Hello, my name is Topher, and I’m a Pepsi drinker. I started drinking Pepsi when I was probably 14 years old. Before then, it was a treat because my parents didn’t want me addicted to the caffeine. When I was really little, they bought Pepsi Free, the caffeine free version of Pepsi in the early 80s, but the caffeine free version didn’t come in the big 24 packs, so it was actually more expensive. I’m getting off subject now… so back on.

I’ve been at least a two-can-a-day guy ever since I can remember. It started out as with regular Pepsi, but I converted, at the behest of my wife, about 12 years ago to Diet Pepsi. It was hard, but it was worth it. It removed several hundred Calories of guilt from my diet every day.

Over the following six years, my intake of Diet Pepsi slowly increased until I was about a six-can-a-day guy. I realized I had a problem. So for 2010, My New Year’s resolution was to limit myself to at most five cans a day. For the entire year, I kept this resolution. I only hit my max a few days, but for the most part, I was down to the current two cans a day.

Well, some days I would forget to take my daily dose of caffeine via Diet Pepsi, there would be no adverse affects, but as I get older, if I miss more than two or three days, I get these incredible caffeine headaches. This wasn’t a problem, because I take a couple cans to work every day and I know it’s time to go home when both cans are gone. 

I have recently been tapering off on the Diet Pepsi during the weekends, where I average probably one can a day. I’ve been slowly converting over to water on the weekends, which I think is a good thing. The problem comes when I work from home.

I have early morning meetings for work every day. I take this meeting at home and then commute into town for work, taking my allotted two cans. But some days, I have more than the standard morning meeting, and after spending two or three hours on the phone in meetings, I just don’t have it in me to drive into town for work, so I work from home. It actually benefits the company more than me, I think. When I commute into town, I work a good 8.5 or 9 hour day, but when I work from home, I easily pound between 9 and 10 hours (I forget that my commute is an hour, so I work the entire day, including the commute time, but quit at the same time).

Anyway, when I work from home, I don’t take my dose of Pepsi. I am so focused on work and completing my tasks that I don’t go to the fridge and search out a Pepsi. So, if I work from home two days in a row, I don’t take my dose and then, the third morning I have the most AMAZING caffeine headache. 

Today is no different. I woke up with a splitting headache and have worked on alleviating it with excedrine and Diet Pepsi. Perhaps I need to find an alternative cure to stop the headache without Pepsi or Caffeine, but until then, I’ll live with my problem.