What’s your diet like? I was amazed several years ago when rather than my usual Pepsi to drink at my job, one day I drank ice water instead. What surprised me was that at the end of my shift, rather than being dead tired and draggy, I still had lots of energy. While sugar can give a quick surge of energy, it can also sap long term energy. There’s also a common problem of a general lack of vitamin’s, especially B-complex vitamins.

If soda pop has become a daily ritual and you think it’d be too hard to drop, another alternative I found, while a bit expensive, is a brand called China Cola, distributed by Reed’s out of Los Angeles. Instead of caffeine, it has Szechuan peony root. To me it give the energy boost of caffeine, without the buzz and the jitters. But It’s $9 for a 12-pack or $16 for a 24-pack (plus shipping if you don’t live close enough to pick it up yourself). The health food store we always go to used to carry it, but dropped it several years ago for some reason. I used to get it whenever I could, then, since it was sometimes as low as 50 cents a bottle. The web site linked above has a store locater to see if any in your area carry any Reed’s products, but that’s no guaranty that they carry China Cola.

(A bit of warning: If you browse around the Reed’s site and decide you want to try any of their ginger brews, be careful, while they are non-alcoholic, they have a kick that’d wake the dead.)