I didn't quit caffeine, but I cut down massively by keeping it in a Zojirushi mug that keeps it hot all morning instead of drinking from a regular mug. Because it stays hot, I just sip it, and that way I only drink one mug in the morning and occasionally one in the afternoon, instead of the 3 or 4 mugs I would drink previously.
+1 for Zojirushi. I do wish they made something shaped more like a traditional mug than a travel mug. I've tried various brands of insulated mugs, and at most they let me stretch out my cup of coffee to 45 minutes. With a Zojirushi I can make a cup last hours.
I used to think the concept of a mug warmer or a heated mug was quite silly. My wife and I received Ember mugs a few months ago, and they're a lot less silly than I thought--they just keep your cup warm to exactly the temperature you prefer. If anyone is still on the fence, I highly recommend some kind of mug warmer or heated mug. There is something quite freeing about not worrying if you're drinking your coffee/tea/etc fast enough to avoid it getting cold.
Have to say I disagree about the Ember mug. It's a little bit like the warmer setting on a diner coffee pot, the coffee will stay warm a long time but won't necessarily stay fresh. And if you drink your coffee with milk the Ember mug starts to develop a film along the sides of the cup after about 30 minutes which is kind of unappetizing. You also have to keep it charged on the stand in between uses so you can't put the mug away in the cupboard (unless you have an outlet in your cupboard).
I stopped using it and now just use a Yeti tumbler. It keeps my coffee hot for at least 2-3 hours which is long enough for me, without any of the downsides of the heated cup.
I know the Zojirushi is recommended a lot, but I'm not a fan. It certainly does a great job keeping stuff hot, but the silicon(?) parts pretty quickly takes on a strong smell of stale coffee that ruins it for me, at least when trying to drink from it directly. Pouring it out into a mug helps, but kind of defeats the purpose of it.
I've tried everything to get rid of the smell but have not been successful.
Zojirushi keeps the drink too scalding unless you pour it out into a different vessel. Try an Ember mug. A little annoying to keep it on the charging coaster but keeps it at a drinkable temp indefinitely.
Similarly, I use a really skinny mug that keeps coffee hot longer than usual, and I make sure it stays hot by going back to the microwave and reheating it as needed. The heat keeps me from chugging it.
I also brew half-caf and mix it with half water before heating it. I know I sound like a crazy person.
Wait, why would a really skinny mug keep coffee hot longer than usual? Wouldn't that mean more surface area to cool a given volume. Ideally, you want a spherical coffee cup (impracticalities of that aside)
Edit: Nevermind, its the cooling surface of the top of the coffee directly exposed to air. I'm just over here thinking about spherical chickens in a vacuum...
This is an interesting technique. When I first started working in a place that had lots of free/good food, I was worried I'd gorge. Instead what I found was that knowing I'd always have access to good/free food meant I didn't feel the need to overeat ever.
hah! when I worked at a place that had free food I would be good until about 3pm, when I'd gorge on terrible snacks because I'd used up all my willpower coding during the day
A small amount of caffeine has been enough to keep the withdrawal headaches from occurring for me.
When I've stopped in the past, I usually take one diet soda I don't especially enjoy (like a Diet Pepsi) and drink a quarter of a can a day in the morning.
As you might surprise I've never attempted to quit caffeine permanently, just to reduce my consumption or to stop for a few months. It is indeed an easy habit to start back on.
I do the same, but wait until the headache starts, rather than anticipating it, to drink something caffeinated. I've found this helps me quit faster, and a 10-minute headache isn't insufferable (a single caffeinated beverage usually ends the headache quickly for me). I've never needed more than 2-3 days to get passed that part.
But, like you, I've never tried to totally quit. I "test" myself by usually abstaining from caffeine on the weekends. If I get even a slight headache, then it's time to cut back.
They do, to an extent (though I very rarely drink coke). I tried a chai-based and cocao-based coffee alternative which had slightly more caffeine than decaf coffee, and it still gave me the same symptoms after a second cup. I guess my body just metabolizes caffeine differently than it did.
I know you were just exaggerating for effect, but obviously a lot of illicit drugs (and not so illicit depending on the person: alcohol) are a lot harder to quit for various reasons.
