Wonderful post, and I love how your limit on the amount of coffee is actually a safeguard against drinking it too casually. It seems to me that you find yourself in the forced position of having to treasure that cup every single day. Yours is also a wonderful reminders that arguably negative things can actually give space to a fantastic attitude and enjoyment of life.
At the end of the day, we might argue as much as we want on the "big stuff" (see our friendly disagreements on PRSI
), but ultimately we all desire to enjoy our things here on this Earth, and we really are more like minded than a superficial evaluation might lead us to believe. Cheers to you my friend!
Noticed you haven't really been in PRSI lately. Hope everythings alright with you. We often disagree on policy things, but it's a good discussion and I think you and I would enjoy the discussion over a nice cupajoe
it's amazing how a health scare though can make you savour and enjoy something you take for granted.
About 5 years ago, I was sitting in my office at work when I broke out in a massive sweat. my heart racing. shakes. Cheset pain. Thought at first it was just a panic attack (I've had those) and passed it off.
all day the rest of the day, I felt really off.
Next day, woke up, chest pains, dizziness, and heartbeat was irregular. Every 2-3 beats it would just stop for 2-3 seconds, than fire and catch up.
That's when I called my brother over and asked him to take me to the ER. spent the day in ER hooked up to monitoring. blood tests and all the works.
Good news. it was NOT a heart attack. My health was actually deemed completely normal and my blood work was actually deemed "excellent"
but something was shorting out the messages to my heart. Wore a heart monitor for a week.
I was diagnosed with Premature Ventricular Contractions. And it was believed to be caused by caffeine.
I was drinking at hte time the following:
1 XLARGE Tim Hortons at 8am.
1 Large Tim Hortons at about 10.
1 large mug of office coffee at noon
1 large mug of office coffee around 3pm.
I'd than go home. have a nap after work.
than i'd drink a large Monster energy around 8pm before working out.
I had to go immediately cold turkey off all caffeine. that was one miserable couple of months.
and when I got the ok to bring some caffeine back, it was with limits. So right now, I only have 1 coffee in the morning. And it's forced me to seriously enjoy it. No more office swill. No more tim hortons watery ********. no more energy drinks (haven't touched one in 5 years).
So when I make my morning coffee. I want it to be good. I want to enjoy it, even if it's drank while driving to work.
I buy more expensive coffees now, but still end up spending less on coffee overall now that i'm not buying it multiple times a day.
My favourite coffee for drip (I use only mesh filters so that the oils are allowed to pass through) is Kicking Horse 454 Horsepower. has a nice coacoa finish. I also enjoy Starbucks "TRue North" blond roast (brewing at home is so much better than how they serve it in store). I use exactly 34g of coffee to 4 cups of filtered water.
as for esspresso, I haven't yet found the "ONE" that I love. I just picked up a package of pre-ground italian kimbo that is pretty good. I'm still getting the hang of making espresso. I find i mess up on tamping. I don't really know the exact pressure yet to put.
