Coffee has almost always been a part of my life. For an incredibly long while, I've been a coffee aficionado. Having been born in a South-Indian family, we LOVED our strong filter coffee. Every time I am home, I'd coax my mum or dad to make me a cup. And when we visited India, I'd drink a cup every morning and then at every place we stopped at through the day. Sometimes that's as many as 10 cups of coffee. That's a lot of coffee!
I started drinking coffee in my teens and steadily upped my intake through the years. I'd drink so much coffee through the day that I'd started having a borderline addiction. You know how some people use coffee to wake up? The magic bean has stopped having that effect on me many moons ago! I'd drink coffee because that's what I had done for so long and it was a habit.
I was the person who scoffed whenever I heard the words 'caffeine withdrawal' because I was so very assured that I'd be very capable of stopping cold turkey. Boy, was I wrong! On further research, I even discovered that 'Caffeine Withdrawal' is a disorder (according to John Hopkins Medicine). Though there are people who can quite easily give up on coffee, I wasn't one of them. I had a multitude of withdrawal symptoms.
The symptoms
Mind-numbing Headaches were one of those first things I recognised when I stopped drinking coffee. I gave up on not just coffee but anything with caffeine because I'd naturally go all or nothing! I started my morning with a cup of peppermint tea instead of one of usual choices. Through the day my headache intensified that I had to take a nap to just manage with the pain. Nausea was another symptom that visited me. Through the next few days, I'd have not only my headaches but this intense nauseous feeling throughout the day. Those early days almost made me go back to coffee - just in a bid to escape these symptoms. But I did stick to the agenda out of sheer stubbornness. I started having acute body aches through the next week or more. I could swear I have never had these kind of pains even after the first few weeks of boxing lessons! I took a lot of warm baths and hot showers during that week. I also rediscovered my BFF - the hot water bottle. As the days passed, I became incredibly good at handling that pain. I realised the major detox my body was going through and also how much my coffee intake had been affecting me.
Results
After those miserable 15 days, I saw major changes. Actually, other people started noticing these changes too. I had always had good skin (thanks to my good genes!) but quitting caffeine did something to my skin that made it better. Over the next few days, I achieved this spike in my energy levels like never before! I also slept incredibly well after the pains had waned off - as opposed to waking up regularly through the night, which was my usual M.O. I wake up fresher and more alert as opposed to snoozing my alarm half a dozen times. And my skin? It glowed with good health! The dullness of my skin over the past few years was replaced with this 'glow from within' skin, without the aid of a new skincare regime. I was mighty impressed by the positive changes.
Over the past couple months, I would't say I haven't had any coffee. But, I have never felt the need to drink coffee the way I used to. Now, it's a rare indulgence rather than a dependence. I have had about 5 cups of coffee over that period of time - which is something I never could have limited myself to in the past! I'm aware that caffeine does have a lot of health benefits, so the occasional cup of coffee wouldn't hurt. But, I am quite sure I'd never revert to the girl who had 10 cups of coffee a day just because!
Let me know if you've quite coffee and if you did it cold turkey or you phased yourself off it!
Cheers!
Madhu x
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