How much caffeine is in a cup of coffee? Why is it important? Should we be drinking it at all?
The answer is 95mg in a standard cup of coffee; but my battle with the stuff has been comical. Because this is the story where I was swearing off it forever finally and wait until you see the ending!
So it’s final… I am so ready now…
About three months have past since the actual time frame of my goodbye caffeine story. Read it here.
After my initial few weeks of swearing off it for a while and reaping the benefits of feeling calm, hydrated and clear in the head, I left it with a possible option to continue having my beloved black and chai tea albeit with some restrictions because caffeine is one of my addictive foods and I know this.
As much as I wish this wasn’t the case, it so is, and the result of the last three months has proven it to me yet again. Not that I needed proof but it’s more like that it’s hard to shake or stop something that you love and so you try and try every different possible way to enable it to stay. Or I’m a slow learner!
My rule was going to be one large cup a day, preferably in the morning because it helped with um… regularity, which is kind of important too, in fact extremely important. But perhaps irritating the bowel with a toxin is possibly not the best way to go about it. Maybe.
Anyhoo…so I managed to keep the rule for a few weeks, and all seemed to be going well, switched to water and herbal teas after my first one and all was dandy. But then I was at my part time day job and time for a cuppa and it was staring at me. Normal tea. I had already had my morning chai tea, so that should have been it for the day but no… damn you intoxicating black tea leaves. I had it again.
And this just continued. As much as I tried to pull it back, once that door is open for me, it’s all over. And again, I know this.
So I was back to square one like at the start of the last story, not sleeping well, feeling parched, skin dry, bowels backed up a bit despite the sort of regularity, a bit jittery and definitely not at peace. I know what feeling fantastic and at peak health feels like and this was not it. Not even close.
So that was it. I’ve made up my mind now. Even though it seems like this harmless bit of loveliness that even grannies at the bowls club drink with their scones and jam, for me it’s lethal. It’s a downward spiral to feeling yuk and I just don’t want to do it anymore.
And this is why, even if I tell you all the things wrong with caffeine such as…
– elevates heart rate & blood pressure and increases likelihood of heart attack & strokes
– messes with your adrenals
– increases acidity in your body
– may cause anxiety, panic attacks, irritability and depression
– negatively affects memory and mental performance
– causes weight gain
– may cause ulcers
– inhibits mineral absorption
– inflammation of urinary tract
– and worsens a whole host of women’s issues…
… even if I tell you all that, I know that unless you are ready and want to, there is no way that you will give up your Coke – Coffee – Tea habit until you experience the same sort of feeling like crap health crisis like I did. And perhaps not even then.
The pull of the addiction is strong.
And everyone is so different too; those without addictive tendencies can probably have their one or two cups of coffee a day and not have it take over their life or affect their health. So for these people, totally carry on.
But for the rest of us, the denial that there is an issue is a big factor; the not wanting to give it up because you love it too much – I hear you, it was totally me too but one day when you are feeling like crap and you don’t want to feel that way anymore, you will remember reading this and maybe you will be ready to try.
Look how many run ups it took me to finally take a stand and choose my health!
So already I am into the substitutes and rediscovering peppermint tea as an alternative to my camomile. I found some others too in my cupboard that had been ignored while the caffeine monster was running amok. There was a Love tea by Pukka, which tastes delightful and for a ‘milky’ drink that I actually have with coconut cream now, is my favourite hot chocolate with raw cacao. See with this one I have one for the day and it is totally enough. Not an addictive substance for me at all. Even the thought of having a second one is blergh, no thanks.
I love the spices in chai tea though too and inspired by Max Brenner’s white chocolate chai which is great but way too sickly sweet, I have created my version to fill that milky tea gap – it’s awesome and double bonus – no teeth staining! I will post the recipe next week.
So after suffering the come down headaches for three days – just a reminder of how even just about three cups of tea a day can affect your body – I am now feeling fantastic again; and quite excited and proud of myself that I have made this final decision to choose my health and be rid of the final addiction that had hold of me.
My mind is racing already as to what else I can drink that fits my new paradigm as well as the white chocolate chai, I remembered the fruit teas that we were served when I had the privilege to stay at Gwinganna Health Retreat one weekend. It was fresh fruit and spices soaked for hours that gave it such an amazing flavour and all these things that you can have that totally nourish the body with every mouthful rather than trying to make up or compensate for the foods that have a negative effect.
I feel calm, refreshed, awake and excited to think that I can potentially feel better than I ever have before in my life. Time for a herbal cuppa!
Kristy x
2021 Update:
I’ve had such a love, Love, LOVE relationship with caffeine especially with coffee over the years and a hate of what it eventually did to my body. Or what I thought it did anyway. Since this article was written, I have learned how to drink coffee properly so that it enhances my metabolic rate without any downside. If you’d like to know how to do this too, read this article.
