Coffee question

Hi Jeff,

Feel free to tell me to wait until later steps if that's a better option, I'll understand :-)

I may be able to have a week without kids and with—hopefully—little work stuff to do, which is a rarity for me (not even happening yearly, maybe not every 2 years).

That's a window to cut down on coffee for me, and I wanted to know if you would advise cutting down drastically on coffee or if you wouldn't bother with it.

I am currently having a concentrated cup in the morning (20-25 grs of beans, in aeropress if that's making a difference) and about every other day another between 1pm and 2pm if I feel like it.

I am not sure if that's too much or not, but one thing is for sure: I can't skip my morning cup unless I want a bad headache. And I am a diagnosed ADD adult, which means I actually need stimulants (of any other sorts) to be able to focus and concentrate, and I know caffeine for me really helps.

My goal with this coming week where I can be non-functional on a few days is to cut down completely on coffee, but I do plan to get back to drinking some afterwards.

If you tell me that for the long-term with Thrive, I will be better off stopping coffee entirely, then I'll try to continue staying off it. I am not trying to look ahead and optimize something that is not on the program yet, but rather have this window now and since I don't have them often, I want to take advantage of it to set myself up for success later on :-)

Stopping coffee during the week is just not possible because I'd get a headache and I can't take 2 days off (blessed by too much work and clients) and on the week-ends, I'm the main carer for my kids, so not an option either!

Many thanks for the advice.

Julien

Julien,

Well thought out question. The future steps don't address coffee. More of a level 2 thing but, you have a particularly different requirement/need/desire for coffee. The ADD and caffeine stuff I think is pretty clear that it helps but, my personal feeling is I would not want to be dependent on anything. I just don't like the idea of being that vulnerable. I would suggest taking the week off coffee. Go with a really watered down tea or something hot so that you still have your beverage but go for very low caffeine. What you will notice is your tolerance will reduce. 

Hi Jeff and thanks for your answer.

Yes, whenever I have those windows of opportunity, I try to take advantage of them to cut down completely on caffeine. Headaches last 2-3 days max, so not really that bad if I don't have the need to function 100% :-) Tolerance does increase drastically, but after going back to coffee for 10 days, I'm back at the same stage.

I've seen you recommend Matcha tea and I'll try that after a week off coffee to see if I can substitute. I did try Matcha when I saw your recommendation instead of a second coffee and I was really on edge and jittery afterwards. Probably due to the combination of new stimulants in it for which I still have a low tolerance threshold and the fact that I think I took a pretty huge dose without meaning to do it ;-) 

Being dependent on caffeine is not great, but yes, being deeply ADD I do need some kind of stimulants to focus. Caffeine is one, but workouts are another so that's great, and I am blessed to live very centrally in Sydney, so anywhere I go where I can take a shower afterwards, I go by sprinting/running :-) And too much sitting with no activities is not an issue for me ;-) So there are positive aspects as well fitness-wise :-)

Julien

Sound good Julien. Just for everyone out there I have nothing against regular coffee consumption but when it gets to a point where you are "dependent" on it, a break is nice. 

any idea guys how can some one quite the addiction of coffe especcialy if it will bring brain aches if quittes my friend drinks a concentrated  dose of coffe ?

it is really hard to quit drinking coffee. from my experience, the best way to decrease the amount of coffee consumption/caffeine addiction is to slowly decrease the caffeine content.

an example of which:

i used to drink 6-8 shots of espresso then when i wanted to decrease my intake, i gradually decreased to 6-4 shots and i dilute it with water/ice.

i only get headaches when i drink coffee and i don't sweat it out and i also drink a lot of H2o. up to 2 gallons to flush out anything in my system.

to reset the strength of caffeine, i drink coconut water and stay off coffee for a day or two.

i hope this helps.  just sharing my experience 

am realy concerned about the brain aches much more than addiction , thanks a lot leo very helpfull 

A true coffee lover doesn't fret over brain aches, jitters or any of that stuff. 

Smiley face thing. 

You can do it. It took me less than 2 months, and I was able to weave in decaf espresso here and there, and eventually went pure decaf. Just avoid the more unhealthy, chemical methods of decaffeination. Instead try to get beans treated using the Swiss water method or better.

Suspect 011 = "decaf espresso"