1.18.2006

Help! Caffeine Withdrawl

Ok, I am soooo tired. Once again I'm trying to cut down on my caffeine intake. Typically I begin my morning (post-shower, of course) with a cup of coffee. This cup, I reason, is to wake me up and help me get through the tortuous train ride to work. At work I fix myself a cup of tea or another cup of coffee so that I can make it through to lunch. Then, quite reasonably I think, I have yet another cup of coffee or tea in the afternoon to enable me to finish work on a strong note. It recently dawned on me that this might be too much of the good stuff in one day. So here I am now suffering through some serious withdrawl. Someone please tell me (perhaps from personal experience) 1) an effective way to cut back without killing onself or 2) that 3 cups a day is not really that much, and that, therefore, I can go back to my old ways . . . awake and happy. You will be my friend for life if you can help me.

8 comments:

Matthew of Sunny Swindon said...

Hey

I fully understand your desire to come off of Coffee. At Christmas we purchased a fantastic little Espresso machine and have been knocking the black liquid in quick shots for a couple of weeks now. I don’t so much walk to the office anymore, as “fly” – I am high as a kite.

There was a scare story in the UK Sunday Times last week. And I quote:

COFFEE is responsible for as much as a third of daily consumption of the cancer-causing chemical acrylamide, research by the United Nations has found.

The story goes on to say that drinking dark-roast coffee is better than medium or light… it is the process of roasting that creates acrylamide.

So as for giving up… don’t bother, just raise a cup of the STRONG stuff!!

Alyosha said...

Dark roast it is! Thanks for the tip, maximillion. My wife has been at me for some time and lately has resorted to the cancer argument. I don't think she read the article, but maybe she figures that anything that eats up the stomach can't be good. But it tastes sooo good, I say.

Matthew of Sunny Swindon said...

Go for it!! I tried to post a hyperlink to my comment so that you could read the Sunday Times story... but no joy.

Here it is: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1986413,00.html

Joy said...

Have you tried drinking half caf/half decaf, and transitioning from that to simply decaf? It doesn't taste quite as good, but it does give the illusion of caffeine. So much of my love of coffee is the smell and my desire to have a hot drink in hand during the winter.

We have free coffee and tea at my office now. This has not helped my attempts to cut back on caffeine.

Alyosha said...

That's because you work for the cool company, rilina.

Yeah, I've tried the half caf/half decaf trick before; it's actually a good idea. The problem is that I make so much of my own coffee, and it can be a nuisance grinding two separate kinds of beans and then mixing the them together. Okay, who am I kidding--I'm just lazy and lack the will power.

Joy said...

Grind some in advance. Yeah, yeah, I know it doesn't taste as good, but it does make life easier. I usually grind 2-3 days' supply at a time, so I get relatively fresh grinds without the daily morning hassle.

Tea generally does have less caffeine, so maybe have more tea than coffee?

yellowinter said...

yeah, i go with rilina. go for decaf so that you can sorta fool yourself into thinking that you've had a cup of coffee. besides, decaf still has a little bit of caffeine anyway. or, black tea. i heard that black tea is good for you. you know the benefits of green tea already, but i've heard that about black tea. you can do it, alyosha. i cut coffee out of my life for almost 5months, but i'm back. just decaf though. :) keep fighting! you can do it!

jason said...

I say what the heck, just drink it. Here is what you do, cut back on caffeine elsewhere..Don't drink soda.

"Oh, but I don't drink soda," you say. Well, then you are in luck b/c you don't need to change ANYTHING!!!