It was on August 24th that felt unwell after having breakfast of avocado on toast with a cup of coffee. The symptoms that followed over that day and the next two were identical to those that I'd suffered some months before when I suddenly stopped my consumption of caffeine: aching hip joints, general malaise and acute brain fog.
I can only assume that my symptoms this time were also a product of caffeine withdrawal. Despite giving up caffeine, I had slowly returned to my old ways and by the time of the morning in question I was really back to where I'd started. My body is telling me quite firmly to give caffeine up again and this time forever.
It's unfortunate but, like alcohol, I know that as my body ages it becomes more sensitive to toxins that I was able to tolerate in my youth and it's saying it can't cope with caffeine anymore. I need to listen. I've also stopped drinking the goat's milk that I was prescribed. I don't think that was helping me either.
So now, instead of tea and coffee, it's just clear water and, fortunately here in Indonesia, it's not fluoridated. My weight is back down in 72.8 kg which is good and hopefully I can shed a couple of more kilograms. I still get fatigued easily and there's no denying that I'm not the man I once was but all I can do is carry on.