Tonight I celebrate going 3 days with no caffeine. Yes, that means no coffee and no tea. I am giving up because I was gradually having more and more. What started as the occasional cup on my way in to the office became one on the way in every day, one mid morning, something after lunch and then tea in between. Not only was I consuming too much caffeine, I was drinking loads of calories in all that milk. So it has been banished from my life. It is not easy and I have felt very tired but that is easing. I have been drinking fruity herbal teas, Rooibos, Genmai Cha (brown rice green tea) and green tea instead. With no milk at all.
I went to Weight Watchers tonight and I weigh the same as last time I went. I am pleased I am not going up but I need to go down. So I am going back to basics and counting points again. I have 32 points a day and today I had………32 points 🙂
Breakfast – nothing. Unusual for me I know but I was not hungry first thing and was then too undecided about what to get and then too busy.
Lunch – toasted cheese and ham sandwich (16 points) and Minestrone soup (12 points) from EAT.
Supper – a fruity smoothie totalling 4 points.
Frozen mixed berries.
Strawberries and three types of leaves from the garden: kale, beetroot leaves and spinach.
1 pear and 1 apricot – weird how they are the same colour!
200 g tofu (6 points)
250 ml unsweetened soya milk (2 points)
It was good and I shared it with Harvey, hence my points are half what I am displaying above. It wasn’t sweet enough for Harvey so after I had served mine I added some Blackstrap Molasses to his which gives it a lovely burnt toffee flavour.
Zöe, if you are doing that well going cold turkey on removing caffeine from your life, without the annoying side effects then all the power to you.
I did this many years ago and it was tough. Now, I can actually have coffee on the weekends and occassional through the week and not crave more.
I have felt extremely tired but no headaches or other side effects. We had a lazy weekend so I decided to just go for it. I am pleased I did. Yesterday the tiredness was a constant struggle but today, which is day 4, is much better. I will have te occasional coffee and tea as I really enjoy them both but I will not have them often at all. Hope all is well with you both x
I am glad to read you haven’t got that annoying headache as the body detoxes from the caffeine withdrawal. It usually will take 4-7 days for your body to adjust to not being stimulated by the caffeine.
Everyone here is great. Back to life, back to reality. We have had much warmer than normal temperatures here in Southern Ontario so having an extended summer is always nice as long as it doesn’t become too unbearable with the humidity, since we have no air conditioning. Just Ma Nature shading the house with the trees.
I am quite lucky I think but then I did not drink as much tea and coffee as most people I know and I did do a detox about 6 moths ago which I think helps. Glad all is well with you all. We have had what seems like non stop rain here for weeks which is miserable. Good for the garden though.
Well done – but doesn’t green tea have a bit of caffeine in it? I wouldn’t have thought a little bit of caffeine is a problem – more of a problem is the milk. I always think it doesn’t count because I’m drinking it but that’s clearly not the case! x
Lucy you are right that Green Tea does have some caffeine in it. Caffeine is actually beneficial to the body by raising the metabolism when used in moderate amounts. Drinking coffee before a workout will actually help you to burn more calories because it does increase your metabolism.
I didn’t know it increased metabolism – maybe I need to start drinking it again!
http://www.livestrong.com/article/524243-does-drinking-coffee-before-you-work-out-help-you-lose-weight/ I still believe to each their own. I personally stick to the non-caffeinated morning metabolism booster that you do not like with the lemon and cayenne pepper. I have long time workout buddies that will not do their workout without their morning cup of coffee.
You are right and I had forgotten that but I am still caffeine free because I was drinking Rooibios green tea 🙂