Caffeine & Me

Note: I’ve tried to word things in a way so that they wouldn’t trigger anyone but if you are affected by subjects such as losing weight & eating then this is a little disclaimer that those topics are covered.

Why I Quit Caffeine.

For those of you who know me, you will know that I love coffee. I would get a cappuccino before my lectures at college started, refill during breaks and always had a constant supply when I was working. I very rarely actually made the coffee; I would buy it from local businesses, the college canteen and pre-made cups sold by coffee brands to the corner shop. You might think that this is weird for a coffee lover but I have only ever been into Starbucks once (blasphemy, I know) and as of January this year decided to cut it out of my diet. Not only did I cut out coffee but I also ditched the energy drinks and fizzy juices. Here are my reasons why I cut out caffeine and how it affected me:

1. I wanted to lose weight. Losing weight has always been something that I have found difficult to achieve because of medical reasons but my relationship with caffeine was something that I decided was also a factor in not losing weight.  I had a look at the nutritional values on the packaged and found that the numbers were far higher than I wanted them to be. All the pre-prepared coffee and carbonated drinks were packed full of calories (not to mention sugars & fats) that weren’t even making me feel full so those plus snacking/eating meals was having an effect on my weight.  Therefore I switched to only drinking water and structuring out my meals to coincide with the daily nutritional guidelines.

2. I want to keep my teeth. I may not care about my outward appearance but I am rather fond of my teeth. As you all know: sugary drinks are bad for your teeth and erodes them. I have anxiety-induced dreams of mine falling out and, to be honest, I need them for chewing. I also didn’t spend years in braces just for them to get ruined. Plus paranoia over coffee breath just wasn’t worth it.

3. Caffeine also makes me extremely jittery. As soon as I realised that this was a factor in my anxiety, I cut it down. Removing it is something that I could cut out to reduce anxiety and hopefully help me have a better night’s sleep.

I expected it to be hard but despite having a couple of beverages here and there, it’s actually been a whole lot easier than I thought it would be. I used to rely on it making me feel more awake but it would never work when I needed it to and would only kick in as I was trying to get to sleep. For the last 3 years I’ve been working on drinking more water (and basically not taking any unexpected trips to the dentist) so ditching the fizzy drinks was more of a natural occurrence and I have to say; I don’t miss them.

In the end, cutting out caffeine has helped me in my battle with anxiety. Not only do I sleep better but I’ve also been losing weight steadily (with a diet & lifestyle change) and I’ve not had to have any more treatment done at the dentist bar my usual check-ups. I will occasionally let myself have a coffee or fizzy drink but only on days when I feel really good otherwise it makes me shaky and I go on a downward spiral mentally. I don’t miss it and the effects have only been positive.

So what about you, dear reader? Have you tried cutting out caffeine? If you haven’t; do you think you could?

See you on Friday!

Slightly less anxiously,

Me