in the fact that, "in this life we have to pick our battles." Well I've decided I'm not going to give up my coffee habit. What harm can one to two cups of coffee do? I think I'm going to have that second cup this morning. I feel better already.