Hot Cup of Stress
30 Lessons from My 30 Days Without Caffeine
In this week’s episode of The 5 AM Miracle Podcast I discuss my recent 30-day break from caffeine and how it radically changed my perspective on energy, health, and productivity.
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The 5 AM Miracle Podcast, hosted by Jeff Sanders
Episode #593: Hot Cup of Stress: 30 Lessons from My 30 Days Without Caffeine
Jeff Sanders
Good morning and welcome to The 5 AM Miracle, episode #593: Hot Cup of Stress: 30 Lessons from My 30 Days Without Caffeine.
I am Jeff Sanders, and you have reached the podcast that is dedicated to dominating your day before breakfast.
I am a keynote speaker and corporate trainer, and to learn more about that, head over to
Jeff Sanders.com slash speaking.
During the episode this week, I'll break down 30 lessons that I learned while over-consuming caffeine, taking a 30-day break, and then slowly crafting a whole new normal.
Let's get to it.
So let's kick off this conversation with a medical disclaimer.
always the best way to begin. I am not a doctor or medical or dietary
advice, and I cannot guarantee any perfect accuracy on this topic as much as I would
love to. However, I have done a lot of research, both personal and of course online
digging through all kinds of great stuff. What I have discovered right at the top
is that caffeine specifically has been clouded with myths over the years.
and many of these myths have been debunked by lots of new science,
and I'll do my best to present what I know to be true today
with the caveat that what I'm presenting may likely change in the future
as more details come about.
Caffeine is one of the most studied substances on planet Earth,
and so there is a lot to dig into if you really want the nitty-gritty details.
But let's begin this conversation with a simple question.
Why discuss coffee, caffeine, stimulants?
What is the reason for the episode?
Well, first of all, caffeine is the most used psychoactive substance in the world.
About 80% of the world population, most people on planet Earth, consume caffeine every single day with a daily intake equal to 200 milligrams, which is about the same as a small Starbucks coffee, also known as a tall Starbucks coffee.
caffeine itself has profound impacts on personal health and productivity,
which is what this podcast has been all about since day one.
And as you've heard over the last 12 years on this show,
caffeine has played a very large role in my energy, enthusiasm,
the things that I promote.
I have always been a very big fan of leveraging caffeine intelligently for your best self to be a phenomenal high achiever.
But in the conversation this week, you're going to hear a different take from me.
Now, I am personally invested, aside from what I just mentioned of discussing caffeine for quite a while now, back in my late 20s, I took a 30-day break from caffeine as a test.
But aside from those 30 days, I have drank some form of coffee, literally just coffee itself, every single day from age 14 to 40.
That is 26 years in a row of a coffee-consuming lifestyle.
So to say that I have been one of those many people on planet Earth who loves caffeine, absolutely.
That has been my story and will likely continue to be my story, but with a lot of changes, which I'm very excited to share with you this week.
So to open this conversation about caffeine, let's discuss a little biology.
How does caffeine work?
Well, caffeine blocks adenosine, a neurotransmitter in the brain, from connecting to its receptors.
That actually leads to a stimulant effect in your body.
Well, other neurotransmitters like noraphenephrin and dopamine increase as well,
which will then make you feel good as the dopamine hit.
But it also will increase your stress hormones.
And that's where you feel that sense of anxiety that could come from the caffeine.
Well, adenosine will build up in the brain while you're caffeinated.
And then your crash that comes later is when the caffeine is metabolized and adenosine comes rushing in, making you feel sleepy and groggy and irritable.
So in a nutshell, caffeine itself is not an energy source.
It is blocking you from being tired temporarily and that, of course, you feel that fatigue later on when all the adenosine just rushes in, you crash and all those negative feelings are present.
So to begin this conversation about caffeine, we have to acknowledge the fact that caffeine is not a source of energy.
It isn't.
We want it to be.
We believe that it is.
We experience it as a source of energy.
But in reality, it's fake.
And knowing that it's fake could change your perception on whether or not you want to consume it or in the way that you are consuming it now.
I have found that knowledge to be very helpful because it helps to reintroduce the reality that there are other ways.
to get better energy in your life, and when those become your priority,
you actually can feel a lot better without the side effects that caffeine provides
if you've been relying on that as an energy source.
Now, to further this conversation, let's talk about why caffeine is awesome,
why people love it so much, and really the tremendous health benefits you can get
from coffee, but specifically caffeine itself.
I've done a lot of research on this.
I have read many books, which I'll share with you today, as well as lots of online research.
And the one thing that's very clear to me is that people love this stuff.
People are, yes, in some ways they're addicted to it.
But specifically, people who are proponents of caffeine love caffeine, and they will tell you these health benefits all day, every day, to reinforce their emotional attachment to this drug.
Those who are opposed to caffeine will have the exact same argument on the opposite end of the spectrum.
They're also very passionate about caffeine, but it being bad for you.
My position today stems from my bias as a pro-cafine guy for decades.
However, my recent experiences have changed that perspective,
and I'm going to do my very best to be as objective as I can this week,
with the caveat that everything that I am saying is through my own personal experience,
and of course I'm very biased in lots of ways.
So with these health benefits, coffee and specifically caffeine can lower your risk of Parkinson's disease.
It may protect you from Alzheimer's and dementia.
It can lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, lower your risk of cancers like liver, prostate, and others.
It can improve liver health.
It can enhance your cognitive function, memory, and problem solving.
It can lower your risk of heart failure and stroke.
It's one of the greatest sources of antioxidants for most Americans, which is a terrible reality.
It can reduce your risk of depression.
It can enhance athletic performance, increase alertness in reaction times, reduce fatigue, increase longevity.
There's a lot.
This is a long list.
Coffee and caffeine specifically can have all of these tremendous health benefits.
Now, with the caveat that this is all based on the possibility for these things to happen, there's no guarantee.
you will personally experience any or all of these things.
But the potential is there.
The science is there.
Once again, this is the most studied drug on the planet.
And these are consistent results across the board.
Many, many studies showing very similar results that a moderate consumption of caffeine can lead to tremendous health outcomes.
On the flip side, coffee and caffeine specifically can have tremendous consequences, including
increase of stress. It can cause rapid heart rate, anxiety, and panic attacks.
It can cause digestive problems, gas, bloating, poor digestion, acid reflux, nausea, diarrhea.
It can disrupt your sleep no matter how little you consume. This is a big point for later.
No matter how little you consume, it does disrupt your sleep.
Caffeine can cause muscle tremors. It can increase your risk of osteoporosis and ulcers.
Withdrawal symptoms can include headaches, fatigue, irritability, lack of motivation, and depression, and of course, can lead to dependence and addiction.
These are two very long lists on two sides of the coin.
The yen and the yang here are real.
Coffee is not perfect.
It's also not terrible.
It's also not awesome.
It is both.
It's both at the same time, which leads to a very convoluted conversation.
What do we do with this? Now, you may come like the 80% of the world does from the perspective that you already consume this every day. I have to make the assumption that you as the listener are in that 80% group that caffeine is part of your lifestyle. Now, if it's not, and you do not consume caffeine and it has not been part of your life for a while, and you're listening here just to learn more about this, well, welcome. But really, this conversation is for those who already consume caffeine and want to do so in a moment.
more intelligent manner. So I'm now going to share with you my story of consuming
caffeine, which led to an overconsumption, and then a massive crash, so I took a 30-day
break, and then my response afterwards. This conversation has been a long time coming.
