Do you feel like your day doesn’t start till you’ve had your morning coffee? or maybe you can’t ‘function’ without your daily cups throughout the day? You aren’t alone.
There are many of us who are coffee lovers. Whilst coffee can provide good antioxidants, excess consumption could be bad for our health.
Cutting out caffeine isn’t easy but if you feel that your habit is out of control, you may need to reduce your caffeine intake. Read more to find out if you are over-relying on your morning caffeine hit.
Feeling anxious
Even if you feel that you are happy with your coffee habit, making some changes could benefit you long term.
One of the symptoms of excessive caffeine could be anxiety. For example, excessive consumption of caffeine could lead to you overestimating your own stress levels, causing you to be more anxious and stressed.
This can impact you throughout the day. For example, some symptoms you may feel are:
- Tiredness at work
- Inefficient and unproductive at work
- Overthinking situations
Mood swings
Caffeine is still a stimulant and highly addictive. So, if you feel that your overreliance on caffeine is causing you to wake up groggy and snappy, you may be addicted.
Once your body is used to a certain level of caffeine, without it could cause mood swings. These may be ones that you may consider your norm but are a result of lack of caffeine.
It can be especially difficult when making a swap, as you may begin to feel withdrawals. So, we recommend taking it slow and making changes steadily over a period.
Muscle aches
Do you feel stiff and achy without caffeine? Taking a walk or even sitting at your desk may become a difficult task when pulling away from your favourite drink.
This is one sign you are addicted, and withdrawal symptoms have begun to kick in. at this point it is wise to increase your water intake and stretch more often whilst at your desk, home and when you get a chance.
One way to ease the muscle aches is by improving your overall diet and easing yourself into yoga to assist in reducing aches and pains.
Concentration issues
If you feel that you cannot concentrate without your daily caffeine fix, you may be addicted. You may feel that you get easily distracted and constantly need to refill your cup in order to start your next task. If this sounds like you, you may need to reduce your intake of caffeine and look for alternative drinks whilst working.
Some of our favourite decaffeinated drinks are:
- Herbal teas
- Dandelion tea
- Turmeric latte (Full of antioxidants and can be made with milk!)
- Water!
Coming of caffeine isn’t easy and for many it will challenging mentally. Changing to decaffeinated drinks and adding water instead of your daily latte or cappuccino will sure to make a difference.
Once the withdrawal symptoms ease, you will benefit from feeling:
- Refreshed
- More energised
- Less moody
- Increased productivity
Your mental and physical health will also benefit as a result. So why not give it a try and cut out the caffeine?