Not really, I've done a lot of hard drugs, except heroin/opioids/benzos, and I'd say caffeine is the hardest to quit. Literally been on a 3 day binger awake and couldn't figure out why my head hurt, thought it was food, water, oh
no whoops it was a caffeine withdrawal.
Everything else I can do on and off, some things it's been years, caffeine I've only quit once. Lapsed and haven't been able to again.
I was specifically thinking of heroin and friends which can have massive withdrawal symptoms and need plenty of external support to overcome. “all illicit” is too big an umbrella I agree. Change that to “some” instead “a lot”.
I successfully reduced caffeine to zero a few times before (usually after reading posts like this). I didn't quit cold turkey though, I gradually tapered it off over couple of weeks. No withdrawal effects at all.
If you consider caffeine very addictive, use techniques developed for fight addiction to addictive drugs like benzos.
Two days for me, for energy drinks, which are worse than coffee. I think they just overclock your CNS, so you are wasted the next day, and maybe the day after. Then I am fine if I sleep enough.
I've heard (but not verified) that ibuprofen is a vasoconstrictor like caffeine, and can be more helpful in easing withdrawal symptoms than other OTC pain meds.
caffeine is both a vasoconstrictor and a vasodilator, over the course of a dose. dilation is the second and longer-acting effect, and acclimation to that is what causes the withdrawal headaches. other vasodilators should help if the mechanism is different, to prevent continuing dependency.
For me, I didn't like being physically addicted to something.
I've switched to decaf coffee, because I still like coffee and the morning ritual. But I limit myself to 2 cups, and I have herbal tea later in the day if I still want something to sip on.
The same goes for (added) sugar - it's amazing how you feel when you stop eating candy/ice cream/sweetened drinks/etc. And it's surprising how bad you feel when do you have sugar after you've been off a while - same as the author's experience with caffeine.
If anything, I am drinking the best coffee of my life after switching to decaf, after saying no to bad supermarket and office coffee. In many big cities it is possible to find very high quality specialty decaf coffee in local roasters.
My favourite is Colombian beans decaffeinated with the "Sugar Cane Process". In my opinion this method produces the best tasting coffee that preserves the qualities of the origin beans and it might be more environmentally friendly compared to methods that require double shipping the beans to a 3rd country for decaffeination.
I've been buying decaf from Happy Mug. Price is reasonable, comes as beans or ground, is fresh, and I think it tastes good: https://happymugcoffee.com/
Oh man, sugar :( I stopped taking sugar for 2 years after I had a heart issue. Then somehow it came back in life, and it has been 4 years, and maybe 99 attempts (because the 100th will succeed:)) and it is just so hard to give up sugar.
But when I had stopped, I remember the taste had changed - just simply sautéed vegetables tasted much better, and in those days sugar tasted ugly. The good old days. And after hating chocolates all my life, I think it was our EPM who got addicted me to chocolates by always keeping a supply at her desk, right next to my desk. Now on my 99th attempt to give up sugar for the past 5 days, and this time determined to go much much longer.
I had similar experience around the author's age, but I love my coffee too much. I decreased slowly over the years. First, not having coffee past 9, then 5, then 3, then noon. Now, I have two small cups in the morning, it does jolt me awake, and outside of the rare exception, that's all I get. Sometimes I forget my second cup. It's a missed opportunity on flavor, but I don't have withdrawal headaches.
I had this exact same problem just back in November.
Regular coffee drinker (1-2 cups), having pre-workout before the gym.
Starting having an absurd amount of anxiety and what I can best describe as a panic attack or flu-like symptom making my heart race & feelings of palpitations.
Go to the ER, they find nothing wrong. Doctors say "cut your stimulates and lower your stresses".
Seemed to be a combination of work stress & the stimulates. Ever since going cold turkey, I've been better than ever. I continue to get headaches but they are manageable with plenty of water.
I experienced something similar (minus the hospital visit.) I'd regularly gone with 4-6 cups a day for years, with no noticeable problems. I ran into a particularly stressful month, then experienced a 2-month bout with insomnia and anxiety.
Insomnia is brutal, and I did everything I could to get over it including eliminating caffeine/coffee completely for around 6-7 months.
I didn't experience any issues stopping. After the sleeping and anxiety were under control I figured I'd stick with it - I'd heard others say they experienced a few positive benefits by cutting caffeine completely. I didn't notice anything.