I have never been more excited to discuss a topic on this podcast as I have been for
this episode. I've been talking to my wife, Tessa, about caffeine nonstop for months.
and if anything, this episode is for her.
So Tessa, welcome.
I'm glad you're here listening because I want to share 30 lessons that I have pulled from this.
And she didn't believe that I had 30 lessons to pull from this experience.
But believe me, there are more than that.
I had to consolidate a lot of my ideas to squeeze this in.
So if you're ready to listen, this is going to be a great story to tell because I really truly believe that for most people on planet Earth, as we've just
learned, they have an addiction that they're unaware of, and they have the potential
to change their life in ways they would never have imagined were possible.
So let's get right to it, and we'll start with what essentially is my 20-plus years
of caffeine consumption and the lessons that I pulled from being caffeinated.
Now, the funny thing here is I could have made this list months and years ago to explain
what it felt like to be caffeinated every single day.
But the hindsight today that I have, the clarity I have looking back on it, has shifted my perspective, which we'll get to more of in a minute.
But when you consume something and then you stop, and then you return to it again, and then you stop again.
With each of those changes, you change and morph and evolve your opinion on how this substance impacts your life.
And I have found that that clarity is such a powerful tool and one of the best self-awareness
strategies you could possibly employ for any habit change.
So from that perspective, let's begin with the first lesson from when I was
caffeinated, which is that I love caffeine, not coffee.
There's a very good chance that you don't like the beverage you think you do.
You just like the caffeine and the high you get from it.
I thought that I love to drink coffee, but have since learned that caffeine from
any source is what I'm actually craving.
As a good example of that, most people do not like decaf coffee because they want
the drug, not the taste.
And it's been fascinating these last few weeks, especially this last week or so,
as I have returned to caffeine and I have not returned to coffee.
It's fascinating the fact that when I had my 30 days off of caffeine, I didn't actually
crave coffee.
I thought for so long that I loved my morning brew.
my morning multiple bruise. I had so much coffee for so many years, I just assumed I love coffee.
No, don't get me wrong. Coffee still tastes good. I still like the beverage.
But the reason I drank it was the caffeine, always was and always will be.
Now, on top of that, I also enjoy the routine of making it, but not having that routine recently is actually given me more time for productivity and other things in my life.
and honestly I don't actually miss it, even though I did enjoy having that part of my life.
So from that perspective, this first lesson, you have to ask the question for yourself.
Do you love the beverage you think you do?
Or do you just love the high you get from the caffeine?
I think this is the most important first question, because this could lead to change that you would otherwise never imagine.
Your beverage may not be your beverage.
It might be something totally different.
Lesson number two, high-quality coffee matters.
When I drank coffee, I always drank organic, high-quality, dark roast,
Arabica beans.
I brewed each cup one by one in an aeropress and did so for 8 to 10 years.
My goal in that process was specifically to minimize acidity.
Coffee is naturally acidic, and you know this if you drink low-quality coffee,
Think of a gas station, a place you go where they serve the worst coffee.
You know it's bad.
And when you drink it, your stomach gets upset.
You get acid reflux.
It's just this really awful experience.
I can feel that so quickly.
If I have bad coffee, I know it in the first couple of sips and I put it down.
So when I drank coffee, it was always the question of what is the highest quality brew I can get my hands on to make sure that that specific reaction was not part of the process.
If you currently drink low-quality coffee and you do so consistently, or really any highly processed caffeinated beverage, you're doing yourself a massive disservice.
And I would argue you only have two choices.
Either stop with coffee altogether or switch to a very high-quality, low-acidity coffee.
You will thank me because it will change your experience immediately in the very first cup.
And it just tastes great.
So really, why not?
Lesson number three, and this should have been number one, but coffee is a drug, and it's addicting.
After my morning two cups that I would have consistently, my body would always crave a third, even though I knew it would send me over the line and I would definitely be too caffeinated.
I always wanted more.
There was never a day where I had two cups and wanted to stop.
I always wanted a third cup.
The reality about addiction is a complicated one, and there are a lot of people.
who will argue that coffee cannot be consumed as an addictive substance because coffee is not cocaine, it's not heroin, it doesn't fall into the category of significant addiction.
But if you ask the average person who consumes caffeine, which is almost everyone, how would you feel if you did not have your coffee tomorrow morning?
How would you feel if you went an entire day, an entire week, an entire month without your caffeine fix?
how would you feel? And the reality is that people always hesitate. There's always
that sense of, but I have to have my coffee. This is part of who I am and what I do.
And when those types of excuses and rationalizations show up, that's the addiction talking.
You know if you're not addicted to something, if I asked the exact same question and you say, yeah, no big deal.
No, I'm fine. I can go without. I can.
go without for as long as I want. I am choosing to consume this. It's always a choice
for me. Well, in that case, you're good. But if you're not there, if you hesitate,
if it sounds in any way like it's going to cause harm or withdrawal symptoms,
I hate to break it to you, but you fall into the category of caffeine being an
addiction for you. And I say this from years of experience. I know how this feels,
which is also why I know how it felt to break from it, which will get
to in just a minute. Lesson number four, boundaries matter. You know, I never
personally drank coffee after 12 p.m. on the vast majority of days. I held noon as
my boundary to say if I'm going to have caffeine, it's going to happen in the morning
hours. I would on occasion have a green tea in the afternoon that wasn't very common
and frankly when it did, I didn't always really need it. It just sounded kind of fun.
But the reality is that daily boundaries are extremely important to make sure that you have a cohesive functioning day where you're not just always stimulated all the time.
Yes, there are those who can drink coffee all day long and then fall asleep just fine even with an espresso at 9 p.m.
I'm not one of those people.
You are probably not one of those people.
The vast majority of people cannot metabolize caffeine that quickly and you know yourself.
You know this is true for you or not.
But I would argue that if your boundary is not already in place, then set one.
Find a reasonable time earlier in the day, noon or sooner, to cut off your caffeine for the day and see how that impacts your energy.
Generally speaking, it's going to benefit you in a lot of ways.
And speaking of boundaries, lesson number five, caffeine is a massive sleep disruptor.
You know this. You know the caffeine affects your sleep.
You know the boundaries are there for a reason.
to guarantee you get to bed on time that you sleep well, that it's the best sleep you can possibly get.
But there's a problem.
The problem I alluded to earlier, which is that it doesn't matter how much caffeine you consume in a day,
it will have a negative impact on your sleep that night.
You can have the smallest of caffeine doses, and it will still be in your system when you go to bed tonight.
That is how caffeine works.
The half-life of caffeine is six hours, which means it takes 12.
12 hours for your caffeine levels to drop to 25% of their levels.
And it takes 18 hours for it to drop even more, 24 hours to drop even more.
It's in your system for a long time.
And so if your intention is to get great sleep, caffeine has to be reduced.
Because it will be in your system.
It will impact your sleep.
And I'll explain more of that when I go through my break.
But just know for now the lesson here is clear.
Caffeine negatively impacts your sleep, and it's painful, but it's real.
Lesson number six.
Coffee significantly changes your body's natural energy cycles.
So you know this from the experience of the adenosine crash, right?
When your caffeine is metabolized, the crash shows up usually later in the afternoon, and you just feel terrible.
Now, depending on, once again, many of those factors, your habits, diet, stress, schedule, normal energy cycle.
you're asleep the night before.
