Alice Vol. 2 No. 1

The rules
No coffee for one whole week. Plain
and simple.
Day 1
Not a super fun day, but nothing
drastic to report. I mostly just miss
my best friend (a.k.a. coffee). Someone
brewed a pot in the office today, and I
took it a little personally.
Day 2
Mild headaches… all day. Just a
dull ache, like my head was a slightly
overfilled balloon. I felt really tired and
couldn’t focus on anything.
Day 3
All hell broke loose. All morning
I felt like I was walking around in a
haze. I couldn’t focus anything anyone
was saying to me and kept getting lost
in conversation. Officially uncomfortable.
Around 2 p.m., I got the worst
migraine. The “lock yourself in your
room, hide from all light and civilization”
kind of migraine.
Eventually, I convinced my roommate
that she needed coffee, rode with
her to the Starbucks drive-thru and
snuck a sip of her iced coffee while she
wasn’t looking. It was a low moment,
but it had to happen. Coffee has never
tasted so refreshing/sweet/wonderful,
you name it.
Day 4
I was back on the wagon after falling
off a little yesterday. Feeling a little
better. I needed to have something
in my cup with me to drink during this
week, so I’ve been drinking a lot of water.
Honestly, I felt very hydrated and
not nearly as hungry as usual. Also, I
noticed a change in my resting heart
rate. I’m sure my two to three (four…
five…) cups of coffee every day weren’t
good for me, and I feel a lot less jittery
since breaking the habit.
Day 5
More progress. Didn’t crave coffee
as much as the first few days. All the
headaches and fogginess were gone!
I felt a lot more chipper and awake
during the day. Awake, but not anxious,
which really helped me stay focused.
I felt myself sleeping better at
night too. Hooray!
Day 6
I felt so relaxed. I’ve always been
one to over schedule because I get uncomfortable
with downtime. But I felt
able to conquer my to-do list instead of
my frantic per usual.
I got used to not having what I call
the “energy roller-coaster,” where my
high points were drinking coffee and
my low points when the kick wears off.
I also noticed that I was better about
making healthier choices in general. I
started working out more and making
better eating choices.
Day 7
Pretty much felt the same as yesterday.
I don’t miss coffee as much as I
thought I would. I got anxious/excited
because I get to have a cup of my favorite
drink tomorrow.
Bonus: Day 8
I drank coffee this morning. Probably
shouldn’t have ordered a Venti Iced
Vanilla Latte from Starbucks. After
depriving my body for a week from
its drug of choice, I felt like someone
had injected caffeine straight into
my veins.
The big takeaway
My biggest observation, once the
headaches subsided, was the difference
in my energy levels. I get decent,
college-student amounts of sleep, but
I was starting to get to a point where
I was always waking up tired. I’ve always
been slightly iron-deficient, but I
had no idea coffee was playing a role
in that. According to LiveStrong.com,
caffeine is one of many substances that
can interfere with your body’s ability to
absorb iron from natural sources. The
Cleveland Clinic recommends waiting
one to three hours between eating ironrich
foods and consuming caffeine.
In addition, that note I made about
my heart rate? That wasn’t totally
wrong. Caffeine consumption may increase
your risk of high blood pressure,
especially in people who already have
hypertension or don’t normally eat or
drink caffeine. In a study published
in the American Journal of Hypertension,
participants with hypertension
were given the equivalent of two cups
of coffee. The study showed that their
blood pressure was elevated for about
two to three hours after.
I’m not quitting coffee forever. Despite
how good I felt, I just love it too
much. But I think I’ve learned that
coffee is like everything else in life:
best in moderation.
Alice November 2016 [35]