Vice, Habit or Pleasure?

I drink caffeine. Yes, I do. I admit it. Isn't admission of a problem 90% of the cure? Is it really a problem I have though? I don't drink 4 cups of coffee a day. I hate coffee, can't even stand the smell of it. I get my caffeine through those new fangled energy drinks at $2.50 a can. I used to get my caffeine from an old fashioned can of coke but those as 12 oz and 280 calories. Then I started drinking diet coke and people said that aspartame (aka NutraSweet) will kill me and that all those chemicals in diet drinks bloat you and make you retain weight. Well, I just can't win can I.

So is drinking caffeine a vice? I think not as the definition of a vice is frailty: moral weakness
a specific form of evildoing; "vice offends the moral standards of the community". Well, my caffeine habit certainly doesn't qualify as evildoing. It's not like I'm President Bush or anything..... Is it a habit then? Well a habit is defined as an established custom; or "a pattern of behavior acquired through frequent repetition". Hmm, well it's definitely a habit then. I like my caffeine first thing in the morning. I like a Red Bull to jolt me awake and get the energy flowing through me. I want to wake up running and on fire baby! Well, I now drink Diet Red Bull and I'm sure that's going to kill me too. Everything is going to kill me eventually I guess. I only drink one little 8 oz. can in the morning, can that be bad? To me, it's pure pleasure. Well, let me clarify, it was pure pleasure drinking a can of full high test Red Bull, not the diet crap. I like the flavor of it, the jolt of it, the tingle of little bubbles on my tongue first thing in the morning. The diet doesn't have the same thrill but, it does the trick. So have I compromised my pleasure for a habit?

Well, regardless of what it is, I'm weaning myself off. You'd think that it'd be easy right? It's only one little 8 oz can a day. How much caffeine is that really? For the record, the amount of caffeine incorporated does not have harmful or toxic effects since one 150 ml cup of tea contains between 60 and 90 mg of caffeine and one 125 ml cup of coffee provides between 95 and 125 mg of caffeine; one 250 ml can of RED BULL provides 80 mg of caffeine (32 mg/100 ml). Since I figure that Red Bull on the National Geographic Endeavor will either be non-existent or really, really expensive, I've elected to quit. How's it going so far. I actually was able to skip a day, Monday. I lived through it. Was the day better or worse. It wasn't as pleasurable to be sure.