Today I have gone without coffee for 30 days.
It’s been an interesting experiment.
I started drinking coffee at a pretty late age, probably around 22 or 23.
Since then I’ve consumed three cups or more every day.
Lately I’ve become more interested in my own personal energy. And being hooked on coffee is a bit like the curve above. :)
So I wanted to see how getting rid of the coffee would affect my energy, mood and effectiveness.
I know that some get off coffee by slowly decreasing the amount of coffee they consume each week and perhaps by replacing it with tea or non-caffeinated alternatives.
I took another approach.
30 days ago I came down with a bad cold and pretty much knew that I would spend a few days in bed doing nothing more than reading and watching some TV.
I also knew that going without coffee would make me very sleepy.
So I combined the two things. I stopped drinking coffee and then I was sleeping a lot the next few days.
This made it easier to get through the most unpleasant days of sneezing and having a fever. And since I wasn’t doing anything special anyway it was OK to feel drowsy and sleep a lot.
Towards the end of that week my cold had decreased in power and so had my sleepiness.
Since then it’s been no problem to not drink coffee and I have experienced some positive benefits.
The big one is that my ability to focus has improved. That has affected my life in a few ways:
- It has become easier to focus just on the task in front of me and shut out the rest of the distractions.
- I’m less prone to procrastination. I didn’t really notice it while I was drinking coffee but my mind seemed to wander off in all kinds of ways a lot of the time. Now it’s easier to single-task and focus on one thing and I don’t feel the same need to check email or other distracting stuff.
- I’m calmer. I’m a calm person to begin with but getting off coffee calmed and slowed my brain down. So I feel more relaxed more of the time. And it’s easier to think with clarity.
Getting of coffee has been a positive experience for me. It’s actually had more of a positive effect than I would have expected. I thought I would feel a little less stressed overall but it has made a significant dent in my ability to focus and concentrate. I also used to feel tired after a meal and used coffee immediately after the meal to boost my energy levels. Now I have a much more even energy-curve throughout the day.
So I’ll continue to stay coffee free and perhaps sprinkle in a cup of green tea or two once in while. I would recommend trying to go coffee free for 30 days and see how it affects your mind, body and life.
One way is do it like I did and go cold-turkey (perhaps the next time you’re ill or during some vacation days over the holidays). Another way is the one where you slowly decrease the amount of coffee you consume each week. And perhaps replace some of the coffee with less caffeinated teas or a couple of cups of decaf. If you get bad withdrawal symptoms then the second method may be the most useful one.
Henrik Edberg is the creator of the Positivity Blog and has written weekly articles here since 2006. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Gothenburg and has been featured on Lifehacker, HuffPost and Paulo Coelho’s blog.
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Nice post and thoughtful comments. I became very coffee sensitive a while ago, and have quit for the past 7 years or so. I actually found that when I got my mind quiet enough I found a background of tension, anxiety and restlessness. It was definitely the coffee. It gives you energy but it’s not exactly a productive energy. Also, notice how sometimes you have a coffee and it does the opposite. You feel even more tired than before! Then there’s the addiction symptoms in the morning, with that tired brain until you get the next hit. Many people are making themselves sick, poor and, worst of all, ugly with this stinking bean. I’ve recently been converted to Yerba Mate: the South American drink. It has some amazing healthful properties. You get the lift of coffee, but no crash. It’s a calmer, clearer energy. It’s green, and can taste a little bitter. There’s many ways of preparing it, but I prefer the traditional gourd technique. You can find instructions on how to do it on youtube. The strange thing about Mate is that I find I have more energy, wake up less tired, need less sleep, and don’t suffer the side effects of coffee, including the irrationality, jitters, unfocused energy, bad breath, lineups at Starbucks, and that high coffee tax. Let’s face it, this stuff is a serious drug. It’s making many of us crazy and we line up for it!
It been about 6 1/2 years for me. When my son was born my wife was in labor for 36 hours and I had the worst headaches, but didn’t want to leave the room. After that I just kept going. It took a long time before I didn’t feel like I needed the coffee (more like 6 months). I agree with the benefits that have been expressed and have also experienced a significant decrease in blood pressure. It was never quite in the high range, but the doc always commented on it. Now I just get told it’s perfect. All I’ve needed to keep decaffeinated.
