Strung out on Crystal Light

"You look exhausted."

I think I do a lot. I figured it was just my eyes. But yeah, I was dragging all day yesterday. The sleep I was getting didn't seem to be helping enough, and I couldn't figure out why.

Then later that day, one of the bloggers I regularly read posted about how she was changing from Diet Coke: aspartame to Diet Coke: Splenda. That made me curious, so I looked up the caffeine on this handy-dandy page.

And as I was looking (it's a difference of 11 mg, by the way, with the Splenda version having less caffeine), I came across this gem:

Crystal Light Energy 16 120 7.50

(That's ounces, milligrams, and, well, mg/oz.)

Hey, that's funny. I drink Crystal Light Energy. More than one, sometimes. (For the sake of comparison, Diet Mountain Dew has 55 mg.)

oh ho. Now it becomes clear.

Take two Wild Strawberries (that's the brand above), a Citrus Splash (80 mg), and a Peach Mango Green Tea (50 mg), and no wonder I have trouble sleeping now.

Part of the problem is that Crystal Light pulls the same half-container crap that soft-drink manufacturers pull: according to them, Wild Strawberry has 60 mg caffeine "per serving." Sorry, we may be friends but you may not share my bottle.

So now I have to scale that back. I was wondering why sometimes I'd drink 100 ounces of water or more and still be thirsty ...