{"id":952,"date":"2010-06-09T18:25:02","date_gmt":"2010-06-09T11:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulgoodchild.net\/blog\/?p=952"},"modified":"2011-11-23T00:25:12","modified_gmt":"2011-11-23T00:25:12","slug":"coffee-free-living-follow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/coffee-free-living-follow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee free living – a follow up"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago I wrote a short article about caffeine and addiction to it<\/a> – a story that many people share.\u00a0 5 days ago I had my last cup of coffee and I’ve been attempting a caffeine-free life since.\u00a0 It’s actually difficult to not take in drinks that contain caffeine if you have poor discipline in your diet (which I do it seems).\u00a0 This article is a brief overview of the impact that caffeine-withdrawal has had on me so far.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Energy up and energy down<\/h2>\n

Caffeine has the almost immediate effect of giving you an energy boost.\u00a0 You think more clearly, you feel that you can do more for longer, but it’s only temporary.\u00a0 Once the effect wears off, you will reach for another hit, either in the form of caffeine or sugar, or both.<\/p>\n

Why do we need another hit?\u00a0 Because our body has just been pushed into fight-or-flight mode with the forced release of Adrenalin and when this high wears off, we feel fatigued and irritable.\u00a0 What to do other than get a boost somehow, or have a nap – and a nap in the office, or wherever, isn’t usually appropriate.<\/p>\n

Soda drinks are excellent examples of this quick hit – high in sugar and caffeine both.\u00a0 I’ve had to be conscious of this during the last few days because I’ve noticed myself gravitating to them to fill in some energy slumps.<\/p>\n

Since coming off coffee, in terms of energy alone, I have had highs and lows.\u00a0 Yesterday I slept for over an hour from 4p.m., after only waking up at 11am that morning, and I never<\/em> take naps in the afternoon.\u00a0 In general however, my mental clarity and energy is greater and seems to be improving.\u00a0 Far less often now am I finding myself needing to resist the urge to drop soda drink, or get a coffee.<\/p>\n

To mitigate the effects of swinging energy levels I’ve also been trying to take at least 2 or 3 fresh fruit juice smoothies<\/a> a day – at the moment they’re typically a mix of watermelon, melon and banana that provides me with healthy, natural sugars that are released in varying time frames – according to my rudimentary nutritional understanding.<\/p>\n

This is also an important point to note: when hooked on coffee\/caffeine, and I’m faced with a choice of a healthy fruit drink or a cafe latte, invariably I choose the latter, even though I know<\/em> the fruits are tastier and better for me.\u00a0 And that’s where in-part my point in the last article about choosing your own destiny comes in – if we’re being controlled by physiological drivers that will override our rational common sense and desires, then we’re going to make very sloppy decisions.\u00a0 These poor choices are cumulative and cascade to impact our lives in ways we cannot appreciate.<\/p>\n

What is the health cost over the past 9 months of me choosing cafe lattes over fruit juices?\u00a0 I may never know.<\/p>\n

Appetite UP!<\/h2>\n

For the past 3 or 4 days I can hardly stop eating.\u00a0 It’s been a long time since I’ve felt like this and I know it’s down to the withdrawals.\u00a0 I had noticed recently that I was substituting proper breakfasts and other meals by taking a cafe latte instead, with perhaps a croissant thrown in for good measure.\u00a0 This works since the caffeine (and milk) provide the energy I need for a short while, but it meant that often I would crash and need a top-up that usually came in the form of junk food and\/or soda.\u00a0 Doing that almost daily means I’m persistently starving myself of proper foods.\u00a0 Poor diet equals poor health, and I’ve been cheating myself in a bad way.<\/p>\n

I think now that I’m eating proper meals more often and relying on them to sustain me as I come off the caffeine I’m eating more – even today however I can feel the balance returning and I’m not eating quite so much.<\/p>\n

Peace of mind<\/h2>\n

There’s a certain peace of mind that comes with, for me at least, knowing that I’m doing something that has far-reaching health benefits, and that I know frees me from making poor (at the very least dietary) decisions based on what my body is craving.\u00a0 I know that during this period I’ve been very easily irritable and I haven’t been enjoying myself quite as much as I could\/should have.\u00a0 I feel quite a bit lighter and a lot freer – perhaps it’s a little psychosomatic, but I’ll take it.<\/p>\n

Like I said in the previous article<\/a>, your mileage may vary, but I challenge you to give up coffee, and more importantly give up caffeine (and sugar) highs completely.\u00a0 These can also come from many sources such as drinking soda\/soft drinks like cola, teas, coffee, chocolate, energy drinks, pain killers… the list goes on.<\/p>\n

Are you addicted to caffeine?\u00a0 Have you broken the habit?\u00a0 Any advice or experiences you want to share?\u00a0 Please feel free to do so below \u2013 all comments and feedback are welcome.\u00a0 You can even share this article in Facebook simply by clicking the button below!
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A follow up article to outline some of the effects and withdrawal symptoms that going on a caffeine-free diet has brought about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[155,119,156,154,529,54,60],"class_list":["post-952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cat-honor-your-health","tag-addiction","tag-balance","tag-breaking-the-habit","tag-caffeine","tag-coffee","tag-diet","tag-health"],"yoast_head":"\nCoffee free living - a follow up - Plog - Paulie's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/coffee-free-living-follow-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coffee free living - 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