Goodbye afternoon coffee 👋

Posted on • #posts #less-latte

My 2x/day latte routine is killing me.

This post marks what is probably the 5th time I've tried giving up my coffee routine in as many years. And this time is going to be different, maybe? 🤔 🤞

Why?

I'm tired of being tired. I've been reading about how caffeine affects the body and it explains a lot of what I'm feeling. It's a slow, cumulative effect that sneaks up on me.

Story time:

Imagine you strap on a weighted vest every day and go out for a run. And each day, you add a few pounds of weight to the pack. You can do it for a while, but eventually you'll collapse.

The revolving door

I've got a pretty consistent routine down. It goes something like this:

  1. I'll drink 1 morning latte for a while.
  2. Eventually a few bad nights of sleep with the kids or a particularly hard work week leads to an, "I need a break," afternoon latte.
  3. Then 2x/day turns into a daily habit, with no noticeable downsides.
  4. A few months later, I hit a wall.
    • I have trouble falling asleep before 10pm.
    • I can't sleep in past 5am (sometimes even earlier).
    • The 2x/day latte's aren't carrying me through the day the way they used to.