Alcohol: none. Caffeine: 3 English Breakfasts in the morning, and a 'red eye' (20 oz dark roast + an espresso shot) around 2pm. Worth noting: I also do a daily hard cardio workout; love to sweat.
Alcohol? Almost none. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a teetotaler or anything, I just rarely drink. I drank a little more in my 20's (who didn't?) but I'd say for the past 20 years or so, I average less than 1 drink / month, and probably drink enough to get a buzz less than once a year.
Caffeine: If you poke me, I'd probably bleed pure caffeine. OK, maybe not really, not anymore. On average I'd say I drink 2 or 3 cups of coffee during the day, and maybe 1 or 2 cups of green tea. And a couple of 20 oz bottles of Coke Zero spread throughout the day as well.
What I don't do, that I used to do, is consume completely ludicrous amounts of caffeine... in years past, I'd drink 4 or 5 cups of coffee during the day, then after work go to Starbucks and sit there and drink a can of Red Bull, a triple-shot latte, and maybe eat a box of chocolate covered espresso beans. And I'd do that sort of stuff 5 days a week and something similar on the weekends. Then I had a heart-attack. My doctors say caffeine is fine now, but in moderation. I don't necessarily claim that the caffeine per-se contributed to my MI, but what I believe did is the sheer stress of how hard I was pushing myself during the period. So I don't do that anymore. Not to that extreme anyway.
True. In relative terms though, I'm in a much better place now than I was.
That said, I probably could stand to cut down even further. What I have been slowly trying to do is move to not consuming any caffeine after about 5:00pm or so, to avoid having it affect my sleep. I read something here on HN that mentioned that even people who can fall asleep after consuming caffeine late, may not experience the the quality of sleep they need due to the caffeine effect. So cutting out Coke Zero after work will help with that, and reduce the total caffeine quantity a bit.
Alcohol: Maybe once a week. Never more than a drink or two.
Caffeine: Sometimes espresso in the morning. Not regularly. I think a juice or a smoothie does a better job of waking me up in the morning. I used to drink a lot more coffee... but I think I was more groggy until I had my coffee, than I am now with drinking it sparingly.
Alcohol: Only odd-numbered years (e.g. 2017, 2019). Started this in 2012 to avoid carrying over college habits into the professional world. Works for me.
Caffeine: Used to be 3-4 cups of coffee, now its 1-2 with some days opting for matcha or black tea. Slightly lower caffeine content, with no crash, somehow.
I hope you manage to turn it around once you feel that you hit rock bottom. I understand its a choice only you can make and no one can force you to do.
I think the danger is more around how much alcohol you consume, especially if you do it around professional settings like user groups and hack-nights.
If your name can be tied to a HN account, and your account of drinking at developer events matches up with local stories of "that guy that gets drunk each month" then that's enough for sway some hiring managers towards another candidate.
It's an extreme example, sure, but most people do a few Google searches to see what comes up when a candidate comes in for an interview. In my experience, I've seen some...strange things come up on peoples Twitter accounts when I've done a quick check on them, and while I try to keep my decision to purely a skilled-based one, a lot of people will have their opinion on someone swayed by their actions online.
I used to share that concern until I discovered that many young full red wines are just as good, if not better, in the day or two after opening. No need for a vacuum plug either. Just plug the original cork back in. The result probably depends on the style - I typically have very full reds which already benefit from opening at least an hour before drinking.
Not enough. About 1 cup a day (down from 3), but my red bull has gone up by 2 cans of 12 oz, so it's about an even thing. Alcohol, I actually have to slow down my drinking, but I would say about 10 shots a month is a decent average.
Alcohol: maybe one drink per month. I generally don’t like the taste. Possibly due to me being a supertaster (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster) as determined by a test kit I bought on Amazon due to having suspicions for a number of years.
Coffee: Again, I don’t like the taste, possibly again due to the supertaster factor (Coffee tastes way too bitter for me). I hardly ever drink coffee. I do, however, like mildly coffee-flavored ice cream, candy, or desserts sometimes. I usually drink water (not soda, and especially not caffeinated soda) with meals. Most of my caffeine intake comes via Sweet Thai Ice Tea which I usually order when eating at a Thai restaurant a couple of times a month. Also, perhaps once every two months I will order a sweet iced chai. Also, I generally can’t eat chocolate due to its theobromine being a migraine trigger for me.
Since, for the above reasons, I am exposed to caffeine so rarely, I tend to be lot more affected by it than other people are. One cup of something caffeinated can make my heart race and make it hard for me to concentrate.