Want a drug that could lower your risk of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and colon cancer? That could lift your mood and treat headaches? That could lower your risk of cavities?
If it sounds too good to be true, think again.
Coffee, the much maligned but undoubtedly beloved beverage, just made headlines for possibly cutting the risk of the latest disease epidemic, type 2 diabetes. And the real news seems to be that the more you drink, the better.
Read the whole article: http://men.webmd.com/features/coffee-new-health-food
Sigh. It’s discouraging to read of more people who cannot handle themselves enough to do things in moderation — to where their only answer is to go cold turkey.
It’s as if we are a society of people incapable of moderation anymore. It’s either gorge ourselves to obscene gluttony or define our identity in the negative — by the things we don’t do, don’t eat, or give up.
And the problem is never the item people obsessively consume — it’s the inability to moderate ourselves. Making the cold turkey “solution” much like the gay man who becomes a priest, thinking that will cure him of his homosexuality. It just avoids the problem rather than face it head-on.
We so sorely and sadly lack the willpower to moderate ourselves at much of anything these days it seems.
This is great, everyone should quit drinking coffee, it’s obviously bad for you.
I quit drinking coffee also about 2 months ago. I am 17 and started drinking coffee around age 15 3/4. I went into a mild depression and started getting angry all the time when I was 16, not knowing the problem and just thinking that this was a stage. So I sat down and thought about it. Why is my mind flying around like cotton in the air? Well… I did start drinking coffee.. and KABAM. I got off coffee in the morning and had switched to just an apple, yes an apple. It has been proved to wake you up just like a cup of coffee would. After that day it took about a week to get back to my natural energy which was around age 15. Right now I feel terrific, not depressed, no mood swings, not angry, I feel smarter and can also concentrate more, I am also getting better grades in school and can do my homework… So what makes coffee so good???? nothing at all. Hey, I can even fall asleep faster!! I am just right now a very happy person… YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
I agree with Swag regarding our seeming inability to do much of anything these days in moderation. It does seem that in this day and age most of us have become extremists in many of the things that we do. It is either all or none – we either overindulge or we deny ourselves altogether.
I drink coffee rather heavily at times. I find the positive effects it has on me outweigh any negative ones. Despite the article link that Todd provided regarding the negative effects of caffeine, there have indeed been scientific studies showing positive health effects of caffeine and coffee. I am not saying that there are not also studies showing a negative health effect also, because there are. In to addition coffee being rich in antioxidants, there have been studies showing a positive effect on athletic performance as well as on improvements in memory recall. There are quite a few other studies showing other health benefits of coffee.
That being said, it is probably best to drink coffee in moderation.
Thanks for the thought provoking post.
I have been drinking coffee for 8 years now and ca n’t do anything until i’ve had that first strong morning cup. My workouts are twice as good at the gym and it gets the system moving and my mind is much sharper. Recently i did a 1 day detox and part of the instructions were, no coffee. I thought yep i can do this for a day. I had a migrane headache and was nauseous for hours. The withdrawal symptoms were that bad that i thought, now lets be honest with myself this stuff really can’t be good for you. Today I am on my 12th day without coffee. I miss the confidence that i feel and the get up and go that i have after my first cup and i must admit my mind is still a bit fuzzy in the morning, normally a cup of coffee would clear that, this has been a difficult thing for me to give-up but i wanted to lose the dependency that i had developed for this. I was once told by a health practitioner that a cup of coffee was actually beneficial for my body type and chose to cling to this belief for a long time. However after experiencing the withrdrawal symtoms that i mentioned i really needed to question this for myself. I am proud of myself for having the will power to push through this addiction and look forward to continuing to see how the benefits of not having coffee effect my health in the long term and to find out for myself whether 1 cup a day is beneficial for my body type or whether this is just rubbish!!