All of these things can significantly impact how much the caffeine drop or crash will impact your life.
The funny thing is, is that as I've looked back on my life when I've had these kind of highs in the morning and then afternoon crashes,
is that I actually kind of like it.
This is a weird reality about, I think, what we get used to is that I am so used to having a very energetic and mentally,
stimulating morning and then a much more low-key afternoon. Now, historically,
naturally, your body will probably go through some cycles where that will be the
case. You will have more energy in the morning and less in the afternoon. Caffeine
amplifies that experience and to some degree makes it a lot better and then a lot
worse. And it's up to you to decide, do you like those extremes or like to be more
in the middle? And as I have kind of gone through a number of these different changes in
cycles, I actually tend to prefer the one that has a little more of a lift in the
morning and a little more of a dip in the afternoon.
Now, technically, to be more productive throughout the day, sure, lots of energy all
day long is preferable, but the reality is that's not how creativity works.
It's not how daily rhythms work.
We tend to do well when there's a change in the day, when there's certain times
of the day, we are in certain locations, we do certain activities, and then the day shifts,
and we shift our patterns, our focus, our energy.
There is a benefit to the rhythm of the day,
and so to a certain degree, caffeine can help to benefit that.
On the opposite side, it can be a little too much.
Lesson number seven.
To steal a phrase from a YouTuber named Justin Merck's,
coffee provides a delusional sense of purpose.
So I watched so many YouTube videos about coffee and caffeine withdrawal
and from all these different people who have quit caffeine and explain their experience in a similar way to what I'm doing here.
And this one guy just kept going back to this phrase that I think is perfect.
It defines my caffeine experience beautifully.
That caffeine provides a delusional sense of purpose.
That you feel this sense of euphoria and you amplify everything and everything just seems awesome.
But it's fake.
It's not real.
It's literally a delusion because if you didn't have the caffeine,
that same experience would be pretty mediocre.
It'd be just a normal day.
Now, the funny thing is that when I first heard this description, my initial
inclination was to agree with him that, yes, that is what coffee does, and we
should avoid that.
We should avoid this sense of being delusional about our day.
But the more I thought about it, the more I actually realized that, no, I actually
kind of like that.
From my perspective, that's a win.
Like, I'm okay with feeling people.
purpose driven from a drug, as long as it has a net positive impact on my mental
and physical health and my productivity and the side effects are minimal or non-existent.
That's a hard line to toe, which we'll get to more in just a minute, but from the
simple perspective of a delusional sense of purpose, I think that's a real thing,
and I think it actually is beneficial.
This is your call. Everything here is subjective, but if this phrase resonates
with you that coffee provides a delusional sense of purpose, then maybe that speaks
to the idea that you understand that coffee is a drug, it has an impact on your
life, and you are opting into this on purpose, which is kind of a foreshadowing
for the point that I'll make at the end that all of this is about intention.
Lesson Number 8.
Not every caffeine source has the same impact.
This one seems fairly obvious, but it didn't really hit me until the last few months when I increased my espresso consumption.
Now, I love espresso, but it clearly has way too much caffeine, especially when combined with the already two coffees and green teas I was already happy.
What I realized in my research, and this is truly fascinating, is that caffeine is in everything.
And I mean everything.
I was shocked to realize how many products have caffeine as an additive to enhance the experience.
Now, there's the obvious ones, coffee, espresso, tea, soda, energy drinks, and also chocolate or chocolate.
cacao powder, gum, granola bars, supplements, pre-workout mixes.
The list goes on and on of caffeine being this stimulants that is just
forced into all these foods.
And so even if you're not aware of how much you're consuming, it's in so many
things.
And to realize that not only is it everywhere, but that each of these different
sources have a different impact on your body, there becomes this kind of daunting
challenge to figure out how much caffeine am I actually consuming, how much sugar,
how many stimulants, how many drugs, it's a lot, potentially.
Now, maybe your lifestyle avoids most of these things, or maybe these things
have snuck into your life over time. But to realize that it's everywhere and the
impact can vary from product to product and day to day means we have to be more
intentional, we have to be more aware of everything we choose to consume. Caffeine is a
drug and it's powerful.
Lesson number nine.
I usually drink coffee on an empty stomach and I now regret that.
So I love intermittent fasting.
I have done it for years.
I've had tremendous benefits from doing lots of different fasting protocols.
About four or five years ago, I lost a ton of weight while doing it.
I then slowly regained it when I quit fasting.
But the impact of fasting has incredible benefits.
I can go on for a long time about that.
But there is a dark side to fasting beyond the obviousness of you're not eating for a while and that can be painful.
The dark side is that if you do the research that I have done, which at the time four or five years ago was a lot of read many books in the topic,
it is extremely common for black coffee and green tea to be recommended as things you can consume while doing a fast because these substances, black coffee and pure green tea, have no insulin response in your body.
body. There's no calories. And as a calorie-free substance, in theory,
these are wins. You can consume all you want while fasting, and it will block your
hunger, and you will feel great and continue to push forward fasting even longer.
It's a great sales pitch. But man, is it really flawed? Because the reality is that
drinking, black coffee especially, on an empty stomach, is hard for your body to process.
If you're trying to avoid ulcers and acid reflux and digestive problems,
I wouldn't do the black coffee thing while fasting.
In fact, I would never drink black coffee on an empty stomach ever again.
In the last few weeks, I reintroduced breakfast, which I'll discuss more in just a minute.
But part of this process was to not only eradicate fasting and move on from that,
but specifically to eradicate this response my body would have by drinking coffee on an empty stomach.
Your experience here may vary, but from my experience, it did not work.
And I didn't realize it for a long, long time.
But now that I'm here, I'm not going back.
Lesson number 10.
The cycle of tolerance building and then refueling your addiction is real and it backfires.
So this is the story of addiction in general.
But what I saw with myself was that my caffeine tolerance increased very slowly.
over many, many years.
So it was hard to see coming.
And it resulted in me drinking coffee every single morning just to get back to baseline.
You know this experience, the kind of feeling of I can't function yet.
Let me get my coffee first.
It's 6 a.m.
I haven't had my coffee.
Let me get that coffee.
And then I'll go to the morning meeting.
I'll go say hi to my kids.
I'll go function in society.
But I can't do any of that until I've had my coffee.
All you're really saying is I have to.
to get my drug to return to baseline.
And this is the experience.
This is not a fluke.
This is how everyone experiences caffeine over time as your tolerance builds.
Feeling great requires more caffeine than what you usually take in.
Because taking in your usual amount gets to baseline.
You have to exceed your caffeine norms to then feel fantastic.
Well, guess what?
If you increase your caffeine consumption over time, you will increase your tolerance.
and then the amount of caffeine you have to consume to feel normal, guess what?
That goes up and up and up, and this cycle doesn't stop.
Now, not every person on earth is consuming increasing amounts of caffeine every single day all the time.
That's not a typical experience.
But isn't it?
Isn't that how this goes is that we just need more to feel normal?
If that's your experience, there is more to this story than just simply saying, I need more coffee.
I think the answer is you need less.
Lesson number 11.
Coffee has two lives, the initial impact and the lingering impact.
So what I noticed very clearly was that caffeine consistently made me happy, productive, focused, and motivated,
while simultaneously making me irritable, jumpy, argumentative, scattered, and unfocused.
How is this possible?