These responses seem very biased given that they are public and associated with our public identifiers (usernames). I'm curious how biased. Obviously, the people who drink very little are more willing to share than the alcoholics, but they are also more likely to take the time to respond than the "average" drinker.
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[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 116 ms ] threadCaffeine: If you poke me, I'd probably bleed pure caffeine. OK, maybe not really, not anymore. On average I'd say I drink 2 or 3 cups of coffee during the day, and maybe 1 or 2 cups of green tea. And a couple of 20 oz bottles of Coke Zero spread throughout the day as well.
What I don't do, that I used to do, is consume completely ludicrous amounts of caffeine... in years past, I'd drink 4 or 5 cups of coffee during the day, then after work go to Starbucks and sit there and drink a can of Red Bull, a triple-shot latte, and maybe eat a box of chocolate covered espresso beans. And I'd do that sort of stuff 5 days a week and something similar on the weekends. Then I had a heart-attack. My doctors say caffeine is fine now, but in moderation. I don't necessarily claim that the caffeine per-se contributed to my MI, but what I believe did is the sheer stress of how hard I was pushing myself during the period. So I don't do that anymore. Not to that extreme anyway.
If I drank so much caffeine that I got a heart attack, I’d probably stay away from the stuff...
That said, I probably could stand to cut down even further. What I have been slowly trying to do is move to not consuming any caffeine after about 5:00pm or so, to avoid having it affect my sleep. I read something here on HN that mentioned that even people who can fall asleep after consuming caffeine late, may not experience the the quality of sleep they need due to the caffeine effect. So cutting out Coke Zero after work will help with that, and reduce the total caffeine quantity a bit.
Caffeine: Sometimes espresso in the morning. Not regularly. I think a juice or a smoothie does a better job of waking me up in the morning. I used to drink a lot more coffee... but I think I was more groggy until I had my coffee, than I am now with drinking it sparingly.
Caffeine: Green tea every morning, occasionally a coffee with desert in the evening.
Caffeine: 3 or 4 espressos daily
Caffeine: Used to be 3-4 cups of coffee, now its 1-2 with some days opting for matcha or black tea. Slightly lower caffeine content, with no crash, somehow.
Coffee: 2 or 3 cups/day
Best of luck.
Alcohol: Depends on the kind of day. Stressful, I'll have a couple fingers of whisky. On a weekend I'll finish a bottle of wine. Usually twice a week
If your name can be tied to a HN account, and your account of drinking at developer events matches up with local stories of "that guy that gets drunk each month" then that's enough for sway some hiring managers towards another candidate.
It's an extreme example, sure, but most people do a few Google searches to see what comes up when a candidate comes in for an interview. In my experience, I've seen some...strange things come up on peoples Twitter accounts when I've done a quick check on them, and while I try to keep my decision to purely a skilled-based one, a lot of people will have their opinion on someone swayed by their actions online.
If I had to give an on average/daily account.
- 4 double shots of espresso daily; I bought a good espresso machine. - around 1 beer every 2 - 3 days
If I have wine, I typically will drink the entire bottle because I hate leaving a bottle open. I Might do this every 3 months?
I used to share that concern until I discovered that many young full red wines are just as good, if not better, in the day or two after opening. No need for a vacuum plug either. Just plug the original cork back in. The result probably depends on the style - I typically have very full reds which already benefit from opening at least an hour before drinking.
Getting off caffeine was much harder than giving up alcohol because coffee is free in almost any office.
Getting off sugar in addition to caffeine helped my health, reasoning and sleep significantly.
Coffee - 2-4 espresso shots a day
I am on a low carb, high fat, intermittent fasting, 1400 calorie diet. So I weigh most everything, including the rum.
Coffee: Again, I don’t like the taste, possibly again due to the supertaster factor (Coffee tastes way too bitter for me). I hardly ever drink coffee. I do, however, like mildly coffee-flavored ice cream, candy, or desserts sometimes. I usually drink water (not soda, and especially not caffeinated soda) with meals. Most of my caffeine intake comes via Sweet Thai Ice Tea which I usually order when eating at a Thai restaurant a couple of times a month. Also, perhaps once every two months I will order a sweet iced chai. Also, I generally can’t eat chocolate due to its theobromine being a migraine trigger for me.
Since, for the above reasons, I am exposed to caffeine so rarely, I tend to be lot more affected by it than other people are. One cup of something caffeinated can make my heart race and make it hard for me to concentrate.
These responses seem very biased given that they are public and associated with our public identifiers (usernames). I'm curious how biased. Obviously, the people who drink very little are more willing to share than the alcoholics, but they are also more likely to take the time to respond than the "average" drinker.