When I decided to grab a cup again the productivity boost was pretty amazing. I settled on 1/2 caff up to 11am, then decaf only. I drink a lot less coffee now, and if there's even a hint of an issue sleeping I'll skip it for a day or two.
Did you get vaccinated? I had these symptoms after the vaccination, but I am not 100% if other things changed at the same time, like increased coffee consumption or unrelated external worries.
I'm so sorry to hear that. I hear that quite often from friends and family members. I did not get vaccinated/boosted around this timeframe if you were curious if that was the cause. I even had covid earlier in january 2021. I did a few COVID tests(both ER & at home) and came back negative each time. Inflammation markers in blood work also looked normal according to doctors/cardiologist.
For my situation, I think it was a combination of many things. Stress, anxiety, caffeine, intense workouts, allergy season, diet, hydration, long COVID, seasonal flu, genetics, etc. Nothing really changed for me personally either, but the world around me did. Maybe it's my body & mind's way of saying "dude slow down". So I listened.
I had this problem a long time ago but I was drinking way too much coffee, I think 5 cups a day. Down to 2, one of them is decaf so basically down to one.
I do one reasonably weak cup with lots of creamer first thing in the morning with breakfast. Then, on a normal day, I have mostly water. This solves two problems for me: (1) by the end of my typical day, enough caffeine has flushed back out of my system that I have no issues falling asleep, but also (b) I'm maintaining a tolerance, so if I'm out with friends I can have a glass of whatever and not totally wreck my system doing so.
I've considered ditching the coffee entirely; it's mostly the routine I enjoy, and I could probably replace it with an herbal tea. My system on an actual energy drink is just as jittery and anxious as the author describes. But for now, keeping my intake low seems okay.
The biggest surprise for me was really switching to plain water as my beverage of choice. Growing up on sugary beverages I craved them something fierce; now I actually crave water, and enjoy the taste. The only downside is that at restaurants, the servers will swing by and refill an ordered soda (or tea) endlessly, and they get this funny look if I try to explain that "no really, just one is enough."
I noticed how much caffeine was affecting me when I started getting way too sleepy at a certain new job after lunch. It was weird, because before I didn't really feel tired after eating unless I stuffed myself, but now I was really tired and sleepy and could barely function.
Turns out that this new job offered free coffee, so I was drinking one cup of coffee before commuting, another one when I arrived, and maybe one or two more later, but before lunch. The only reason I was sleepy was coffee: I was making my body dependent on caffeine to function normally in the morning, and I wasn't giving it coffee in the evening.
Luckily I caught it early and could quit without problems, but it was interesting to see how quickly your body builds a tolerance and makes you dependent on a drug. I back up the advice of the OP and I'd suggest to everyone who drinks coffee regularly to check themselves, because they might be addicted even without having those noticeable symptoms the OP talked about.
I used to take a large number of black coffee throughout the day. Otherwise just feel tired even though I am fully rested.
Recently started experimenting with nootropics as a replacement for coffee. Started L-theanine + caffeine capsules. Surprisingly, feel attentive throughout the day and better sleep at night too. Workout is better as well. Don’t know how long these effects will last. But for now, I have quit coffee for good.
Same experience. I didn’t quit completely, but I do limit myself to one cup of coffee in the morning. The rest of my fluid intake is water. I don’t have trouble sleeping anymore.
I've definitely noticed a change in how my body handles caffeine now that I'm in my mid 30s. Less euphoria, more heart-pounding-through-my-chest. I still love the taste, though, and the routine of making pourovers/aeropresses/etc.
One thing that's really helped me is to always have decaf as easily accessible as regular. It helps me separate the caffeine dosage from all of the other things I love about coffee.
You can get bean-to-cup machine and mix 50/50 or even 70/30 decaf and normal beans - it works very well (look at quality of decaf, make sure it's water or co2-decafinated not chemically-decafinated). Also as I said above L-Theanin works very, very well with coffee to relieve unwanted symptoms.
I never realized how strong caffeine actually is, until I cut down my 5-6 cups a day intake to just 1 in the morning.
Now very occasionally (perhaps once every couple of months) I drink another cup after lunch (but never after 4PM, or I won't be able to sleep properly that night).