Right?
I alluded to this earlier.
We have the yen and the yang here.
We have coffee with tremendous health benefits and also consequences.
Coffee has two lives.
And the weird thing is we usually experience these emotions and these mood swings
and these feelings of euphoria and chaos simultaneously.
Yes, you might feel more of the euphoria at first and then more of the jitteriness and craziness later.
But what I tend to notice over time was that the more caffeine I consume,
the more likely I was to feel the positive and the negative simultaneously,
and then as I consumed even more over time, more of the negativity would show up faster and more frequently and more intensely.
And so coffee has two lives, but I think the lingering impact of those negative consequences, they have a tendency to win out, especially if your consumption increases and especially if you don't realize it while it's happening.
Lesson number 12.
Coffee specifically has a negative impact on gut health.
Other caffeine sources may not, whether that's green tea or energy supplements
or where else you get your caffeine from.
Coffee has a weird and negative impact on your digestion.
It can cause bloating, diarrhea, nausea, all kinds of chaos.
And what I've also seen in my life in the last few years is I've had an increasing number of
food intolerances, which are foods that I used to consume and feel just fine consuming,
and now my body hates them.
And I'm not sure at this point if that's from simple aging or dietary changes or caffeine, coffee.
Honestly, I'm not sure.
But I do know that coffee has a definite significant and negative impact on gut health in general.
It absolutely affects my gut in a negative way.
So if you're looking to improve your gut health, I would look for an
alternative caffeine source besides coffee and see how that helps you.
My personal experience tends to lean away from coffee now for this very reason.
In addition to this conversation about digestive health, there's another kind of side note here that I heard one other person online mention that I think is incredibly important.
Coffee and tea, the two beverages I have the most often, caused me to want to pee more often.
It increases the urgency to have to go to the restroom.
Now, tea is a diuretic, yes, coffee actually is not.
It's one of the myths I looked up multiple times that coffee itself, though is not a diuretic, from my experience in research, still causes you to want to go to the restroom more often.
All that to say, if you are consuming things that are causing that type of effect and you don't want that effect anymore, you may have to change what you do.
Lesson number 13.
This one is a biggie.
Overconsuming caffeine can lead to heightened anxiety and panic attacks.
Ten years ago, I had a season of my life that was highly stressful and that resulted in heightened anxiety and panic attacks.
At one point, I went to the ER, and a doctor told me that I was just pushing far too hard.
part of me pushing hard at the time was in my business and with my health goals,
I was simply, yes, consuming caffeine more than I should have, but really I was working way too much and burning myself out in every direction.
Well, I found a nice rhythm after that season to really calm myself down, but I never realized even then that coffee played a significant role in that entire conversation.
Now, fast forward 10 years to about a couple of months ago, and I changed up a bit of
of my caffeine habits and began to increase how much espresso I had every day.
Because I really liked it. I had this new espresso machine.
Wanted to try it. Wanted to take it to the next level. It sounds great on paper.
But the reality was as I began to increase my tolerance and then began to increase
my consumption to between 400 milligrams and 500 milligrams per day.
Now, the average recommended maximum is around 400 milligrams per day.
I was hitting and exceeding that number day after day, week after week, month after month.
And over time, that consistent overconsumption of caffeine led to really bizarre anxiety experiences.
Everything from I'm driving down the highway and feeling weirdly anxious or getting my haircut or having a phone call.
Random activities that were no big deal before all of a sudden became scary.
And I kept thinking like, what is going on?
I'm not even stressed about anything in my life right now.
Why do I feel like this?
Well, after a couple of months of experiencing these growing anxiety experiences,
I had a virtual call scheduled one morning and I showed up to it feeling okay.
But as the call started, a legitimate panic attack set in.
And the call went very poorly.
I felt awful about the entire experience.
And it was the smack in the face moment that I was.
I needed. It was the realization that something is wrong. I knew there were signs,
but I didn't specifically have the pinpoint of here's the problem. But then it dawned on me,
I think I've been overconsuming caffeine. And with that realization, I knew the only
path forward is to test that theory. I've got to find out, is this true or not,
and take a clean break. Which brings us to part two of this big conversation this week.
I'm now going to share the lessons that I learned from my break from caffeine
and how this played out for me.
So the very first step that I took once I decided that a clean break would happen
was to schedule it.
I went to my calendar and said,
here's the start date for my 30 day break.
And between now and then, which is about three weeks,
I'm going to slowly wean off my caffeine doses to get down to the smallest amount
that I can before I go to zero.
which brings us to lesson number 14, which is that if you are choosing to go into a caffeine break,
transitioning slowly from your current caffeine levels to zero is a fantastic idea.
And I do not recommend the opposite.
A clean break is a bad idea.
Plenty people can do it and do it all the time.
But my recommendation is to take this slow.
So if you're the kind of person like I was consuming 400 milligrams a day or more,
more, then take this process slowly over three or four weeks and just gradually
reduce your levels.
If you're consuming kind of the average American dose of two to 300 milligrams
per day, it's your call, but I would still say a couple of weeks is a good idea.
If you're at less than 200 milligrams a day, you could do one week or less,
but I think it's better once again to still maximize your time, make this slow
and gradual and make the next step down feel like a natural step.
If it feels aggressive, just back it off because this process is not meant to be
jarring or painful. It's actually meant to be the exact opposite.
Reducing your levels of caffeine can be a beautiful thing.
Now, from my experience, what I actually wound up doing was reducing my caffeine from
400 milligrams a day down to 200. So I just had two black coffees per day. I did
that for two weeks, and then I went down to just one black coffee a day for about
four days, and then I got antsy and said, forget it, I'm going to start now,
and just went cold turkey the next day. And so by the end of those, about three
week period, I was ready. And that's all it really took for me to say, let's dive in
and make this happen. Now, lesson number 15 is actually a better way for you to approach
what I did not do, which is that since caffeine is present in so many foods,
your goal is actually to be extremely intentional about everywhere caffeine is in your life.
We just said this earlier that caffeine is in many sources.
Coffee, espresso, tea, soda, energy drinks, chocolate, cacao powder, gum, granola bar, supplements, pre-workouts.
The list goes on.
Well, what I didn't do was cut out all caffeine sources.
I cut out 98% of my caffeine, so I stopped with all coffee and all tea.
But I kept eating chocolate, just a little bit, but just enough that it was always kind of present even throughout this break.
So I would argue that even on most days, I actually had none, that on enough days there was chocolate presents that this wasn't a perfect 30 days of zero caffeine.
But it was really, really close.
So on my next round of 30 days off in the future, yes, it will definitely include zero caffeine and I'll be very intentional about every single source.
And for you to do a similar process, I recommend a clean break.
Once again, gradually reduce your levels down to zero, but then actually stay at zero the entire time.
Whether that's three days, 30 days, longer, shorter, whatever the case happens to be for you, make it a clean break.
And you'll really appreciate the benefits a lot more.
Lesson number 16.
Here's where everything falls apart.
So lesson 16 is that the first two to three weeks of this caffeine withdrawal period, your break, it will be exhausting, it will be unproductive, it will be unmotivating, it will be weird.
There's no way around it.
There's no avoiding it.
It doesn't matter how slowly you gradually reduce your levels of caffeine.
When you get to zero, after having been caffeinated for many years or decades, the withdrawal symptoms will hit you.
They're going to be goofy and you're going to really want to go back to caffeine.
