reducing dopamine dump | day 7-14 | good bye coffee

 Most days are the same. My energy is...fine. Not bouncing off the walls, but I'm not dying either.

Unlike other things I've struggled with on the addiction front, the psychological front is muted or not present at all. I don't have that constant voice telling me that it's ok to drink coffee like it's there to say it's great to eat sugar.

Fixing my shitty diet is the next step to better energy. I can't tell if I've gotten fatter because I'm not jazzed up on caffeine or if I've just been eating like shit.

Biggest change? My poop is incredible. Not as regular, but immense and powerful. 

reducing dopamine dump | day 4-6 | good bye coffee

Everything has been pretty normal to be honest.

I miss the 'high' feeling of caffeine, but otherwise I feel rested and good. Work performance has not been impacted one iota (surprising!). Workout intensity took a hit overall, but I found some interesting side benefits:

• Moderate intensity work (i.e. hypertrophy) lends itself very well to this lack of GO JUICE.
• My recovery is better. Like way better. Either I'm not pushing as hard, or my body is able to recover better via sleep or just because i don't have shot adrenals.

Overall pleased with how this is going. I'll start checking in at the week level instead of daily since the daily levels of improvement and changes are not as pronounced.

reducing dopamine dump | day 3 | good bye coffee

 Day 3 recap

I felt way better in the morning than days 2 and 1 combined. I still don't feel great, but this ain't bad either. I miss feeling my level of normal but I'm not itching for coffee. This is just annoying.

Sex drive is back slightly. Sleep and digestion have been great.

reducing dopamine dump | goodbye coffee | day 2

Forward

This experiment has become somewhat of a 'what does my final form look like.' I'm interested in my real level of energy when I'm not spiked up on a daily basis. The nagging fear in the back of my head is - what if my real energy sucks? What if I can ONLY feel good and normal with a drug I've been taking in daily for decades? That voice can scream all it wants. I don't think I'll be able to answer this question honestly until I've been off the black sauce for a few months. If my life is truly better with it, so be it. I have a feeling that I'm going to feel differently. Every single thing I've worked to remove from my life - porn, social media, soda, clutter/things - has improved my life in ways I didn't expect. Why would coffee be any different?

Day 2 Recap

Day 2 sucked in a way day 1 did not. Where day 1 brought headaches, day 2 brought overwhelming fatigue and a complete void of a sex drive. I was definitely less edgy than day 1, but the edge was still there. I had 0 desire to work out, so I just put in 10min of glute ham raises. Like day1, exercise performance was not really that impacted. Intensity definitely takes a hit, but I'm going more so for volume/hypertrophy these days anyhoo.

I found that intermittent fasting worked extremely well at keeping my energy up during the day. I only hit an extreme low once I broke my fast at 430p. Longer fasts (closer to OMAD) may work better in this case. Also important to note that I broke my fast with a fuckton of peanut butter, bread, and honey. MAYBE just maybe the sugar rush had something to do with an extreme drop in energy. I dunno I'm not a doctor.

reducing dopamine dump | good bye coffee | day 1

I've never had to quit anything substantial before. Cigarettes never really took with me. I drank booze because I thought I was supposed to drink booze to be social.

Recently I've been looking at where my anxiety, digestion problems, and fluctuations in weight occurred. Smack dab at 18 yrs old. What happened at 18? Two things:

• Daily coffee 
• Social media

I went from confident and energetic as all hell to depressed, anxious, and tired unless I filled my tank constantly. I've already dropped social media this year and happier for it. Dropping coffee, sucks. It really sucks. Beyond the simple fact that I love the smell, the taste, and the feel of coffee, I feel like absolute dogshit right now.

It's important that I write this now because I tend to forget the journey and the outcome when I relapse. So far...

Day1:

I'm kind of a low grade dick to everyone

7a-10a, when i usually drink coffee, is awful

I'm not tired but I'm not 'up' either

One small headache which clears up with an Advil

Workout went fine. No noticeable drop in performance