The problem is that I _really_ like the flavor. I've tried decaf as well and while it's not bad, I do prefer grinding my beans just before brewing my cup.
I also hate that whenever I have quit cold-turkey I've gotten those nasty migraines. It's impressive how can a drink that we don't really think about much (Starbucks everywhere) can cause such strong effect on people.
Quitting caffeine cold-turkey is very unpleasant. It can take a full two weeks of withdrawal (bad headaches, general tiredness). I’ve had more success reducing the amount (3/4 caf -> 1/2 caf) over time.
Anything more that 4 cups a day is probably unhealthy. Remember that 1 “cup” of coffee is actually 6 oz, so a normal coffee mug or latte is twice that. One coffee (2 “cups” or a latte) in the morning and one around 2pm works fine for me, but everyone’s body is different.
Quantity of coffee is probably better determined by the weight of dry coffee that went into the beverage than by the volume of the resulting drink. Someone adds more water, someone prefers less, but they both may be on the same amount of coffee.
Everyone's body is indeed different. I switched to decaffeinated tea and coffee exactly a week ago. There wasn't any noticeable difference, maybe my sleep feels a bit different, but that is about it.
I already suspected that I am more attracted to the flavor of tea and coffee than to their actual caffeine content, because I could drink six cups of coffee one day, zero the next day, and feel no withdrawal.
I've 'quit' tea and coffee for long periods. It only takes a small daily quantity of caffeine to eliminate the withdrawal headaches. One 'Pro Plus' pill per day is probably sufficient (50mg anhydrous caffeine), reduced to half a pill per day after a week, then nothing after two weeks. Pills don't trigger the addictive yearning as much as the full coffee experience does. There's still sleepiness to contend with, however.
yeah, i wish i knew that this was an option.
I did it cold turkey and it sucked for a week. but now in not going back.
sure i miss the ritual and the identity, but i feel much better.
When I moved to University in Canada I was introduced to "Wake Ups" caffeine pills.
I am not a coffee drinker, but I liked to stay up late, and I had to go to class, so I decided to try these out, since at that age you feel like you are invulnerable.
These symptoms seem pretty consistent with some that I felt in extreme cases. I stopped taking them after a few attempts.
The positives of Caffeine were great though. I felt "on" like never before. Sharp, quick-witted, alert. I appreciate why some find it difficult to quit. Is there anything else that has a similar effect minus the downsides?
Any stimulant that brings you up is also going to make you crash down. And with repeated use, the highs get lower and the crashes come when you don't take it. There are ways to manage the comedown (such as tapering), but no ways to avoid it.
For me, giving up the second cup in the afternoon makes all the difference. With just one cup in the morning, I enjoy quality sleep, reduced jittery and no ache in the blood vessels. A second cup literally destroys my next day, and I would wake up tired, wanting even more coffee.
Stories like this make me reconsider making that second cup later on in the day. It's just that it's so hard to let yourself be tired when the solution is so easily accessible.
I find that making a french press or V60 encourages me to make a lot more coffee just because I can, so I've since switched to the aeropress. People often state they wish it made more coffee, but it's been a nice way for me to limit caffeine consumption without feeling like I'm really restricting myself.
I'll be the contrarian. I was a pot per day drinker and quit for three months and felt no different, just missed the coffee. I quit the quit and I'm back to a pot per day, feeling much better.
Caffeine metabolization speed varies wildly across the population due to genetic reasons. When you compound it with multiple cups per day, you will get a quite different experience.
I never have withdrawal symptoms just cravings, usually after lunch. But I strictly drink maximum 1 cup per day, 2 if I didn't sleep so well, and when I feel my tolerance going up, I take a week or two of caffeine break to reset the tolerance. Cafeeine is a tool to me.
Same for me but with sugar. Quit for a week, felt no different, went back to my usual (not particularly high) consumption. It's a bummer too because I had read so much strong criticism of sugar on HN and about how much it affects us without us realizing it, I thought maybe I'll actually feel something better which would be exciting! Nope, just bored because I had to cut out most of the interesting (to me) food in my life.
