Not proud to admit but I average 8 cups of coffee a day, my tolerance is through the roof. I also pound coffee in the morning because I’m so groggy from my night time meds. Can’t be good for you! So I’m cutting back to six, then hopefully 4, then 2 strong cups. Weening seems like a good option.
Plus the price of coffee is outrageous, even the cheapo Folgers is $10 for the large.
Devon Price (author of Laziness Does Not Exist and *Unmasking Autism) with a long post about the decaf experience:
Disclaimer: this is a joke, but not really.
What made me cut down my coffee consumption was getting into specialty coffee and brewing my own. Specialty coffee is really tasty and interesting, makes most other coffee taste really bad, with the downside of it being really expensive, and requiring a bunch of work and time to get a cup of it: grinding the beans, setting up the brewer, paying attention to how the brew is going, serving, and sitting down to enjoy the cup will take me 20 minutes on average.
After getting an aeropress for Christmas, and finding a cheap antique moka pot at a flea market, every time I feel like having coffee I ask myself “do I really want to go through all that trouble, or would I rather just drink some water/eat some fruit”? The answer is usually the latter, except in the mornings.
I understand it might not be for you, and if you’re looking to save some money it might not be the way to go, but at least getting really nice coffee, from farmers who are being better paid than the ones the big commodity traders buy from, and spending time to make a cup of coffee helped me cut down and enjoy it more, surprisingly. It’s also one of the few pleasures I can afford for myself, so I try to make it as special as possible.
I use those big Folgers plastic canisters to store compost, before taking it to the pile. But like your aim here, “one or two is enough”
A friend of mine scaled back coffee and cigarettes in quick succession, with the aid of lots of chicory brew. I can definitely recommend this.
chicory brew
Sounds tasty
It is. A bit more expensive than coffee, but worth it.
Also black/green tea is an option, I go through a lot of tea.
I would buy a small thing of chicory before you go whole hog. It isn’t super expensive but it is extremely bitter. I’m an IPA lord and it was too much for me.
Having a morning replacement is nice, could have caffeine free teas, smoothies, flavored water, etc. Something that tricks your groggy self into thinking you had your coffee and has a better hydration profile.
Weaning is good. Trying to switch to teas to decrease overall consumption also helps and broadens your choices.
You can also try ersatz coffee, which is a 1 to 1 ratio of roasted chicory root and roasted dandelion root, or try swapping one or two cups with decaf to see how your body handles it. Sometimes it’s just the habit of drinking coffee instead of the addiction to caffeine that can trip you up so having alternatives to help you cut down can also help as well
I’ve gone through a similar process and unironically it was harder than stopping smoking weed or stopping drinking. There was a point where I was drinking 2 or more energy drinks a day and taking caffeine pills. At this point I’m down to 1 tea in the morning and maybe a coke or a soda later in the day.
Weening yourself down is by far the best bet. Going cold turkey will inevitably make you irritable as fuck and give you intense headaches as well. On top of being more or less dead to the world from lethargy for a week+. Don’t be afraid to have a small maintenance dose to keep the headaches away if you’re weening too quickly. This was my experience on cutting back though, I’ve heard of people who don’t get the headaches
I believe in you comrade! Best of luck in your efforts
Eight cups sounds like a lot. I’d be concerned what that would do to your blood pressure and heart rate over time. I gave up my black tea every morning to cut down on carbs and caffeine (doctor was worried about a tachycardia I had on initial intake). Echo didn’t show anything concerning but, I haven’t really drank any tea in a year since then.
I drink 12-24 cups of coffee a day. My resting heart rate is high (maybe 90?) but my blood pressure has always been textbook normal. Studies show (for example) that blood pressure spikes from caffeine are temporary, so more of something to look out for in people with already-high blood pressure rather than something to worry about from people who don’t have it.
Didn’t know that. I just was reaching around for anything that would make the palpitations stop. That stuff scared the shit out of me. One day it scared me enough that I took a sick day from work to go to a clinic. Everything’s normal now on the beta blocker I’m taking but, I never understood what it was when the echo and EKG came back with nothing concerning.
That does sound scary.
Well, at least it’s not a heart rhythm problem. I’ve felt better for a year now.
How much is rhr influenced by caffeine vs exercise? Because I’m trying to my rhr as low as possible but don’t want to cut back on my caffeine intake.
Endurance athletes love caffeine and their heart rates are still in “Either this man’s dead or my watch has stopped” territory so exercise must be a bigger factor. No idea if there’s a tipping point, where you need to run ultramarathons to cancel out your Balzac-level caffeine intake.
Replace with diet cola or tea Then replace both with green tea Apples also have some caffeine And for the love of god eat breakfast before drinking coffee
Green tea is absolutely packed w caffeine. More than coffee, IIRC.
The average cup of green tea has 35 mg, much lower than the average coffee (100-200mg) and lower than other teas (~50mg). Maybe you are thinking of pure matcha? That can have more in a large potent cup, but the typical serving even of matcha is around 30-50mg.
Thanks for the correction.
I’m actually trying to do the same. I’ve been getting nauseating headaches for the last couple of months and finally narrowed it down to my caffeine intake. Not really proud about it but I was probably at about 1,000 mg a day easily. a pot of coffee, a soda or tea, and usually an energy drink each day.
Right now I am trying to get off of energy drinks full stop and limiting myself to 2-3 cups of coffee in the am.
I have however fallen completely off the alcohol wagon. I am not sure if I am gonna try to get back on or try really hard to limit my beer and wine to 1-2 every so often.
I’m about 8-10 cups a day, plus a c4 or two for that extra heart workout.
I’m probably pushing well over a gram a day, maybe a gram and a half. Fed says 400 mg is safe so…
I’ve successfully done this and will echo what others are saying: make it easy on yourself by switching to decaf, somewhat gradually.
once you’re not getting a caffeine hit from the coffee you won’t need it so bad and you’ll drop your intake.
That’s great! I used to be a caffeine fiend, pounding coffee and energy drinks all day to deal with my shitty job, but I’ve cut back to one strong cup of coffee in the morning and like a tea at lunch. I think this is the minimum for me, as anything less still gives me headaches, but I’m okay with this level. It’s definitely doable, just set realistic goals and expectations. The process can take months, and you shouldn’t beat yourself up if you backslide a little. It’s normal, and most of us who’ve quit/cut back significantly on legal drugs (caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol in my case) have backslid a few times. You just have to hold yourself accountable while still being kind to yourself.
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Weening seems like a good option.
I think because people think it’s “All or nothing” when it comes to self-improvement, weening is an underrated methodology. If taking small steps leads to bigger steps down the line I think it’s a healthy and viable pathway to a goal. Best of luck and be well!
