Why I’m Breaking Up with Coffee
This summer (2023), I decided to give up COFFEE.
YIKES.
WHY?
From an Ayurveda perspective, coffee is heating (increases pitta), drying, and may increase anxiety (increases vata). It’s also acidic. Acidity in our diets is known to leach minerals from our bones and potentially increase inflammation in the body.
I LOVE coffee (I know, a lot of caps in this story. I think I can’t believe I’m doing this myself). However, as I continue on this perimenopause journey, I find my skin drying out (more than what the typical Colorado climate has done to me in the past), and I have noticed some increased heat in my body and my mind (the occasional hot flash or restless hot sleep, irritability, critical nature, anger).
I’ve been completely off caffeine for two weeks, after titrating down slowly every week by 20%. Still, my mind is very resistant, and I have not found a balanced “new normal” yet. I feel fuzzy in the mornings and find it hard to focus. I am quite sensitive to caffeine, and know that I might be prone to protracted withdrawal (withdrawal considered outside the time of “normal” for receptors to reset). For my curious, scientifically minded friends, I was drinking 20 ounces of drip coffee in the morning only per day.
I’m sharing because I’m doing this as an experiment. Once my physical dependence on caffeine is completely resolved, I want to see what happens. I can always go back if there is no difference.
You can try out the same sorts of shifts in your life as experiments, remembering that nothing is permanent. You can try things like:
Mindful meals. Start with one per week.
In bed by 10 pm. Start by turning back the time to bed by 15 minutes each week.
Noticing whether satisfying cravings makes you feel better, or feel worse
I want to remind you that in these endeavors, we need to be kind and flexible with ourselves. Most of the changes we make can be done using the 80/20 rule of thumb– build to doing the thing at least 80% of the time. What we do consistently is what most influences us, and there is typically no need for 100% perfection (some exceptions to this could be in a situation such as substance use disorder/addiction). In that vein, once I’m no longer dependent on caffeine, I will still have it as an occasional treat.