I'll throw in my two cents as someone who quit sugar in the past six months: I wasn't really free of the addiction until more than two weeks had gone by. Since then I lost 20 lbs without exercising and I just have these periodic moments in the day when I feel a huge surge of energy. After a couple months I cut my total carb intake to < 120g / day and increased my fat intake. Then I switched to a revolutionary new diet: Three meals a day. (No snacking / grazing.) Since adding these changes I've lost another five pounds and am steadily losing 1 - 2 lbs a month without any additional exercise.
Anyway, a week just annoyed the f outta me. I'd give it two or three weeks at least. It takes that long to cut the cravings I didn't even realize I was having.
Yeah I also quit sugar for like six months and wish I had stuck with it. If anything, the best part about it was the effect on decision fatigue. "Do I grab this snack while I'm in line or not", etc. No decision to make.
I guess I didn't stick because I didn't really "feel" different, and had a moment of weakness. I agree it takes a couple weeks to really get used to it but the cravings do eventually (mostly) go away.
Well there is L-theanine[0] which I always found was the opposite of caffeine, and when you combine it with caffeine (500mg theanine & 200mg caffeine), you get a sort of flow state without the jitters of caffeine.
L-theanine takes the edge off caffeine. You could also just try L-theanine on its own.
This person needs to experiment with other nootropics besides caffeine. I've tried various stacks over the years like Alpha Brain, Mindlab Pro and a few others. They've been instrumental in getting shit done on a tight schedule, and I don't get that jittery 'wired' feeling you get taking plain caffeine supps on their own, just a mild flowy state (thanks to the L-theanine).
I gave up all forms of caffeine about 35 years ago. My experiences were similar to the author, but worse. I had been drinking coffee from about age 12. The first time I quit (at age 24) I had bad headaches. I "fell off the wagon" after a week or so. A month later I quit again and then felt so bad that I missed two days of work. I lapsed again after about a month. The third and final time I quit (maybe a month later), the withdrawal symptoms were so bad that it made me never want to go through it again. I am talking about cold sweats, shakes, and vomiting.
It's easy to get caffeine, and somewhat difficult to avoid it. Caffeine is so common that it's easy to justify using it. ("Everyone else does, so it can't be that bad. Right?")
My wife is still a user, and I often make coffee for her in the morning. It still smells delicious to me, but I haven't (and wont) go back to it. She is like a zombie before she has her morning coffee, and she often has trouble getting to sleep at night. I am awake and alert in the morning, and sleep soundly.
The metabolic and cardiovascular effects of coffee are vastly preferable over sugar‘s (or, to be more precise, fructose). I personally also don’t react well to caffeine (one weak cup can totally mess up sleep), but at least it’s easy to find out when it’s doing more harm than good.
It is well-known that people metabolize caffeine with different speed due to genetic reasons. Therefore people can experience wildly different peak blood concentration after drinking many cups per day. I suppose it influences how strong withdrawals are.
I personally used to drink a lot of coffee and rarely experienced any withdrawal effects. I also know (from comparing myself with other people) that I am a very fast caffeine metabolizer.
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[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 285 ms ] threadI stopped using it and now just use a Yeti tumbler. It keeps my coffee hot for at least 2-3 hours which is long enough for me, without any of the downsides of the heated cup.
I've tried everything to get rid of the smell but have not been successful.
I also brew half-caf and mix it with half water before heating it. I know I sound like a crazy person.
Edit: Nevermind, its the cooling surface of the top of the coffee directly exposed to air. I'm just over here thinking about spherical chickens in a vacuum...
Takes two weeks of miserable migraines.
You can lapse at any time later just indulging in one craving.
It just takes one bad morning to break it.
When I've stopped in the past, I usually take one diet soda I don't especially enjoy (like a Diet Pepsi) and drink a quarter of a can a day in the morning.
As you might surprise I've never attempted to quit caffeine permanently, just to reduce my consumption or to stop for a few months. It is indeed an easy habit to start back on.
But, like you, I've never tried to totally quit. I "test" myself by usually abstaining from caffeine on the weekends. If I get even a slight headache, then it's time to cut back.
This rings very true. I tried coffee one time after quitting and the withdrawal migraines came back the next day like I was back in the thick of it.
I haven't had caffeine since then.
Everything else I can do on and off, some things it's been years, caffeine I've only quit once. Lapsed and haven't been able to again.
