"Calming Down"
How I did it:
I wanted to reduce the caffeine intake in my life. I was hoping that, if I was able to wean myself off of the drug, I’d have just one less thing working against my state of mind during the day and my ability to sleep at night.
Now, I will still consume a reduced amount of caffeine, but will no longer drink the ~4 cups it took to get me up and running in the morning every day at work.
I did so by incrementally reducing the amount of caffeine in my daily routine. First, I stopped putting all the extra junk I didn't need in my coffee. I used to load up my coffee with so much sugar, syrup, honey, etc. that it resembled something different entirely. Once that was gone, I looked at the creamer I was putting in my coffee and slowly adopted fat free creamer. I'm still a long way toward ever drinking coffee completely black.
After that change, I set a rule for myself that stipulated that I'd only be able to drink caffeinated coffee before lunch.
Then I looked at the caffeine content itself. I moved from regular to a half-caffeine blend. Little by little, I reduced the amount of caffeine in my daily coffee until I was completely decaffeinated.
And now, finally, I moved away from coffee altogether and now grab a bottle of water or herbal tea for my commute to work. The tea will still have some caffeine, but not enough to influence me in the way coffee did, and it brings other benefits (a healthy dose of antioxidants and it won't stain my teeth).
I don't think I needed to go through such an elaborate process because I was addicted to the stuff, but rather that my sleeping habits left much to be desired and I didn't want to make a drastic change in my coffee consumption that would ultimately leave me dozing off at work.
I'm not sure I realized all the benefits of kicking the caffeine habit, but it's brought me a feeling of accomplishment for phasing it out.
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Nov 08, 08:42PM PST
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