I have never felt so useless in my entire life as I did just last month when I went through this period.
I had no motivation.
I could do the least amount possible per day to stay in some ways productive.
Now, this is a very common response and it does pass with time.
These couple of weeks will end and you will begin to feel better shortly thereafter.
but there is that period of time where you just will crash.
And it's normal, but it's still kind of goofy to go through.
And so I would recommend, I guess to a certain degree, to do what I did,
which was to schedule it during a time of the year when you're not expected to do very much.
So as it turns out, I scheduled this break in the middle of the summer,
which was not intentional.
That just happened to be when my caffeine levels spiked and I needed to take a break.
Well, I took this break in the middle of the summer when nobody was expecting
me to do very much.
My summer months in my industry are slow.
And so for me to disappear for two or three weeks was actually okay.
I got lucky, though.
I definitely got lucky.
And so if I choose to do these breaks in the future, they will always be in the
slowest seasons of the year.
And if you choose this same process, choose a slow season, take time away from work,
away from activities, and prepare yourself to just,
Just chill.
Because that's what's going to happen.
You are going to chill like you've never chilled before and it's going to be glorious.
Weird but amazing.
Okay.
Lesson number 17.
Because of this lack of energy and lack of motivation, during your break, focus on physical activities.
Exercise and work are actually stress inducers, which will make you feel more alive than anything.
I actually felt my best during and right after every single workout or when I was doing a very intense work activity, although there were very few of those.
Those are the only times in my day when I actually felt alive.
Because once again, coffee and these stimulants and caffeine are stress inducers.
Well, your body has been so used to being stressed that that's when you actually wake up and respond.
So during the break, if you're fatigued, if you're tired, you want to wake yourself up, move.
Physical activities are wonderful.
You will feel healthier, be healthier, and actually be more awake and alert.
Lesson number 18.
On the opposite end of that spectrum, your sleep will be amazing.
So I was averaging around seven and a half hours a night before this break.
During the break and since then, I now get nine hours or more.
Crazy, crazy amounts of sleep.
I napped frequently.
I was dreaming and still am dreaming a lot.
It's incredible what happened with my sleep.
I cannot underplay how powerful this part is.
If you watch videos online, you read about caffeine withdrawal, this pops up over
and over again that your sleep will be the best it's been in decades.
It is amazing.
It's so hard to express how good the sleep is.
And it's very indicative of the fact that you've been missing this.
that you have not been experiencing this because you've been so caffeinated,
if this is your story, that this could have been your life for a long time.
You could have been sleeping this well for a long time,
but you haven't been because you've been caffeinated,
which I think is really, really telling.
There's so much power here and so much we can do to improve our health,
improve our sleep, improve our energy,
and this was one area that stood out in a very profound way.
Lesson number 19.
During the break, take advantage of the fact that you have this lower energy by doubling down on your healthy habits.
So when I was feeling, you know, down and lethargic and not motivated, I decided that my health would be my top priority.
So I began to meditate a lot more.
I had dietary changes, new supplements, more exercise, more sleep.
I toyed with a little bit of journaling, but I'm not really much of a journaler myself.
But I really introduced as many different healthy habits as possible to lean into this season, to really acknowledge and say, yes, this is a slower season.
I am chilling out.
Let's take advantage of that.
Let's really embrace it and make this all it can be.
And speaking of that, let's double down on one of those.
Lesson number 20 is that meditation for me went from a thing I rarely do to a thing I'm now obsessed with.
So I've talked about meditation on this podcast for 12 years as a habit that I just could never figure out.
It was a healthy habit that people talked about and then some said it was life changing.
And I always just kind of dismissed it.
And I always said, well, yeah, I've tried it.
Yeah, it's okay.
I don't love it.
Well, guess what?
I now love it.
I'm now in that camp and it took me ditching coffee to get there.
And I think the reason why was because I was never fully able to be present.
I was never fully able to relax until the caffeine was gone.
I couldn't truly embrace the moment of just sitting still and just breathing
and just listening to a very soft set of music or just nothing at all and just letting myself sit in the silence.
It's an incredible thing if you approach it from an angle that allows for that level of depth.
But you can't.
You literally physiologically cannot appreciate.
approach it from that angle if you have the stimulants pumping through your veins 24-7.
And so if you're going to take advantage of this time and this season and you want to make the most of it, and meditation could be part of that experience, I say lean in.
It's a really, really great thing.
As far as my habits during this season, I would meditate twice a day, 20 minutes in the morning when I first woke up, and then another 20 minutes in the late afternoon.
really two parts of the day where my energy was typically the lowest, and meditation
felt really natural in those times to really lean into that.
And surprisingly, even the meditation session that I had first thing when I woke up
did not cause me to fall back asleep.
Actually stayed awake fairly easily, and it went really well.
So if you want to test meditation, I'm all for it.
I'm in.
It's a great thing.
Lesson number 21.
As an extension of the lower energy and the meditation,
I have never been more generally calm in my entire life.
I can't express in words how I felt, but the resounding sense of peace that I had was unrivaled.
It was remarkable.
It was profound.
It was this sense of just, I couldn't be more chill if I tried.
I've never in my adult life, or maybe in my entire life, experienced that sense of calm like I did.
did in the middle of this break.
It was a sense of nothing can bother me.
Nothing can upset me.
I literally felt like I could just walk into any scenario and feel completely
fine with no anxiety, no tension, no stress.
It was unbelievable.
I have a hard time expressing exactly how it was, but truly life-changing
levels of calm.
And so if you want to be able to experience that, you cannot do it any
other way. Letting go of all caffeine sources for at least a few weeks is the only
path. All stimulants, you've got to go in deep. But if you do, my goodness, it's,
it was great. Lesson number 22. To take that to the extreme, being too relaxed
is a real thing. You know, as much as I just played up how awesome it was to be
calm. And it was. There is a dark side to everything. And in this case,
a literal sense of apathy or even sadness. I was so calm and have no experience
being that calm that I didn't know how to respond to it. As much as I truly enjoyed
it and it was a phenomenal juxtaposition to being stressed out. I think I went from
one extreme to the other. I went from overly anxious and crazy to I'm so calm now. I'm
borderline depressed. Now, it didn't last very long, a couple of days at most,
and I swung out of it. And I think looking back at it, it was part of the withdrawal
process. I was experiencing every emotion that I needed to to really let the caffeine
go and find a new normal. But I bring this point up because I want you to know if you
go through a similar experience that this is possible to happen. And from my experience,
It's not a bad thing, but it is something to note and something to be aware of that when you are super happy and up, you could also be angry and jittery and crazy.
If you're super down and calm and chill, you could be sad or depressed.
All these emotions tend to come together as groups.
And so to understand that going into it, I think will help you to really navigate that with a lot more skill.
Lesson number 23.
A complete transition off of caffeine, in other words, breaking from caffeine
for life, takes months.
Not weeks, not days, not hours.
It takes months.
This was the thing that bugged me more than anything else.
So I read books, I watched videos, I did research, and I kept looking for, what's the fastest way to do this?
What is the fastest way?
This is the productivity mind in me saying, I want to do this, I want to get it done, I want to move on.
And I kept looking for the quick fix.
I kept looking for the pill that you take that says, man, if I just do this, this whole caffeine withdrawal thing will be over.
I'll feel fantastic and I'll move on.
No.
Just no.
That's not how this works.