That's not saying much about caffeine though, being slightly less addictive than heroin is not a high bar.
Compared to any other stimulants though, caffeine is the most addictive, with the worst withdraw, in my experience.
If you consider caffeine very addictive, use techniques developed for fight addiction to addictive drugs like benzos.
I kept giggling for a few minutes so much that I got back here to thank you for that.
Even if it's "just" caffeine, it's never easy. Methylxantines are a tool, and like every other chemical it's best enjoyed in moderation.
That said, it's likely also tolerance-inducing (https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/stopping-the-vicious-cyc...), so don't overdo it.
Cannabis can be used for instant relief, but it opens your veins, causing headaches or worsening your migraine.
Caffeine for extended headache relief. Sometimes you need an Advil and/or Aspirin depending on the pain. IANAD.
Aspirin Acetaminophen and Caffeine or AAC is very effective.
I've switched to decaf coffee, because I still like coffee and the morning ritual. But I limit myself to 2 cups, and I have herbal tea later in the day if I still want something to sip on.
The same goes for (added) sugar - it's amazing how you feel when you stop eating candy/ice cream/sweetened drinks/etc. And it's surprising how bad you feel when do you have sugar after you've been off a while - same as the author's experience with caffeine.
My favourite is Colombian beans decaffeinated with the "Sugar Cane Process". In my opinion this method produces the best tasting coffee that preserves the qualities of the origin beans and it might be more environmentally friendly compared to methods that require double shipping the beans to a 3rd country for decaffeination.
But when I had stopped, I remember the taste had changed - just simply sautéed vegetables tasted much better, and in those days sugar tasted ugly. The good old days. And after hating chocolates all my life, I think it was our EPM who got addicted me to chocolates by always keeping a supply at her desk, right next to my desk. Now on my 99th attempt to give up sugar for the past 5 days, and this time determined to go much much longer.
Regular coffee drinker (1-2 cups), having pre-workout before the gym.
Starting having an absurd amount of anxiety and what I can best describe as a panic attack or flu-like symptom making my heart race & feelings of palpitations.
Go to the ER, they find nothing wrong. Doctors say "cut your stimulates and lower your stresses".
Seemed to be a combination of work stress & the stimulates. Ever since going cold turkey, I've been better than ever. I continue to get headaches but they are manageable with plenty of water.
Insomnia is brutal, and I did everything I could to get over it including eliminating caffeine/coffee completely for around 6-7 months.
I didn't experience any issues stopping. After the sleeping and anxiety were under control I figured I'd stick with it - I'd heard others say they experienced a few positive benefits by cutting caffeine completely. I didn't notice anything.
When I decided to grab a cup again the productivity boost was pretty amazing. I settled on 1/2 caff up to 11am, then decaf only. I drink a lot less coffee now, and if there's even a hint of an issue sleeping I'll skip it for a day or two.
For my situation, I think it was a combination of many things. Stress, anxiety, caffeine, intense workouts, allergy season, diet, hydration, long COVID, seasonal flu, genetics, etc. Nothing really changed for me personally either, but the world around me did. Maybe it's my body & mind's way of saying "dude slow down". So I listened.
I've considered ditching the coffee entirely; it's mostly the routine I enjoy, and I could probably replace it with an herbal tea. My system on an actual energy drink is just as jittery and anxious as the author describes. But for now, keeping my intake low seems okay.
The biggest surprise for me was really switching to plain water as my beverage of choice. Growing up on sugary beverages I craved them something fierce; now I actually crave water, and enjoy the taste. The only downside is that at restaurants, the servers will swing by and refill an ordered soda (or tea) endlessly, and they get this funny look if I try to explain that "no really, just one is enough."
Turns out that this new job offered free coffee, so I was drinking one cup of coffee before commuting, another one when I arrived, and maybe one or two more later, but before lunch. The only reason I was sleepy was coffee: I was making my body dependent on caffeine to function normally in the morning, and I wasn't giving it coffee in the evening.
Luckily I caught it early and could quit without problems, but it was interesting to see how quickly your body builds a tolerance and makes you dependent on a drug. I back up the advice of the OP and I'd suggest to everyone who drinks coffee regularly to check themselves, because they might be addicted even without having those noticeable symptoms the OP talked about.
