My life without coffee – one year on
Posted on April 10, 2007
Filed Under Willpower
It’s coming up to the 1-year anniversary of my last cup of coffee (I never planned it, so I didn’t note the date exactly), so I wanted to share some thoughts about my experience.
Let’s start with background – I’ve been drinking several cups of coffee daily since my teens. Then we got a coffee machine at work. I think 6-10 cups a day would be a reasonable estimate of my intake just over a year ago. I’d never really thought about how much I drank, though a few years ago I started switching to decaf after 6pm, so that I could get to sleep before the new day began.
Then one fateful day, the coffee machine at work ran out of milk. I thought to myself, “let’s see if I can go without coffee for a day”.
That night, around 9.30pm, I was sat in front of the computer when all of a sudden my shoulders locked up and I got a pounding headache. I switched off the PC, curled up in bed and slept like the dead.
Having such a strong reaction really shook me up, and I decided to extend the experiment and see what happened.
For the next two weeks, I was incapable of staying awake past 10pm – I literally crawled into bed and was out like a light. I didn’t feel hugely refreshed, but I was getting more sleep than I’d had in years, and I started feeling better, little by little.
Over the next couple of months, as I slowly adjusted to my new rhythms, I was able to stay up later, but also I was able to wake up earlier without feeling dog-tired.
Now, I can’t lie to you and say I have boundless energy and need to sleep for only 30 minutes a night – I like a lie-in as much as anyone – but I do feel more energetic, and I’m doing a lot more with my time nowadays. I can’t attribute it all to giving up coffee, but it was certainly the catalyst for many other lifestyle changes.
I haven’t cut out caffeine entirely – I’ve grown to really enjoy tea – but I went without any caffeine at all for a few days recently, and it had no effect at all. The addiction is gone and if I have my way it’s never coming back.
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[...] Inside Strength » Blog Archive » My life without coffee – one year on For the next two weeks, I was incapable of staying awake past 10pm – I literally crawled into bed and was out like a light. (tags: interesting lifehack ideas) [...]
I stumbled across your site via comments on Ryan Holiday’s blog.
I too decided to try and cut coffee out of my life, and I have been amazed with the results. I was traveling abroad over spring break and decided I wasn’t even going to bother trying to mask the taste of nasty hotel coffee with THAT much sugar… and that was that. I’ve had one cup since the beginning of March (out celebrating with a friend at the completion of an exam) and I found that I really had lost my taste for the beverage.
It’s water and smoothies for me now, and while I can’t name any one part of my life with some noticeable improvement, I simply feel better… and that is enough for me to keep such habits at bay.
I like what you have here, I hope you’ll keep updating the site.
Thank you for this post. I’ve been off coffee for one week now and have really noticed a lot….one of my worries though is, “will I get my energy back”? Really I have at least as much as I had before….I think that I’ve totally exhausted my adrenal glands….and I’m drinking green tea too. What I’ve noticed is a wart on the bottom of my foot that wouldn’t go away for about a year…and it was painful….is gone. I have had more water than I can say….I must have been very dehydrated, as a result, my skin especially my lips, hands and feet have swelled in a good way and are extra soft and I’m not as emotionally reactive as I was before….a treat for my husband : ) Thanks again….I need to hear from people who went all the way through…today I needed a 2 hour nap….but I can’t be doing that all the time.
Going off coffee was one of the best things I have ever done for myself. Physically, mentally, emotionally, my life improved after giving up the beverage. I still miss the taste at times, and the feeling after drinking it, but the benefits of not drinking it simply outweight the cravings! I also think some people can handle coffee better than others, and I am one of those who is less well-equipped. Coffee was giving me migraines, skin trouble, and longterm exhaustion. Anyone who suffers from these, take a break from coffee and see how you feel :-)
Interesting blog and comments. I drank coffee for over 40 years. Loved it. But I developed a painful indigestion and tried all sorts of things to relive it. Even developed other issues from all the calcium I was taking in. Finally decided to try life without coffee – the indigestion stopped the first day. The only significant headaches I got were from the people who insisted I should be having headaches. I love the feeling of calm I now enjoy. Sure, I was low on energy for a while but that came back to a reasonable level. My productivity wasn’t affected at all. But I really think my mental clarity improved.