How I felt on Tuesday! (flickr.com / Martin Cathrae)
This might be hard to believe, but I did not start drinking coffee regularly until I was in my 40s. Before that, I tried it occasionally, and didn’t like it. I got my caffeine from soda, but even then I didn’t drink large quantities, except for fast food meals, and some energy on a road trip now and then. But a few years ago, I was on a business trip, feeling jet-lagged, and I asked myself if this abstinence from coffee was really so noble and necessary after all. Maybe a cup or two per day would be helpful?
Since then, I really have stuck to the routine of one cup mid-morning, and one mid-afternoon. On the weekends, when I am home with ye olde Mr. Coffee and the 12-cup decanter, I make two cups at a time, which somehow seems less silly than one. I have two cups in the morning, and maybe two in the afternoon. Weekends go by faster now, I guess.
I’ve been wondering if my body has become accustomed to my daily caffeine intake. Apparently that’s called “caffeine insensitivity,” and it’s the reason we need increasing amounts to feel that “buzz.” (Look up the relationship between caffeine and the neurotransmitter adenosine for the gory details.) Since “cleansing” is all the rage, I decided to take a week off from coffee, to see if I can find that lovin’ feelin’ for caffeine again.
Here is a journal of my progress:
Sunday: My last coffee (two cups, actually) was before 10 AM. I considered having another “double” in the afternoon, then decided I might as well start tapering off for the week.
Monday: No coffee all day. I had surprisingly few side effects, except for maybe some mild discomfort and the break in my AM and PM coffee ritual. I did some Internet research in the afternoon, to determine how bad this would be, and to learn from the experience of others. (Basically, the more coffee you drink on a regular basis, the more it’s going to hurt.) By evening, I had a mild headache, so I took some ibuprofen before bed.
Tuesday: Woke up with that mild headache again. I tried the more “natural” painkilling solution, Phenocane (3 capsules). That made the pain fade for a while, but by lunchtime I was really feeling it, and I decided maybe a better approach would be 1) More ibuprofen and 2) A cup of coffee. Just one for the day. Hopefully I can skip entirely tomorrow, if my headache doesn’t start up again. I don’t want to live on painkillers all week, or suffer through, but maybe I can still reduce my caffeine intake to 25% of a normal week?
Wednesday: The headache is gone! I’ve been feeling better since yesterday’s cup of coffee combined with the ibuprofen. I waited all day for the headache to return, but I’m OK. So I guess this means I am caffeine-free at last? Let’s see how tomorrow goes.
Thursday: Another day headache-free! I haven’t been getting enough sleep, and that’s where the caffeine really would have helped today. I was groggy for a couple of hours, but I pushed through and didn’t go for that mid-afternoon cup.
Friday: About the same as Thursday. My poor sleep habits are really emphasized by the lack of caffeine.
Saturday: I had a mild headache today, and a backache, but I think it was a result of my long workout (90 minutes) rather than the lack of coffee. I was a little sad that I didn’t have at least one large-size cup to power me through the day. I took two ibuprofen before bed, and laid on an ice pack, for the aches and pains.
Sunday: I woke up without a headache, and my back felt better. I guess I didn’t injure myself Saturday.
Monday: At 10:30 AM I drank my first cup of coffee, post-withdrawal. Just a few minutes before that, I read this timely article, describing how caffeine’s effects on your body are related to very specific genes, which could make coffee good or bad for you. Hence the never-ending debate! Anyway, I felt the effects of the caffeine for about four hours (maybe a little more). I stayed away from the afternoon coffee break, for now.
Conclusion: Did my week-long experiment produce the desired result? After one cup of coffee, consumed slowly for about 45 minutes, I was still feeling the effects several hours later. My plan is to skip the afternoon cup for as long as possible during weekdays, and restrict myself to one “double” on the weekend. Let’s see how long it takes for my body to adapt.
My recommendations: Based on this experience, I would not recommend cutting off your coffee supply “cold turkey.” It might seem like the “macho” thing to do, but the headaches, cloudy brain, and fatigue are really nasty. Make a schedule of decreased coffee intake over the course of a few days. That’s what I plan to do next month. Also have some painkillers handy.
Get Fit Guy (aka Ben Greenfield) talks about the benefits of week-long breaks from caffeine as part of his workout strategy, in his podcast/blog post How to Trick Your Brain Into Giving Your Body a Better Workout (Part 2). It’s under Tip #1: Moderate Stimulants.
The Nutrition Diva talks about the benefits and risks of caffeine in her podcast/blog post Is Caffeine Bad For You?
