Monday, November 29, 2010

THE GREAT CAFFEINE EXPERIMENT!!

About a month ago my wife made the accusation that I was addicted to caffeine. I disagreed with her, and had to prove that I was not, in fact, addicted to caffeine. To that end I decided to go five days without consuming the drug.

A BRIEF HISTORY
I have taken some sort of energy drink/caffeine supplement almost daily since early in my high school career. While the forms have shifted, from Pepsi to “Spark”, then to various energy drinks and coffee/tea, one thing has remained; they all have some sort of caffeine. Over the years I have learned that your body builds up a sort of tolerance to the drug, the more you take over time the less it affects you.( I.e. the first time I had one dose of “Spark” I was a bit jittery, then, as time went on I slowly upped the dosage until I was having a double dose of “Spark” several times a day and feeling little or no effects.) There were short times when I would stop taking caffeine, but never longer than a week or two. Every time after I had stopped and got back on, my body had re-set and caffeine suddenly had a greater effect; which was great, I could spend less money to get the desired result (more energy).

THE EXPERIMENT/INITIAL RESULTS
My five day journey began on a Monday. The day was great until about 2pm which was when my first hard core caffeine headache hit, I took some ibuprofen which helped. Day two sucked the most I think, the headache hit hard, and I felt slightly physically ill. Day’s Three was more manageable and I only took ibuprofen once. Day Four I didn’t take ibuprofen at all and had only a slight headache, and Friday I just felt great!

APPLICATION
After I achieved my goal of my five days I decided I could only have caffeine on days I did NOT work. This has worked out great so far; however, I have had to re-learn my caffeine digestion. I had one bad experience on a Saturday when I had an energy drink at 6pm and one at 10pm, big BIG mistake. When I used to consume energy drinks 2X’s per day I could take one at 10pm and be in bed by 1am, but since my body wasn’t accustomed to that high amount of caffeine anymore I was up in bed until around 4am, and it made for a horrible morning. Through trail and error, I have figured out that the energy drinks now last about six hours instead of two, so I can plan my consumption accordingly.


As for the days when I don’t consume caffeine I simply go to bed earlier. During the day I still get tired around 2pm (like I did when I drank energy drinks). I don’t get headaches anymore when I don’t have my “fix”, and I am saving a TON of money by only having them on the weekends.
All in all I would say that caffeine is a good thing and a tool, you just need to know how to use it. Caffeine like any other drug/medication can be awesome when used appropriately. If not you are simply throwing money away.

Lata Folks
Ryan

Friday, November 26, 2010

Thankful

I don’t have any profound thoughts about this weekend, so I’ll keep it short.

I am truly thankful for my wife.

She loves Jesus more than me.

She puts up with my random questions, and my very opinionated self.

She is a great cook, and makes almost EVERYTHING from scratch.

The fact that she will quietly wait and not complain while I am playing Video Games with my
brother. (Sometimes she even encourages me to play Video Games with him :P).

She gives it her all even when she is sneezing every 3 seconds (Literally folks, literally.)

She cleans the kitchen pretty much by herself, (that means doing ALL the dishes)

And most of all I just love who she is. She is my social half, my external processor, my grace filled heart, she is the perfect balance for me. She is truly an undeserved gift from God.

Lata,
Ryan

Monday, November 8, 2010

Hello Again

It’s been a while since my last blog post and I think that the cooler weather has inspired me to start writing again. (or start trying to write).

I guess I have been internally processing a lot of things lately, mostly theology based, wrestling with the tough questions. Working out my salvation with fear and trembling. I read a lot of Driscoll and some Piper looking at the idea of predestination (aka Calvinism) the far reaching implications of Calvinism as well as free will (aka Armenianism), and the implications of free will thinking.

A ton of Bible reading went into this study as it does continue. These questions have given me new motivation to spend time in the Bible, taking in God’s wisdom and basking in his glorious work. I think that with this study I have come to know God more, which is what I had hoped for.

While I feel there is a legitimate case for Armenianism I tend to fall on the Calvinistic side of things, and I was probably predestined to land that way (It’s ok if you want to laugh at that). The thing that I cannot get around with Armenianism is the total depravity of man (by man I mean humans). I don’t think that given a choice anyone would “choose” God.

Romans 3:10-20

As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.”18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”