Self-Limiting

I've wondered about my coffee-drinking habits lately; after nearly five decades of not seeing the appeal, I discovered Vietnamese iced coffee and have made up for the lost time with a vengeance. But, while the benefits of caffeine (such as greatly reduced Alzheimer's risk) are well documented, still I worried about the amounts of the stimulant I was ingesting.

But last week I suddenly saw it all so clearly: Coffee is a self-limiting vice! That's right, with a little methodological discipline, it will itself guarantee that you can only take in so much.

Beer is like this, of course--each fresh gulp puts the happy imbiber that much closer to a bleary, unconscious stupor, until the mug falls safely from the hand, to saturate the expensive Persian rug instead. Likewise other obsessions--especially andorphine-producing, fatigue-generating extreme outdoor sports (my favorites being river kayaking, doubles volleyball, and hang gliding, and I can emphatically attest that four hours of uncontrollable shivering at 12,000 feet will motivate anyone to land his or her hunk of flying lawn furniture in the first flat-looking field they spot, no matter how far from a road and eventual return to civilization it might be).

So many over-indulgence-prone habits can be enjoyed in a manner that guarantees moderation. Some people power their TV with an exer-cycle; others keep their cell-phones only half-charged. All good ways of staying within the envelope.

But, back to coffee, and the "methodological discipline" of which I wrote a moment ago. It hit me on return to my desk from the coffee machine at work. I simply carried the brimming mug at arm's length! That's all you need to do. "Stay away from coffee," the critics will tell you, and so you do it. Don't bent the elbow, now.

If you're under your limit, you'll arrive at your desk with a mostly full cup. The more you drink throughout the day or week, the more jitter and slosh you'll experience. It's so simple! And the beauty of it is that you never really need to know when you've had enough.

Because the janitor will tell you.