Divorcing Caffeine

A daily journal of how and why I removed caffeine out of my life.

[decafadventure]

Day 4

It’s actually the morning of day 5 but I will recap day 4. I think this is a better way since I completed the full day.

How I felt

Still sluggish

Slight irritable

Headache/nausea 

I started the day with a similar level of energy as the previous morning. On my way to work I was just as tired as the day before. I’ve been getting rest on my way to work. Not sleep but that kind of calm driving that feels restful. I went through my day feeling tired. I started to feel slightly irritable which I am coming to realize means I am hungry since my appetite has not returned fully yet. I ate a teriyaki chicken plate at 11am which actually made me more tired. In fact I was tired for 2 hours. This is probably due to my body metabolizing the food. I been trying to eat a lot of carbs and protein for energy.

Later in the day around 3pm I ate the other half of the plate again. I felt a since of calm after. It wasn't until around 5:30pm when the headache and nausea kicked in. I drunk water and it lasted until I ate an apple a 9pm which caused me become hungry. I ate a plate of lean chicken and rice and went to sleep.

[decafadventure]

Day 3

It’s actually the morning of day 4 but I will recap day 3 since I didn’t get a chance to post.

How I feel

Still sluggish

Still a little spacey

Slight irritable 

Headache 

I started the day off with a slight bit more energy then the previous day. It wasnt sustained but I have been eating heavier meals since I know my body needs the energy. That said, I’m sure it takes a lot of energy just to break down my first meal which includes a few vitamin supplements.

On that note. The supplements I am taking are not that different then I would normally take. I take a mens multi vitamin, D3 (I live in the North West where there isn't much sunlight), biotin, and lately B12 <- the only vitamin I take for caffeine withdrawal.

So anyway the day went as usual. I was a little sluggish and I felt slight irritable around the usual time of 2:30pm - 3:00pm. My guess is this is usually when I crash on coffee so my body was still getting used to the feeling of actual tiredness. As we know caffeine basically shields the feeling of tiredness. Our bodies are still tired, we just cant feel it on caffeine.

**Tip** 

All throughout the day but more when I feel irritable I try to eat something and look at relaxing videos. I would recommend either meditation or relaxing videos of beaches etc. I used a vr headset to look a 360 vr videos of beaches to relax. 

[decafadventure]

Day 2

I started off today with some what more energy than yesterday. Don’t get me wrong I was not at all near my normal state however I noticed I wasn’t as sluggish as I have been. This could have been due to having a better night sleep.

That said, I still don’t fully have my hunger so I am still force myself to eat a lot to keep my boy energized. The worst side affect for me is the feeling of irritability. Seems like it comes if I am hungry, tired, or dehydrated. I have been drinking a lot of water along with snacks. I had on bad feeling of irritability today around 2:30pm. I almost caved in to a coffee. I sat a thought about it and decided to proceed with cutting caffeine out of my life!  FYI (I tried going cold turkey two weeks ago and caved in at 5 days so day 6 will be a milestone for me)

How I Feel 

Tired

Not fully focused

Eager to get my life back

One thing I am thankful for is I never really got the overwhelming headaches most others get. 

[decafadventure]

Day 1

After accidentally winding up in caffeine withdrawals while on a business trip to California, going to the ER, talking with a doctor (twice), I have finally built up enough courage to go Cold Turkey.

(If you want to read the full story of pre detox events go to the bottom)

Long story short I was consuming anywhere between 100mg - 400mg with the later being most recent. I some how tapered down to 1oz espresso or 32mg. That said I have not felt %100 in about a month and a half. Which is why I want to begin the process of the end.......

How I feel

Mostly tired

Lack of energy 

Not all the way coherent 

(Pre Detox)

October 23rd is when I believe the flight was. It was an early morning flight (7am). I decided that I would have one cup of coffee to energize me through the day which began a soon as we landed. That night I felt mildly anxious. I thought maybe it was the fact the I was hundreds of miles away from my wife and kids. A feeling that I recall having before but usually subsides on the second day. That following morning I ran to the gas station a block away from the hotel and grabbed a cup of coffee. I drunk about half of it before my day started. That night I felt the anxiousness again and again shrugged it off. The third day was almost a repeat of the second, and on the forth day I returned home.

Once returning home we went to our favorite coffee spot and oder the usual 6 shot tall boy! I drunk it and truthfully don’t remember how I felt. I do remember feelings of anxiousness popping up out of no where through that week. One day the barista served me a drink with milk in it ( I am lactose). Lets just say I spent the first few hours of my day releasing all of the drink and what ever else was in my stomach at the time. The next day I was hesitant about the coffee so I went to 7/11 and got a regular cup. I believe it was the following day when I felt like a complete reck. So much so, that I went to get a Covid 19 test and felt like I was going to faint. I spent the rest of that day and the day following in my bed felling “Flu like” symptoms. I went to the ER and all the blood work and everything else was fine. It wasn’t until a day or so after when my wife convinced me to drink a cup of coffee that I realized all the symptoms stopped! It dawn on me I was going through Caffeine withdrawals. 

I continued to drink about a cup and a half a day and was feeling half decent. Something made me want to go cold turkey (maybe because I hate the control caffeine has on the body) I lost my appetite, I was anxious, and became irritable. On day 5 I decided I had enough and drunk A half cup of coffee at 9p meaning no sleep that night. I then went back to drinking a double shot or 130mg roughly. I did that for a few days then went down to one shot or 64mg. Which is about where I a now.