An actual full experience to go from a person who is caffeinated to a person who is not and feeling great takes at least three months, if not six.
nine, 12, or more.
It sucks to hear that.
I just, I want to be able to say this process is fairly efficient, but it is not.
It takes a long time.
You know, looking back at my experience last year when I went sober and let go of all alcohol forever, that experience seems like a cakewalk compared to caffeine.
It seems so easy.
And in reality, it was for me.
I was not an alcoholic.
I was just a guy with a bad habit.
And I let it go fairly easily.
And to go alcohol-free was not a big lift.
But to go caffeine-free is 10 times, 100 times more involved for me.
And that may be the case for you as well.
And so if you're looking for the long-term transition into a caffeine-free lifestyle,
which is a fantastic goal to shoot for, my argument is to fully understand what you're saying yes to and to embrace the patience,
to embrace the journey that this is going to be a slow process, and you will be
yourself again, but it's going to take a long time.
And even if you do get back to a caffeine-free self, you're never going to get
back to the version of you who's high on a drug.
Because the whole point of this is that you don't have that.
So it's going to be a new normal, regardless of which path you take.
But my only warning up front is that it's slow, so take your time, embrace it, enjoy it.
Now it shift into part three, which is the return to caffeine,
the end of my 30 days and my desire to figure out my new normal.
What would that look like?
And to back up one second, I chose not to go caffeine for.
free forever for a couple of reasons. The first is that I wanted to test a variety
of caffeine sources, and the second is, honestly, I wanted to be able to share
these results with you here on the show. I think it's really important to be
able to know all the experiences, to have it before, a during, and after a new normal,
all the possible experiences to go back and forth over time. And so for now, yes,
I am consuming caffeine, but I cannot promise that will continue.
continue. So here's a bit of the lessons that I learned as I returned to caffeine.
Lesson number 24. When your caffeine tolerance returns to zero, having even a tiny
amount of caffeine is noticeable and powerful. So my choice was as I returned on, you know,
day one of now I'm back on caffeine, was to have a little cacao powder with my morning's
a smoothie and breakfast, and cacao powder has about 12 milligrams of caffeine
per tablespoon.
So I had about 24 milligrams of cacao powder caffeine, and I had one green tea,
which has about 40 milligrams per cup.
So I went from zero to, we'll call it 64 milligrams of caffeine, roughly speaking.
And it knocked my socks off.
It was so intense.
This is literally six, seven times less caffeine than that.
I was consuming on a daily basis before the break.
And then afterwards, it was like I couldn't handle anything.
It was like my body had completely zeroed out.
And the smallest amount of caffeine, just like a sledgehammer, was just banging
at my front door.
And even to this day, I'm recording this episode about one week after returning
to caffeine.
And I still do not require even a tiny amount to feel caffeinated and function
at a high level all day long.
It is crazy how much my tolerance was reset.
So if that's one of your goals is to say, you know what?
I just, I can't handle having to drink so much coffee per day to feel normal.
Well, you can reset your norms.
You can get yourself back to zero.
It's just going to require a couple of weeks, maybe a full 30 days of no caffeine at all,
and it will change your life.
I promise you that.
Lesson number 25.
Eating breakfast before coffee is fantastic.
And this was something I said earlier that I ditched fasting,
returned to having breakfast again.
And I will say just from the simple nature of that conversation,
I love breakfast.
I love to eat.
It's a wonderful thing.
And I chose to have a really healthy, powerful breakfast with oatmeal
and all kinds of fruits and additives and supplements.
And so my breakfast now is fantastic.
And as part of that, I do have a little cacao powder in the mix
which has some health benefits as well as a little bit of caffeine.
And then whether or not I have caffeine beyond that will depend on the test for the day.
And I have a whole slew of experiments I'll share in just a minute.
But my new routine in the morning includes a nice, large, healthy breakfast with a very tiny amount of caffeine.
And a healthy breakfast is wonderful.
If you have not been doing that, you've had a bad breakfast or a sloppy one or you've been choosing to skip it all together, eat breakfast.
breakfast. Love it. Try it out for yourself. See how it goes. Maybe you'll hate it.
I don't know. But I'm telling you, my return to breakfast has been an absolute
game changer. Lesson number 26. Reducing caffeine did not save me any money.
This was interesting because when I let go of alcohol, I absolutely saved a lot of money
per month. And yet with the coffee, I really did not. And there's two reasons why.
The first is that I love to consume some kind of beverage throughout the day.
So I bought caffeine-free teas and caffeine-free drinks.
And I'm going to have something every day, but it's not going to be a caffeine beverage.
On top of that, I invested in a lot more supplements and healthy foods.
And the reality is that the way that I tend to shift from one thing to another is I just replace it with a better alternative.
So I did not save any money in this process.
However, if you're the kind of person who goes to Starbucks every single morning, you go to the coffee shop, you have fancy drinks and you're spending $10 a day or more, whatever the case may be.
Yeah, you're going to save a lot.
You're going to save a ton of money, and it's going to be a wonderful thing.
As a side note to this, I didn't mention this earlier, but should have, if you're the kind of person who drinks a coffee, anything other than black, I would encourage you to shift to black coffee.
If you have additives, sugars, creamers, whip creams, sprinkles, whatever
it is you tossing in, all the different syrups, like all these things, they're not serving you.
You are so much better off with just pure black coffee or nothing.
All the additives are only making you fat.
That's the truth.
That's the reality.
They taste great.
They're not good for you.
Okay.
I'm off the soapbox.
Lesson number 27.
Breaking from caffeine can reduce or eliminate future cravings.
This one really surprised me.
I don't crave coffee anymore.
Legitimately, I wake up now, even now I'm back on caffeine.
I don't crave coffee.
I drank it every single day for 26 years.
And I'm not even thinking about it.
It's really, really strange.
Now, yes, I still have a tendency to prefer to be caffeinated.
I still would like to have a little kind of jolt in my day.
That part's still true because who doesn't love a good drug?
but the reality is that the coffee flavor, the beverage itself, for whatever reason, is not a craving that I have right now.
Now, it could return in the future, I'm not sure, but I can say that the break from all caffeine sources and this desire to craft a new normal has created a new normal.
And I'm a new person now with different cravings and different desires and coffee is not part of that, which is very interesting.
Lesson number 28.
Maintaining a low tolerance is powerful and from my perspective, the best path forward.
So keeping my caffeine tolerance low is one of the most important things I am now focusing on that I never in the past even cared about at all.
So my plan going forward is to reduce caffeine levels on a regular basis to keep my tolerance low and never find myself back in that crazy addictive.
phase of four and 500 milligrams a day.
You know, the funny thing is, was that during this, you know, two to three
week period when I was really tired and really low, I watched all these
YouTube videos, trying to find inspiration.
And there were a couple of videos I found of guys who had been off of caffeine
for as long as a year, two years or more, and they were talking about how they
then decided to return to caffeine and the amount they would have per day was around
20 to 25 milligrams, very, very low amount, less than
a full green tea. And then they would take a day off. So they would alternate
back and forth. One day, half a green tea. The next day, nothing. The next day,
half a green tea, next day nothing. And they found these nice rhythms of having just a
little caffeine to get the energy they needed, and then they lowered their tolerance again.
And this process of being able to find a rhythm where you get the benefits of the
caffeine because your tolerance is zeroed out, but also keeping the tolerance zeroed out by
intentionally avoiding it on a regular basis means you always get the benefits
without the drawbacks.
