A side effect of too much caffeine!

Most of us begin our day with either a cup of coffee or tea and that is mostly out of habit or necessity but what happens if you have too much caffeine? One side effect of reliance on caffeine is that you crave more and more of it to start your day or continue your day. One cup of coffee can quickly turn to three or more. Yes, coffee has a lot of benefits like antioxidants and is great for your energy surge before your workout (and thus reducing your reliance on pre-workouts) but what about the side effects? Can you go without your cup of coffee or tea?

One unfortunate side effect for me is that I am now bored of coffee. Even though I only drink one cup a day be it with heavy cream or bulletproof style, I just don’t enjoy it now. Even going to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts has not really made me excited for that cup anymore, why is that? Like all good things, if you have too much of something you get bored. Aside from the occasional Coke Zero or Diet Coke, I’m not much of a caffeine addict. Another way I can tell this is that if I have the coffee midday or later, it does nothing for me. I can actually even fall asleep after the cup of coffee/tea so that means I should be able to give up that cup easily right? Wrong!

When you have become accustomed to having something everyday, breaking the habit is tough. I don’t rely on coffee but when I gave it up, I noticed that I was missing my starting drink of the day and was reaching for something—which ended up becoming sparkling water followed by a protein shake. I noticed the first few days I was cranky and sometimes even got a headache but after the initial recovery symptoms, I was fine and life was back to normal. What does this mean?

Giving up something you enjoy and think you need, doesn’t have to be hard. The benefits sometimes outweigh the sacrifices. Here’s to another cup of coffee, oops strike that, here’s to another cup of a non-caffeinated beverage!