Wow, you picked the right month for your vacation! I live between Disney and the port, April and October are the absolute best months in Florida!

Also remember that caffeine is a diuretic, so you have to drink not only the 8 8oz glasses of water a day, but you also have to drink another 24 oz. to compensate for the damage the coffee is doing. This is important on Atkins. A ketogenic diet makes your kidneys work extra hard, and they need plenty of water to do their job.

Another 24 oz of water? Umm... not likely. Daily coffee drinkers build up a tolerance to caffeine and its diuretic affect isn't very noticable.

Yeah, it is hard to drink extra water on top of other beverages like coffee. Which is one reason it can be a good idea to give up coffee and tea and wine and soda pop altogether -- when you have nothing to drink but water, it's a LOT easier to get in the requisite amount of water. I never used to drink anything but diet Coke & coffee. Now that I quit everything but water, I find it easy to drink a gallon of water every day. And my skin is looking better -- no bags under the eyes in the morning, more of a glow, etc. But yeah, giving up coffee can be almost impossible -- when I did it, I was wondering if heroin withdrawal could possibly be worse.

Hi! I'm another newbie and am also fighting the coffee demon. I really LOVE my java and it feels like my only real "luxury" right now. I grind my own beans every morning (coffee snob-sorry) so I went down to my roaster and got a pound of my favorite Guatemalan Fair Trade Shade Grown--only in the Decaf version. I mixed my remaining caf beans with decaf, and so now I am drinking half-caf. As the bean level goes down in the container, I mix in more decaf beans, so that I am gradually going decaf, but fairly painlessly. I'm sure you could accomplish this same thing with any brand/type of coffee you use. Heck, even Starbucks will pour you a half-caf if you ask! Good Luck, hang in there!

Julie

profmom you're smart! Where were you when I was climbing the walls?

Probably standing in front of the fridge trying to tell myself "Dr A. says three cups of veggies...must eat veggies...try to choke down veggies..."

J.