You always get the energy and the mental stimulation and the productivity benefits
without all the side effects and the anxiety and the gut problems and the addiction.
There is a solution in this process to be someone who does consume caffeine,
but in a radically new playing field, a whole new way of living.
This is the new future that I am seeking, the one that I am crassies.
drafting right now. I'm working through to get there. But I think this is the future
for caffeine. And I think this is what we should all be striving for is that level
of control, that level of intentionality, that position to say, this is not a drug
that controls me, I control it. This is my life. These are my choices, my consumables,
my agency is still here. I get to choose. Lesson number 29. Your assumptions are lying to
So I always assumed I could never live without caffeine.
I assumed I would have to have it literally every single day for the rest of my life.
I learned that is not true.
I have learned that I can change.
That addictions can be broken.
That caffeine is not required for a great life.
That being calm and anxiety free is possible and surprisingly easy to achieve.
In just 30 days you can change your whole life.
Who knew? Who knew? It could be that simple, that direct, that applicable.
You can change. You can live without these drugs and addictions and substances.
We don't have to do it. We can choose to. We can find a healthy rhythm, but it's not required.
Your assumptions about what you believe to be true about your life, that's just the drug talking.
Those assumptions are lying to you. You can change.
I'm not saying you should.
That's your call, but you can if you want to.
And all this brings us to lesson number 30.
If you feel the need to drink more, drink less.
As your tolerance increases and you want more caffeine to feel normal or energized,
that is the best time to decrease your consumption and reset your tolerance.
This will set you up to drink less in the future with a bigger impact
and fewer side effects.
Less is more in a very literal way.
I mean, for me to tell you that I've had a single green tea and was wired out
of my mind is bonkers.
That is bonkers.
There is no way in the world, just two months ago, I would have said that was possible.
A couple months ago, if I had a green tea, it would have felt like an additive,
a topping to the day, just a little bit to add on to my already ridiculous level of caffeine.
Because once again, a green tea is 40 milligrams.
My daily consumption was over 400.
How can such a tenth of the amount, less than a tenth of the amount, have that big of an impact?
The answer is it is in your physiology.
It is right there.
If you feel the need to drink more, just dial it back.
Do the exact opposite.
Watch as your body changes, feel the impact, become a new person.
It's powerful. It's real. It's possible. It's incredible.
So now what? Now what do we do? Well, I'm a few final thoughts for you. I think we'll really help to round this out.
The first is that I actually have many more experiments to run, and I will share more of those results very shortly here on the podcast.
The first I will be testing more of is the cacao powder.
So cacao powder is a sugar-free substance that is made from roasted cacao.
beans with most of the cocoa butter removed and has about 12 milligrams of caffeine
for tablespoon. It's a wonderful additive to your daily oatmeal or smoothie
or whatever it is you want to consume. It right now is part of my daily breakfast.
I love it and it'll probably be around for a long time, but I will want to test
how much I have and in combination with other things. So that's going to be a very
important experiment for me. The second of course is green tea. Now green tea is very
high in antioxidants. You get once again about 40 milligrams of caffeine per
cup, which is lower the caffeine than black tea or coffee. However, there is a catch
here, which is that if you steep your green tea longer, you'll get more caffeine.
If you steep it for a shorter time period, you'll get less. So be very cautious on the
steeping time. So you're dipping that tea bag into your hot water. Do it for one minute,
maybe two at most. You're good to go. You go beyond two minutes. You're going to be
increasing that caffeine very quickly. So just be cautious in the green tea,
especially if you're like me and it's got a powerful impact.
Next experiment, this is one that I am testing right now and I am loving, which is
Elthianine. Elthian is an amino acid that is found naturally in green tea. It helps to
promote relaxation and stress reduction. It can improve focus, attention,
sleep quality, immunity, and more. Primarily, it helps to prevent caffeine from
spiking and dropping out quickly. So it smooths out the high and actually makes you
feel a lot more calm even as your energy increases. So a cool thing here is you can
buy altheonine as a very cheap supplement. I'm talking extremely affordable and you
could put a tiny little dose into your coffee each day to get the similar impact
that green tea provides and then all of a sudden you can have a very smooth caffeine high
without the intensity. So I would recommend to test that specific supplement now.
It is a great one. It's very affordable. No real side effects I'm aware of.
And it has a really powerful impact. So L-Thianine is a great one to look up.
My next experiment is one I actually just did yesterday, which is a Japanese Benifuki green tea.
Benifuki, B-E-N-I-F-U-U-K-I. This is a green tea from Japan that claims to have seasonal allergy impacts.
to help with hay fever and eczema, among other things.
I personally suffer from a lot of allergy problems.
You can probably hear that in my voice on most episodes.
And so anything that helps with allergies I am all for,
so I am personally testing out that green tea right now.
Next test is what I just actually did last night and again this morning,
which is a cold-brewed white tea.
Now, white tea is a minimally processed tea with lower caffeine than green tea.
It's actually made from the buds and yel.
young leaves of the same plant that green tea comes from. And so white tea essentially
is green tea just at a younger tea age. It also has a lot more antioxidants,
especially when it's cold brewed. So I tested that last night. It tastes fantastic.
And hopefully it has more benefits for me, but so far that test is amazing.
My next experiment I'm a little nervous about, which is Yerba Mata.
Yerba Mata is an herbal tea from South America that has much higher caffeine.
levels than green tea, as potentially higher caffeine than black tea or even coffee,
depending on your dose.
And so that is one that has potential phenomenal health benefits, but because of
the caffeine sources, I will see as far as I go with that one.
But that's definitely on my list.
And the final test I have lined up right now is a supplement called parazanthine.
Now, parazanthine is a metabolite of caffeine.
It's a stimulant that claims to provide energy without the jitters, slithers.
sleep disruption or anxiety.
This is something I am very curious to test.
So if you want to try that out or email me if you have information, I'd love to hear it.
Now, at the moment, I am not testing things like black tea, coffee, espresso, soda, energy drinks, pre-workout mixes.
I'm not going to test those things because I know the impact.
They're either not healthy, not a good choice, or I simply am very aware of how they impact my body.
So I'm really looking for what else is out there.
What else is possible for me to consume, to learn more about, and define my best forward rhythm?
Because once again, I'm not completely convinced that I'm going to be a caffeine junkie ever again or a caffeine free person.
I actually view myself as someone who is on the fence on purpose.
I'm intentionally going to dance between the two worlds and see how that works for me.
So if the question then arises, what will I actually choose going forward?
Well, there's a few key things that are important.
The first is that for now, I will have just a little caffeine each morning with the goal of having less than 75 milligrams per day.
At the moment, once again, that's cacao powder and green tea with no coffee, no espresso, nothing else.
I will also, if things go as planned, take weekly breaks with zero caffeine.
My idea right now is that on the weekends, for example, Saturdays and Sundays, I'll just go caffeine free, let those days.
days be very chill and then return to a little caffeine on Monday morning.
In addition, I will also absolutely take annual 30 day breaks with no caffeine
for an entire month.
My plan as of now is the month of June.
It's a 30 day month right in the summer when everyone's on vacation.
I can chill out.
It'll be totally great.
So as of now, that is my plan once a year.
We'll see how that works going forward for next year.
But it's on the calendar.
