Having my first coffee in over 3 months
Nervous anticipation is a strange feeling; how will it go? What will happen? Are my fears justified? I realise this sounds eerily like a recovering addict’s exposure to their former vice, but let me assure you this is a tale about coffee and nothing else.
At the end of January this year I begun an experiment of giving up coffee for what initially was intended to be a nice, round figure of 30 days – one month. However, momentum is powerful and by the 30 day mark I had no interest in quashing what I’d built. So I strapped in and forged on and made it to over 90 days (3 months +).
If anyone is contemplating limiting or removing caffeine from their life and wants a step by step review, I shall list my three-part series from the beginning……..
1. The caffeine experiment!
2. 30+ days of being caffeine free (a review of sorts)
3. Here we are – 90 days of being 100% decaffeinated
When the majority remove something from their life or diet, they usually become so convinced that thing was a negative influence that they dare not go back to it……..ever. It’s almost like an extreme placebo effect as all you come to know is what life is like without said habit, food, person or activity. This becomes more apparent the longer you stay on your newly found path.
Having the courage to return
Even though we’re only talking about a minuscule habit of drinking coffee once, twice -sometimes thrice per day, the principles apply regardless of the scale. It takes a brave soul to blunt momentum and have faith in your ability to restart it once more. You can think of it on a much greater scale if you like. Imagine a relationship where you’ve vowed to leave each other for a while, yet you would love it to work out once and for all. You’ve found some happiness alone, but going back could be worse than before.
What then? Could you handle the worst?
No abstinence experiment is ever truly complete without return, if only for one last time; a time that shall be definitive. It’s the same with the food intolerance epidemic. We have people convincing themselves they have intolerances and never eating anything with an ounce of gluten, dairy or nuts in it again. I’ve been there with gluten. I was convinced gluten was poison to me because of all the dogma, but in recent times I’ve eaten out and consumed foods with traces of gluten and other ‘inhumane’ ingredients and not died, not needed CPR, not had 50 points erased from my IQ and I managed to resist arrest from the paleo police.
Moral of the story: Give it up. Go back to it. Assess results. Form conclusion.
What did reintroducing coffee do to me?
Initially I used it as a ‘pick me up’ – kind of what it’s intended/should be used for. I was tired and had under-slept for a few consecutive days (slap my wrist) and it masked my overall feeling of drowsiness. It also restrained the productivity vampire that had his teeth in my brain for 3 days.
All seemed good.
Stupidly, or greedily, I nourished my body with a 12 hour sleep (very rare) and yet thought I’d try a coffee purely for taste reasons. I didn’t need it at all, but it couldn’t hurt. Well it did. It made me irritable, anxious, on edge, up for everything yet unable to decipher where this sea of energy should be aimed and above all, anti-social. I hated it. A woman complimented me on how healthy the contents of my shopping was – this happens a lot actually (#rolemodel), as she stood in front of me at the supermarket and I was genuinely annoyed by it! Usually I could talk about nutrition and food for hours. Not today though. I was irritated by the mere thought.
The next few days I returned to my unstimulated state and felt back to normal. Does this mean coffee is bad? No. Not quite. It does mean coffee works on me – and very well. It does what it should: stimulate the brain. The question is………do you really need it?
Very rarely do I. I’m highly strung and have endless energy naturally. I can talk for hours, stay up for hours and do anything for hours. It’s a blessing.
If you’re someone who has a hard time finding the energy to turn your alarm clock to snooze each morning then you may need coffee. But then I bet you keep a coffee machine by your bedside anyway.
Coffee? I’ll have a water instead, please.
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JR @ Straight-Talking-Fitness View All
The 'brains' behind StraightTalkingFitness, a site all about discovery that leads to strength in all formats; fitness, mental, emotional and spiritual. Everything starts from within and projects outwards. Master the body, master anything and everything.
Love my coffee! But I understand you completely. My mother gave up coffee, went through terrible withdrawal and concluded that anything that caused such horrible feelings when you quit could not possibly be good for you. She now drinks decaf, which has some caffeine but feels much better. ( She is 89 BTW)
Very interesting. Why did she decide to give it up so late in life?
Heart issues – doctor dictated it. But she is so glad she did ( she actually gave it up about 10 years ago but her comment has always stuck with me as I fuel my addiction)
Ah I see. So you don’t notice any detrimental effects from caffeine?
I would like to ask a favor- please check out my blog today: http://www.exerciselikeafiend/wordpress.com and maybe give me some sound advice – you seem to have lots 🙂
Sure! I’ll take a look and provide input where I can.
I’ll have a water too… I’ll just filter mine through some roasted, ground up beans first. Chuckle.
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Haha, well said! I made coffee with beans the other day exactly as you described. The taste was INCREDIBLE, just a shame my brain decided to play up :/
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I’ve tried giving up coffee and switching to green tea but I get the WORST caffeine headaches when I don’t have coffee (even on the weekends). I don’t think I could do it!
So green tea didn’t give you the kick you needed? Why not try a few cups of green tea; an amount that will get you nearer to the caffeine dose from coffee?