Recently started experimenting with nootropics as a replacement for coffee. Started L-theanine + caffeine capsules. Surprisingly, feel attentive throughout the day and better sleep at night too. Workout is better as well. Don’t know how long these effects will last. But for now, I have quit coffee for good.
One thing that's really helped me is to always have decaf as easily accessible as regular. It helps me separate the caffeine dosage from all of the other things I love about coffee.
Now very occasionally (perhaps once every couple of months) I drink another cup after lunch (but never after 4PM, or I won't be able to sleep properly that night).
The problem is that I _really_ like the flavor. I've tried decaf as well and while it's not bad, I do prefer grinding my beans just before brewing my cup.
I also hate that whenever I have quit cold-turkey I've gotten those nasty migraines. It's impressive how can a drink that we don't really think about much (Starbucks everywhere) can cause such strong effect on people.
I guess I'll need to look harder. Thanks for the suggestion
Anything more that 4 cups a day is probably unhealthy. Remember that 1 “cup” of coffee is actually 6 oz, so a normal coffee mug or latte is twice that. One coffee (2 “cups” or a latte) in the morning and one around 2pm works fine for me, but everyone’s body is different.
Everyone's body is indeed different. I switched to decaffeinated tea and coffee exactly a week ago. There wasn't any noticeable difference, maybe my sleep feels a bit different, but that is about it.
I already suspected that I am more attracted to the flavor of tea and coffee than to their actual caffeine content, because I could drink six cups of coffee one day, zero the next day, and feel no withdrawal.
Wait, 8 oz is a cup of anything else - why is a cup of coffee only 6?
I am not a coffee drinker, but I liked to stay up late, and I had to go to class, so I decided to try these out, since at that age you feel like you are invulnerable.
These symptoms seem pretty consistent with some that I felt in extreme cases. I stopped taking them after a few attempts.
The positives of Caffeine were great though. I felt "on" like never before. Sharp, quick-witted, alert. I appreciate why some find it difficult to quit. Is there anything else that has a similar effect minus the downsides?
Now fix Janurari into Januari (Sorry my OCD kicked in, cannot unsee)
I find that making a french press or V60 encourages me to make a lot more coffee just because I can, so I've since switched to the aeropress. People often state they wish it made more coffee, but it's been a nice way for me to limit caffeine consumption without feeling like I'm really restricting myself.
I chose to quit caffeine entirely and not try to suppress what my body was telling me.
A pot per day can be a lot, or a little depending on the bean and the roast, so I can't comment on that.
If so, awesome! If not, I tried a similar thing but only really noticed the difference once I quit all types.
I only had minor withdrawal headaches for a day or so and after that it was fine.
> feeling much better
Does not compute :P
> felt no different
Felt no physical difference, just missed the coffee
> feeling much better
I'm happier now that I'm back on coffee
Anyway, a week just annoyed the f outta me. I'd give it two or three weeks at least. It takes that long to cut the cravings I didn't even realize I was having.
I guess I didn't stick because I didn't really "feel" different, and had a moment of weakness. I agree it takes a couple weeks to really get used to it but the cravings do eventually (mostly) go away.
L-theanine takes the edge off caffeine. You could also just try L-theanine on its own.
This person needs to experiment with other nootropics besides caffeine. I've tried various stacks over the years like Alpha Brain, Mindlab Pro and a few others. They've been instrumental in getting shit done on a tight schedule, and I don't get that jittery 'wired' feeling you get taking plain caffeine supps on their own, just a mild flowy state (thanks to the L-theanine).
[0] https://draxe.com/nutrition/l-theanine/
It's easy to get caffeine, and somewhat difficult to avoid it. Caffeine is so common that it's easy to justify using it. ("Everyone else does, so it can't be that bad. Right?")
My wife is still a user, and I often make coffee for her in the morning. It still smells delicious to me, but I haven't (and wont) go back to it. She is like a zombie before she has her morning coffee, and she often has trouble getting to sleep at night. I am awake and alert in the morning, and sleep soundly.
I personally used to drink a lot of coffee and rarely experienced any withdrawal effects. I also know (from comparing myself with other people) that I am a very fast caffeine metabolizer.
The I was forced to switch. I can honestly say I do not notice the difference. Decaf tastes just as good.