There isn't much of a debate that I'm obsessed with coffee. It's a tag on all my social channels, and I'm consistently in photos with a McDonald's take away cup in my hand. So imagine when I had this crazy idea one day that maybe, coffee wasn't doing me the best it could be. Maybe I should try to give it up. It was peaking me into high anxiety - and from a fitness point of view, it probably wasn't helping the calorie count. Somewhere in my head - I went, "Y'know, for science - let's see what happens if I treat to beat my coffee addiction."
Now, I promise you that if ask anyone that knows me, they will tell you I'm actually properly addicted to coffee. And to be perfectly honest - I think a lot of the world is. Whether that be your local Starbucks or the niche little coffee place on the corner of the street, we've all got our own favourite places and spaces, blends and spends of every dollar that we put into it. I told my usual barista one morning of my plan to try to give up coffee. He was horrified, and just looked at me for a moment, before responding with "But why would you?"
I should probably give you the heads up at this point to strongly suggest if you're going to detox - start on a day, or preferably DAYS when you don't have anything particular on because this will kick you around.
Trying to Beat Coffee Addiction - Day One
And so whilst sitting at work, dealing with customers with not so pleasant issues - the absolute killer mood swings kicked in full force. I was not someone you wanted to be friends with, and anyone who has done this detox process before would be able to agree 100% with me.
Trying to Beat Coffee Addiction - Day Two
It didn't get any easier.
Introducing the cold sweats, more repeat headaches. I had to cancel a few of my fitness activities and meetups I had that afternoon as it was too unbearable to cope with. I was so tired and lethargic, my head was this foggy cloud of horribleness and I couldn't bare to stand upright. It got that bad that I had to get my housemate to come get me after work as I knew I couldn't drive. I'm actually surprised I even made it through the day consider the day I had yesterday.
Asprin and water was my best friend throughout the whole process, and took a little bit of the edge off, thankfully.
Also, sleep. Remember the life hack from above? Starting this on a Friday and going through onto the Sunday is an honest lifesaver.
Another suggestion I heard on the grapevine was taking magnesium tablets, as this helps with muscle relaxants (and as I was seizing like anything). So if you've got some handy - absolutely take some if you can.
Day three-four-five:
I can't say it was an easy process. I was fortunate enough that the bulk of the withdrawals hit over the weekend and although I was a grumpy thing for the few days, by the time Monday came around again - I felt a lot more energized. My cold shakes had stopped around day three, and the fog that had entered into my head suddenly felt a lot lighter. (Believe me, that was an amazing feeling.)
I can 100% say that after a week of not having coffee, I was feeling pretty good. I swapped back onto green tea (The T2 blends are amazing.) - so that I still had some buzz, and felt a bit better for it. My anxiety did also settle down a little as well, so in my experience, coffee was certainly not making friends with my brain.
.... I'd love to end this post and say that I'm 100 days sober from coffee.
Unfortunately, three weeks later and I ended up on a week of early starts at work and the coffee started again and I'm back to where I started.
Maybe I should do another post with an hourly update?
Have you tried detoxing before?
What was your experience? What were your best suggestions for getting past the withdrawals?
Let me know in the comments!