We'll see how it goes.
and finally I'm going to leave the door open for me to go caffeine free forever in the future.
I cannot say at this point what I'll actually do long term,
but having experienced what I did for these 30 days of just literally nothing,
there is so much to be said about the benefits of not consuming a stimulant.
So much to say about the best way to experience life is anxiety free and to be calm and to just be yourself,
drug-free. I'm very tempted for that to be my future. And if you have experienced that,
if you've been a caffeine-free person for a while, I would love to hear from you.
Email me, jeff at jeffsanders.com. There is so much to discuss when it comes to that
kind of a lifestyle. It's pretty great. Now, if you are choosing to continue to consume
caffeine, I put together here a list of 10 best practices for you to get the most out of your
Number one, run experiments.
Do what I did, both with and without caffeine, with the intention of an increase
in your self-awareness.
Find out how coffee affects you, because here's the reality.
You're not going to know.
You are not going to know until you walk away for long enough to truly feel the impact.
You might think you know.
You might really believe it in your bones, but you will not feel it and know it for real
without going through the process.
So test yourself, learn more about your experience, your physiology, your goals, how your body operates, run experiments.
They're amazing.
Number two, please avoid coffee on an empty stomach.
Number three, set daily limits for both quantity and time.
So, for example, I'll have no more than 200 milligrams and have all of that before lunchtime.
Number four, adding cinnamon to your coffee can neutralize part of its acidity.
It can improve your digestion, reduce bloating discomfort, among other things.
Sim is a very powerful spice, and adding that to your coffee can make it taste a little bit different and better and also give you other benefits.
Number five, adding al-thianine to your coffee, once again, can reduce the caffeine spike and crash later.
Number six, increasing your supplements like magnesium glycinate and B vitamins can reduce your stress and anxiety caused by caffeine.
I will pause here and say that these were two things I double down on during my break.
Magnesium glycinate was definitely one that I now am big time in love with.
I take it twice a day.
It is fantastic for stress reduction, for your muscles to calm down after a hard workout.
It's a fantastic supplement.
And an increase in B vitamins as well helps with energy and anxiety control as well.
Number seven.
Use a paper filter when brewing to decrease your business.
bitterness and potentially lower cholesterol. So paper filters are fantastic for the
brewing process and you want to avoid things like a French press or boiling
coffee to really make sure you're having the healthiest coffee possible.
Number eight, Arabica beans are the best for lower caffeine. So most coffees
you'll find will either use Arabica, which is the most common or robusta,
which is another common one that has much higher caffeine levels.
Arabica being the most popular probably tastes the best. Frankly, I think
it's the only one to choose, but definitely make sure your coffee uses that
kind of bean.
Number nine, medium roast coffee is best for antioxidants.
So if your goal is to really optimize the health benefits, the medium roast is
ideal.
And number 10, decaf coffee actually has many of the health benefits of regular
coffee without the excess caffeine.
Now, some studies will show that decaf coffee does not perform as well as caffeinated
coffee, but a lot of them show that they are the same. It depends on the health
benefits you're going for, but if your intention is to lower your caffeine and
still have coffee, decaf is still a fantastic choice. There are also various methods
to extract the caffeine that are better than others. So look for that in the
decaf coffee you're choosing to buy. So that's your top 10 list for best practices.
If you are going to drink coffee and consume caffeine, I think those will really
make your experience a lot better.
So what are your options now?
Well, the first is nothing.
You could just simply have heard the episode and change nothing.
Continue your consumption or non-consumption of caffeine and get the same results
you get now and forever.
I don't think that's your best choice, though.
And I don't think so because I am fairly confident that there is a lot you can do
to improve whatever path it is that you're on.
Now, if you don't consume caffeine, you could stay that way, and frankly, you probably should.
And I say that because, there's a good example.
My wife went to a doctor about a year ago.
And this is a doctor who was working with her on an issue and said, you know what?
The best solution for you is actually to consume less caffeine.
Well, my wife already consumes very little anyway, so she was fine.
But the doctor went on to say that he actually stopped telling patients to reduce caffeine because no one listened to him,
anyway. Literally, this is a doctor almost withholding medical advice because
patients don't listen to him because they love their coffee. And I get it.
It makes total sense. So if you're already in the boat of living a caffeine-free
lifestyle, you might be better off just staying there. In fact, that probably is your
best choice. However, if you do consume caffeine, like most people on earth, I think
your best path forward is one of intentionality. It is very much.
one of asking the question, do I need a break? And if so, how soon can I schedule one?
How can I run more experiments? How can I figure out how caffeine actually affects my life?
Because the truth of the matter is you probably do not have all the information.
You can't if you don't run more tests. You can't truly know without these experiences.
And so, of course, you know my opinion on this. Run the tests. Get the data. Make your best
call. Now, if in the process you want to learn a lot more about caffeine,
I have some phenomenal resources for you. The first is a short audio book.
It's about three hours, I believe, from Michael Pollan, a very famous author
in the world of nutrition, and his short book is called caffeine.
The second one is called caffeinated by Murray Carpenter.
This book, though, I thought it would be more about how caffeine impacts the body,
and it does a bit of that. The majority of the book really is a history lesson on
caffeine industry and regulations and politics. And so it wasn't really my favorite
book, but if you really are curious about the world of caffeine and want to deep dive
into it, that book is very deep and you will learn a lot. The third is Caffeine Blues
by Stephen Ternisky. This book came out in the late 90s, so it's a bit outdated in
parts, but it is the only book I found on the internet, literally the only one, that takes an
extensive look at why caffeine is bad for you. And so if you want to get kind of
the yen and the yang here, really understand both sides of the conversation,
if your goal is to find out from people like Michael Pollan, who is a huge fan of
caffeine, or from those like Stephen Ternisky, who's not a fan at all, you want to
be able to figure out what your best forward path is, which might include fully
understanding both arguments. And then, of course, go to YouTube, watch a ton of videos. There
many great ones out there.
I think the best part of the YouTube videos is the personal touch.
You will hear so many amazing stories of just individuals who have gone
through experiments, they have learned lessons, they can share their symptoms,
their results, their ins and outs of all their chaos.
And it's wonderfully refreshing to be able to hear these personal stories to see
them express exactly what they experience.
So, yeah, read books, listen to audiobooks, watch YouTube videos,
dig into it all. It's fantastic. Now, on a final note this week, I titled the episode
A Hot Cup of Stress, and I did so on purpose, because that sums up my personal
experience with coffee. And I believe that is true for most people. You will never
know the true impact of anything until you are willing to walk away from it for
long enough to have the luxury of hindsight. So lean into what this podcast
promotes every week, intentionality and personal growth.
You do not have to give up coffee forever.
But it might benefit you more than you realize to take a short pause and reflect.
And for the action step this week.
Be intentional with any substance you consistently consume.
If you think you do not have a caffeine addiction, well, prove it.
Take 30 days off and see what happens.
If you can't walk away or the thought of walking away scares you even a little,
you need a break more than you know.
Being intentional means you have the power to make a decision without the influence
of a drug, addiction, or pressure from any source.
Work towards crafting a life where you are in control.
not some hot cup of stress.
Of course, subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app,
or go to 5am Miracle Premium.com to become a VIP member of the 5A.M. Miracle
community and get the ad-free version of this show.
That's all I've got for you here on the 5 AM Miracle podcast this week.
Until next time, you have the power to change your life, and all that fun begins bright and early.
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