At the beginning of the year, I embarked on a quest to take a weekend off of four major consumptions in my life: coffee, meat, alcohol and marijuana. I didn't have to take two days off in a row, but the resolution was to take two days off out of seven each week. It's been seven months, so how am I doing? How's my discipline? How resolute is my resolution?

Let's start with coffee. I still love coffee, and I still love espresso. I don't like coffee shakes, iced coffee or most coffee concoctions. Since I get up for work at 4:15 a.m., I pretty much consume a 16 oz. cup of americano or coffee every work day. My work days last twelve hours at a time, so a morning cup of coffee helps charge the batteries. Since I work three or four days a week, this leaves three or four days at home for non-consumption. It has been fairly successful, albeit painful at times.

Since I don't drink any other caffeinated beverages (rarely a coke or iced tea), a day off coffee leaves me sluggish. My fiancee knows when I don't have coffee as my demeanor shifts to a dazed monkey man. A nap is usually needed on those days, and less gets done on my part all the way around. I can get the caffeine withdrawal headache, which is quite annoying. My mind craves the caffeine as much as my body. Nevertheless, I feel much better by taking a couple days off. It lets my body relax after the grind of the cab, and the mind shuts down as well. After 10 a.m., I can usually stay off coffee for the rest of the day, so it's really a morning test. I have been able to keep my two days off with coffee quite well, with only a couple weeks of noncompliance. Sometimes coffee comes whether you ask for it or not, and sure, I'll have a cup if you give it to me.

Next up is the absence of meat (no beef, pork, chicken, fish or seafood). This is all about planning. If I want to go sans meat on a certain day, I have to call it at the beginning. No meat today, I say! Then I figure out how to avoid it. Strangely enough, this is easier than coffee. I can go a whole cab day without eating meat (it's actually quite common), and then I just have to figure out what to eat for dinner. Eggs, grilled cheese and PBJ are the choices when I can't come up with anything better.

A strange but positive side effect has occurred with this experiment. I find myself eating less meat in general. Even on days I eat meat, it sometimes only occurs during one meal of the day. My digestive system seems to appreciate the break from meat, and I actually have found myself starting to accidentally have three days without meat sometimes. It still requires planning, but my meat free days of the week almost always occur. Only on a vacation to the mid-west did I slip up, but hey, it was vacation!

Before you think I'm just tooting my own horn, let's get to the real reasons for the resolution in the first place. Alcohol and marijuana. I started out really well. Take two days off a week. How hard can that be? Sunday is fun day, so I do what I want. Monday and Tuesday for abstinence, and you're done, right? Yeah, I'm pretty good at taking Monday off, sometimes. Tuesdays, not so much. After a cab day, a little poison or puff helps to unwind. Wednesday, maybe, but I go to the pub once a week with my brother, and that usually happens on Tuesday or Wednesday. It's funny how drinking can lead to smoking and vice-versa. Thursday. If I haven't had a day off by Thursday, I better start. If I've already had one day off, I better do the other one because guess what comes next? Friday & Saturday. No smoke or drink on those days makes Jungle a very dull boy.

To my credit, I have still succeeded on the bulk of the weeks, and even when I smoke and drink, it's less than what I did before I had a baby girl. My tolerance is slipping a touch. Still, a couple beers are nice. Splitting a bottle of wine is nice. Whiskey on the rocks is a pleasure before it's a pain. Sometimes, it's just a little puff of the green stuff each day, but a puff a day still counts as smoking. I don't know what happened in July, but it was increasingly more difficult to abstain two days a week from one or both of these vices. Willpower wilts in the heat.

There are other things that I do everyday that I could add to the two-days-off list: television, vitamins, driving, the computer, and so on. I usually take one day off those things, but I'm still focusing on getting the big four done.

I won't lie. I still love the days when I drink coffee, eat meat, drink and smoke. It seems like those are the days I'm most complete, but taking a couple days off a week does help me appreciate them more. When I eat a steak now, it tastes even better. When I have a cup of coffee after a day off, it's like the nectar of the gods. Same with booze and smoke. You appreciate the moments just a little bit more.

Abstinence is tough. You get in these patterns of things you do so much that you don't know quite what to do without them. Before you know it, you are just a composite of the rituals and habits and routines that you do every single day. You become predictable and boring. Those are two things I never wanted to be.

The resolution continues...

Chris Jungle is looking for some spare willpower.