The Caffeine Habit
Tara Posted on Friday, September 24, 2010 at 6:00AM I have a long history of over-indulging on caffeine, starting in college. This past year I successfully reigned in my caffeine habit. I thought I would share a bit about how I went from over-indulging to just right in case any of you are thinking about cutting back too.
To give you an idea of what I mean by over-indulging... I would start each day with a cup of coffee while I get ready, a travel mug of coffee during the commute, a grande in a venti cup of coffee (ends up being nearly a venti with room for cream) around 10am, then a switch to Dt Coke at noon with around 3-4 cans during the rest of the work day, maybe have an afternoon coffee, and probably 2-3 glasses of Dt Coke in the evening... So yeah, can we say caffeine junkie! No wonder I felt burned out all of the time. As I am getting older, I am trying to make sure that I am taking care of myself with healthy habits. Being a caffeine junkie is not a healthy habit!
To be honest I didn't set out to minimize my caffeine intact, my first goal was to eliminate diet soda. I live my life with a strong belief in the "in moderation" when it comes to diet but I my diet soda intake was excessive. It was essentially replacing water so that can't be good.
I puffy heart coffee. Not mochas or lattes but good old drip coffee with a touch of sugar and a dash of half and half. I am adament about not completely cutting coffee. But too much is too much. And if I can be a coffee snob for a moment, Sbux is not a fantastic coffee. It is convenient (across the street from my office). It is also too bitter and burnt for my preference so I would add a lot of sugar and half and half. If I am drinking a higher quality coffee (like Intelligentsia or Metropolis) then I use a fraction of the sweeteners. My goal was to cut back to 2 cups of coffee a day, 1 while I get ready and 1 travel mug. Then I am keeping to higher quality stuff (thus a huge decrease in my daily sugar intake) and also adding one less paper cup to the garbage each day. It seems like if you want to find a health benefit or risk for anything you can find one. I like this article, as there have been some benefits found for drinking a moderate amount of coffee but they reinforce that it moderation is key as any negative risk come from excessive drinking. So for me, 1-2 cups is a-okay!
Ok, so how did I eliminate diet soda, cut back my coffee, and start drinking a significantly higher amount of water? Through a series of steps that included eliminating and replacing:
- Stop buying it! If diet soda is in the house I will drink it. So cut the supply!
- Then I cut back to only having one soda at work with my lunch. And forced myself to drink water the rest of the afternoon.
- Find a replacement... I need flavor and water can be so boring. So I would keep something like Crystal Light in the fridge.
- Bring a large cup and a slice of lemon to work. The flavor from the lemon slices is a huge help for me. Having a larger cup at my desk equals less trips + drinking more water + less waste from the plastic ones at my office. This sounds like a small thing but it made a big difference.
- Keep the high quality coffee at home. If I start my day drinking the good stuff, the stuff from that shop across the street taste even more burnt and bitter... Thus much less appealing.
- Keep a pitcher of water with lemon slices in the fridge. Yum! Water that is super cold and has been fully infused with lemon is seriously good stuff. When I started doing this I cut out the Crystal Light. Sometimes I will add lime slices.
I have roughly cut 75% of my caffeine and completely cut out diet soda. I don't even think about drinking a diet soda anymore; the few times I did sneak one in at work it was less appealing as I remembered. And that lemon with water stuff- it is simple yes but a very effective replacement. I am now drinking 100 times more water. And I feel great.
Now a days, if I feel sluggish it is because I stayed up way to late where as before I felt sluggish almost daily. I feel so much better. I have found the right balance of caffeine intake for me. Everyone is different of course but I hope that if you are trying to cut back that this post will be in some way helpful. A cold turkey cut will work for some, for me it was a series of steps to eliminate and replace.
Has anyone else been working toward a healthy balance with caffeine? Would love to hear what other tricks/approaches have been working well.
healthy habits in Living Well
Reader Comments (7)
Your description of over-indulgence was me about 12-13 years ago. In my early days of working after college, coffee and diet coke were essential parts of my days. However, I grew to hate the necessity of it. If I woke up on a really hot summer weekend day and didn't really want a cup of coffee, I found I had to have one anyway or my head would throb. I cut back initially, but then I determined that even having just one cup of coffee in the morning meant I had to have one EVERY morning (else I'd face the headaches), so I decided to cut out caffeine completely. Not an easy task, but I've been caffeine-free since then, and my body now rebels against it. I've been accidentally served a regular cup of coffee in a restaurant, and it's the most uncomfortable feeling - like my heart is about to leap out of my body. I miss coffee - I do have a decaf latte a few times a week, but let's be honest...decaf isn't the same - but it's been a worthwhile change for me. I do not miss soda at all - I never drink it any more. I have found substitutes - sparkling water with a little lemon, juice, lemonade... (totally agree about keeping lemons!) Good luck!
I completely agree with the comments about Starbucks. I can only drink their coffee if it has other flavors in it. I have been working on cutting back on my caffeine, but haven't been doing it very successfully. Reading about how you've done it is great inspiration. And the idea of simply not buying diet soda? So simple, but so effective.
I used to drink a 6 pack of diet soda a day years ago. But when I switched jobs I stopped bring soda to work. I have a large glass for water. I usually drink 4 20 oz glasses a day.
I drink one large coffee a day and that's enough for me now. I do keep a pitcher of Crystal Light in the fridge and a pitcher of ice water. That helps me from reaching for a soda.
So glad you wrote about this, and so glad to hear about your success story! I'm almost a week into my attempts to cut out coffee. I didn't have too much every day, but felt like I absolutely needed it before I could function, and would get pretty instant headaches without it. So I switched to green tea, which feels a lot healthier, and it's been going really well so far. Not sure if I'll continue on to eliminate caffeine completely... probably not. Sorry if this is TMI, but this effort is in preparation for some day in the future when it's time to think about starting a family-- I'm so terrified at the thought of quitting caffeine cold turkey that I figured I'd get a big head start :)
Wow. This is totally me. Well, mostly me. Just replace "diet coke" everytime you say "coffee" and it is me. I have my first DC around 7a and take it from there.
I just quite last week thinking all of this caffeine and aspartame can't be good for me. I feel better for having quit - but damn I could use a diet coke right now :)
I am glad to hear that I am not the only one who has been evaluating their caffeine intake!
Mary, I have thought about regarding keeping in the one cup per day... I do feel the pains of not having caffeine if I don't drink it so I am pondering cutting out this last bit. Great job with cutting it all out!
Josie, I also was not sure all that aspartame would be healthy! It will take a while but you will totally forget about the Dt Coke at some point.
Nice work Linda! I love hearing that other people have been having success with this!
Gretchen, It took me quite a while to actually cut so much out. And the not buying it was the single most effective move towards cutting out Dt soda!
Ami, Not to much TMI, I think a lot of us are getting there. I have been thinking that I will cut out even more of the caffeine as I get closer to that point and will be hoping to love the decaf then!
We've recently cut back on the caffeine intake in our house, too. I'm down to just one travel mug in the morning, and lots of water throughout the day. Cucumber slices make water more exciting, too!