Anyone successfully quit coffee? If so, did you lose the energy that coffee gave you or did you 'stabilize' after a while? I think I need to turn down from 2, sometimes 3 cups a day to 1 cup before it's too late :D I tried to quit cold turkey while at a summer program at West Point, I made it 5 days, but broke during breakfast from the headache. Oh dear.
I got down to one cup after drinking 3 a day... by condensing three 8 oz cups into one 24 oz cup >_>
Hmm... Given your solution, you'd either be the best or the worst engineer in the industry.
Well it means I'm failing at being a bureaucrat... really I should be sticking with the 8 oz cups so I can get up and take more breaks...
That's the one I'm having a hard time with! I love coffee (especially black coffee) and I love brewing coffee, but soda is just so much easier to obtain right now at a cheaper price. It's definitely something I need to work on...right after I finish my Coke.
I have yet to find a compelling scientific reason to quit coffee. And I am surrounded by naturopathic doctors who think anything mainstream is bad for you, and they spend a lot of time looking for compelling scientific reasons. If we're counting by K-cups, as this vile hotel makes me do, I'll burn through three before I get in the goddamn shower.
For the second half of high school, and first half of college I drank disgusting amounts of coffee. Since then I have stopped and I drink it leisurely now. You can recover, but you are gonna need sleep and to drink more water. If you do both those things you will get better. A healthy diet never hurts.
DRINK MOAR! In all seriousness though, when I was in college I had a cup in my hand almost all day. I probably spent more on coffee and caffeine drinks than I did on food some days. If you slowly step down, you'll get used to less caffeine pretty quickly. Staying active and maintaining a good sleep schedule will help you stay awake without the aid off coffee.
I've never been a habitual coffee user, but I was definitely a regular coffee abuser during undergrad. 12-15 cups over an 8-9 hour period wasn't unusual in my library sessions. Now I've switched to cold brew. About half a cup a day, maybe every other day. With chocolate milk.
how did you get anything done while drinking that much of a diuretic? past a certain point, I realize I've messed up when I am taking more bathroom breaks than getting work done.
At one point I felt coffee was making me too tense. I'd drink about 4 or 5 cups a day. I made a game of cutting down (rather than stop.) I allowed myself one cup a week, and looked for the best cup of coffee I could find. I researched coffee shops with a good reputation within about 30 miles of my house and I'd spend a nice half hour driving to see where I could find the best coffee. Actually I'd have one espresso and one other coffee drink. All week I'd look forward to that one trip and after some weeks I didn't even feel like coffee during the week. Eventually I quit and that lasted about 5 or 6 years. Now there's no compulsion it's just a pleasant habit and I do enjoy my coffee.
I actually just did this a couple months ago! I usually would have one cup of coffee a day, in the morning. When I quit I just powered through the withdrawal headaches -- they were only bad for the first week or so. I actually haven't noticed much of a significant drop in energy since then! I drink herbal tea in the morning now, maybe I'm just getting a placebo effect from any hot drink...