Program Design

After examining my scary baseline readings it now falls on to me to design a program to eradicate that behavior. I am however not alone. Along with the helpful suggestions of classmates I have also found some internet resources to help me design a program.

 

I found this site to be the most helpful . The author literally created a step-by-step program to curb this behavior. She suggests slowing decreasing the amount of coffee that you drink.  She advises going from a venti to a grande to a tall and eventually you will kick the habit. I think that this method has merits, but I do not think it is a drastic enough of a change from what I already consume. I understand with something like caffeine I need to ease off slowly if I want to sustain and actual change but I think that if I continue to drink coffee in smaller doses I will just fall back into bad habits. I need more of a drastic change than that.

 

After coming to that conclusion I found this site which seemed to be a good compromise. This site suggested (like many of you fellow students did) switch from coffee to herbal tea. Herbal tea has a distinct caffeine element without the jitters that coffee has. Herbal tea also works to relax the mind and body rather than stimulating it. I think this is a better alternative that I am more likely to stick with.

 

I think it would be advantageous for me to set up a program that is step like in structure. For the first week I will switch to highly caffeinated coffee. It is made by this company called coffee bean. This way I will not be tempted to venture back to coffee because I will avoid the dreaded caffeine withdraw headaches. As the weeks progress I will decrease the amount of caffeine in my tea until it is at the lowest amount possible.

 

Knowing that I am not perfect I have set up positive reinforcers and punishments to help keep me on the right tract. My postive reinforcement after a day well done will be a cup of decaffeinated coffee at night. I really enjoy the taste of coffee. I think this is another reason why I have continued to drink it for as long as I have. I would look forward to drinking a cup of decaffeinated coffee after a day well spent. I spent a long time trying to derive a punishment. At first I thought it would be a good idea to spend the rest of the day drinking tea with no sugar however I thought that would be counter productive.  It would associated a negative ( bitter tea) with a positive action (drinking tea instead of coffee). I have instead decided that my punishment will be no cream or sugar in my nightly decaffeinated coffee. I really hate the taste of black coffee. I think then I would associate the bitterness of coffee with a punishment thus helping the general cause. I think the most clear-cut schedule for reinforcement would be on a daily basis. My reward or punishment shall be administer every night at nine p.m.

I read some of your blogs and your programs and they sound amazing and unique! as always good luck everyone!