I quit caffeine.

Today makes seven complete days without caffeine. I know – I think I am insane, too. But I have my reason. Yes, only one.

I decided to quit caffeine because I want my skin to look hydrated. Now, I am sure you are either rolling your eyes or thinking I am ultra gay, but I’m completely serious.  I stopped drinking caffeine and replaced almost every beverage this week with WATER.  I splurged on two 7-Ups and one root beer. I also tried a Passion Tea from Starbucks, which tasted like decaffeinated, pink sugar water. Other than that, I only drank good old H2O.

I love my skin, but I’m almost 40. I’m farther away from it than some of my friends (HA!), but I’ll be there in less than three seasons of “Dancing with the Stars,” so all of my anti-aging efforts have recently kicked into overdrive.  I purchased some extremely expensive eye cream – which I LOVE – and I have started a face cleansing-moisturizing-protecting regimen, which I now follow daily. I used to wash my face and that seemed to be enough. Now, I’m not so sure.

So where does nixing the caffeine factor here? Well, here’s my logic: When I was in my late teens I worked as bank teller. It was a great job. It remains the easiest thing I have ever done, and the hours proved few and very fun. I worked with a girl named “Kelly” who drank about three full gallons of water a day. She would fill up her gallon mug from the Texas Star convenience store three times during the day with water.  She would say that water was the only thing she would drink. She would brag that the doctor would tell her that her skin “was the healthiest and most hydrated skin he had ever seen.”

And it was. Her skin looked like milk. Her skin was so flawless; her pores were so invisible – her skin actually looked plump. I would get really close to her face and I would examine it all the time. No blemishes. No Rosacea. No wrinkles.

At first, I did not believe that she only drank water – but every teller on the line confirmed it: She was really a camel.

I always remember Kelly because I enjoyed being her co-worker very much. I remembered her skin last week and just like that, I became a Water Baby Omar.

The first two days were easy. Advice and tips flooded my Facebook Inbox when I announced my strategy online.  Days three and four pounded my head with ferociously painful withdrawal headaches.  Days five, six and seven I hardly remember because I usually fell asleep by, oh, six o’clock in the evening.

I gave myself one week to make it. I told myself that if I could make it one solid week, I would keep at it. I only wanted to cave once. Last night I put on a tuxedo and hopped over the Junior League’s Fairy Tale Ball. I drank alcohol.  A lot of it.  And I almost allowed myself to caffeinate for the evening. I admit – I have been sluggish all week, and my co-workers have told me that I have also been grouchy, blunt and near mean.

But I did not give up! I drank alcohol with water. No caffeine. Not even this morning during the nursing phase of the hangover! I felt so good when I realized that I had reached Day Seven, I thought, “I bet I could quit sugar, too!”

Then I came to delayed, decaffeinated senses.