This is day 24 without coffee for me. For two weeks, I take a motrin in the morning when Im not drinking coffee – its the only way I can get through the caffeine headache. Then I’m alright. Ive kicked coffee twice before, when I was pregnant. I go back saying only one cup a day, but it climbs up…and then Im back to the headaches and nausea when I dont have caffeine by 10am. Im definitely more calm. To the point where I keep napping. Maybe I’ll exercise more and see if that helps. Otherwise, I may just go back…
I want to quit coffe, I’m going to quit coffee, in the past five years I’ve quit my other more harmful addictions and this is my last one and it’s been the toughest so far. I’ve almost quit before but started drinking cola and was worse, so I went back to coffee…
Caffeine has scarred my flawless skin with beakouts and I still can’t stop… It causes me 3 morning trips to the pooper, and it doesn’t even get me perky most of the time,it almost has the opposite effect, I get really tired.
I’ve searched for the cons of coffee online before and didn’t find much bad press for coffee, but today I searched for how to quit and found this great site.
I’m going to quit, I can do it, wish me luck and send me your prayers!
Me again… I set a quit date which was this past Saturday, and I’ve had a headache and all I want to do is sleep. I drag myself from the bed to the couch and back and when I had to go out to lunch, I was so groggy… Hopefully this will pass soon and I’ll be free.
Thanks again, your site inspired me.
Thank you for your story. I’m in the process of quitting and it’s nice to read about others experiences. I have weaned myself down on my coffee intake over the last five days now; had one cup today, and tomorrow I’m debating on black tea or just cold-turkey the rest of the way. My withdrawal symptoms haven’t been too bad. I’m in my mid 30’s and have drank coffee for over 10 years; usually 2-4 cups per day. I started my reduced intake at 2 cups five days ago. Last night and tonight my stomach feels upset and have felt mild -mod. headache. Throughout this week I have had less energy, but in a strange way have felt better. I’m off work for 2 weeks so I thought this would be a great time to quit. I’ve always had problems sleeping so I hope this will help, and I want to just feel calmer and more even throughout the day. I think the withdrawal hasn’t been to bad so far, because I’m a pretty healthy eater and try to limit sugar. Coffee became less appealing to me a few months ago when I quit eating dairy products. Coffee just isn’t the same to me drinking it black, and it’s been irritating my stomach more. I’m excited about being caffeine free. I bought this product called Teeccino sampler pack- (herbal coffee-type drink) that you make in your coffee maker; so far the flavors are decent; it’s nice to have the morning ritual of something hot to drink- but I might not even continue with that. Good luck to every one!
Thanks to all you quitters. I am joining your ranks as of today and wow–what a headache! I passed my first kidney stone yesterday and did some research on to what might be contributing to this in my diet. One thing I discovered was that my Silk soy milk guzzling habit (3 times and more a day in coffee mostly but also alone or on cereal–love the stuff) might not be helping matters, so I am sadly giving up soy milk and tofu (diet staples of mine if you can believe it). I don’t know if coffee is high in oxalates or whether it played a part in my kidney stone formation, but if I have to give up soy milk, then I figure I’ll take advantage of the situation and cut out coffee too. Main reasons are some insomnia troubles and just grog-city in the mornings. Been too long dependent. I understand tea is high in oxalates (what sometimes contributes to stones) so I’m going cold turkey. I really look forward to experiencing my body and mind without caffiene/coffee. So thanks for the inspiration and for sharing your experiences. I guess I have a few more days of headaches to go–
I quit alcohol for 2008 and felt better but realised that beneath that I was still short-changing myself because I consumed caffeine.
I’ve drunk green/white tea for the last few years and suspected, it’s only obvious in retrospect, that caffeine, even in the smallest quantities really screws me up.
I went cold turkey about 10 days ago. For the first 2 days I had a terrible headache. 3 and 4 I felt depressed. It wasn’t until day 8 that I began to feel great.
For anyone considering quitting caffeine, I highly recommend it.
You will get the natural high of being alive and not having your perceptions altered artificially.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. :)
I quit caffeine last september. Since then, I have been very unmotivated and depressed. Many people have reported these symptoms, but typically for only a few months. I started counseling, but the counselor doesn’t have any suggestions except to put me on anti-depressants. But how is getting on anti-depressants any better than being on caffeine?
So here’s my question to you: How many of you have had these symptoms? How long did it take for them to go away? What did you do, if anything, to make them go away faster? Thanks.