Before the 30 day emergency food supply challenge, I didn’t even know I had a caffeine habit. Admitting to about 20 cups of caffeinated tea a day kind of tells a different story, but I never really even thought about it until it was time to stop. It was the stopping part that got me. Holy buckets, people, the headaches were a real bummer.
After about a week, I started to notice that I felt better, slept better, looked better, etc. And that’s when I really started to valuate if my tea ritual was worth it {for the record, it is not worth it}.
If you are trying to cut your reliance on caffeine to make you feel awake and alert, here’s some tips to make it a little less painful:
- Try Dandelion root or other herbal non-caffeinated choices. Non-caffeinated purist swear by it. It gives you the same morning ritual, without the side effects of caffeine.
- Prepare mentally for the withdrawals. There will be headaches. They suck. If you are going cold turkey, you may want to do it during a week when you can deal with a throbbing headache for 3 days straight.
- Gradually wean yourself by doing half caff. Make your tea or coffee with half caffeinated and half decaf. Gradually increase the decaf until that’s all that’s left.
- Replace the morning ritual with something more benefiting to your health. Meditate, go for a walk, read or journal instead. Eventually, you will look forward to that private time the way you did coffee–fair warning, though, it won’t give you the same immediate lift.
- Make sure to get PLENTY of sleep as you are coming off caffeine. You will feel tired, because you won’t have your usual pick-me-up. Make sure you don’t add to it with sleep deprivation.
- Dig your heels in and muster up some good old fashioned willpower. I know it’s easier said than done, but you have to believe you can do it and fight the cravings, or you will give in.
- Resist the urge to replace the habit with something equally destructive, like copious amounts of chocolate. That is not to say that chocolate should be off limits. That would be crazy talk.
I know none of these tips are rocket science, but together, I found they worked pretty darn well. I promise that you’ll feel better in the long run. Though, in the short run, you may hate everyone with a pulse. Just know it will pass.
~Mavis
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