Caffeine

So today marks 1 week caffeine free for me and man let me tell you, it is hard on the body.

I’m 22 years old and for the last 5 or 6 years I’ve really been pounding the caffeine. 6-8 sodas and 4 cups of coffee a day was normal for me. Rarely did I drink any water during the day, just soda. Got sick of being so unhealthy (overweight) and feeling like crap all of the time so I decided to kick the caffeine out of the diet.

So for the past week I have been drinking only ice water and trying to stay away from anything sugary. Starting day 2 I started having stomach pains and bad headaches. They were to the point where I didnt even want to eat anything or get out of bed. Today I’m feeling a lot better but can still feel the stomach pain a little. Seems every day its been getting better. The first 3 days I was weak, I felt like I had no energy at all (lost the false energy feeling from being sugared up constantly). Hopefully I keep feeling better from now on.

Anyone else kick this crap?

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So today marks 1 week caffeine free for me and man let me tell you, it is hard on the body.

I’m 22 years old and for the last 5 or 6 years I’ve really been pounding the caffeine. 6-8 sodas and 4 cups of coffee a day was normal for me. Rarely did I drink any water during the day, just soda. Got sick of being so unhealthy (overweight) and feeling like crap all of the time so I decided to kick the caffeine out of the diet.

So for the past week I have been drinking only ice water and trying to stay away from anything sugary. Starting day 2 I started having stomach pains and bad headaches. They were to the point where I didnt even want to eat anything or get out of bed. Today I’m feeling a lot better but can still feel the stomach pain a little. Seems every day its been getting better. The first 3 days I was weak, I felt like I had no energy at all (lost the false energy feeling from being sugared up constantly). Hopefully I keep feeling better from now on.

Anyone else kick this crap?

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Keep on it. Your body is detoxing. It is a painful process. It will slowly get better and better. If I remember the literature correctly it takes about 3 weeks for your body to fully detox.

You will be amazed at how much better you will feel. Plus the weight loss from just the lack of empty calories from pop will be great.

Keep up the good work. I tried once, but the headaches were so bad I gave in. I’m mostly coffee with very few sodas.

I’ve never drank coffee, but used to pound the Diet Pepsi all day long. About 18 months ago or so, I quit DP cold turkey. Now it’s green tea or water. Two things I’ve noticed are that I’m not as jittery from all the caffeine and I used to have uncontrollable finger twitches (mostly at night). I used to worry, because Parkinsons runs in my family. Those twitches are now gone. I make the tea each day and drink it unsweetened. Hasn’t done a thing for losing weight, but I do feel better.

B BK
good job fighting the urge, it will get easier over time.
Keep it up.
good luck
Jack

Sounds like crazy talk. I drink a quart of water a year and this year I am starting earlier. It is evil stuff.

Good job, keep the great work, it’s not easy but worth it in the long run. I thought the headaches were the worst.

If you have symptoms like that when quitting, it sure seems like it is a good idea to quit. I don’t drink enough caffeine to get withdrawal symptoms like that. I used to drink a lot of Dew during the day, but I stopped that awhile ago. Now it is just a few cups a day of coffee.

Kudos to you. At 22 I was so freak’n stupid that I thought I was invincible to anything. Concrete dust from coring, smoking, saw dust (no masks), 12 pack of pepsi/day, plus a few mugs of coffee, no hearing protection, and the list of crap goes on and on. Now, many years later I’m paying the price.
I got a wake up call when my brothernlaw dropped to his knees screaming as he passed a 6.5mm stone from the back of my boat. Dehydration and drinking 12-18 cans of soda a day is a sure way to have your penis plugged.

I quit Dew years ago because I wasn’t about to back pack it on an elk hunt. The head ache was spectacular. I switched to coffee as my caffeine delivery system and thankfully there seem to be some health benefits to coffee. Too bad they can’t find the key to longevity lies with bourbon and donuts.

Duke

I had a boss that was 48 and she drank Mountain Dew all day long – like 60 ounces throughout the day….since she was in her 20’s. At a physical her doctor told her the body was 70% water and she needed to convert to drinking primarily water.

She didn’t… then about a year later she started passing “stones” through her kidney. Her doctor told her most likely because she drinks Mountain Dew and not water. She had 2 kids and said passing the stones were worse than childbirth. Needless to say, she converted from MD to water that day. Problem is once the stones start happening, they will probably keep happening.

So…. convert now when you are young regardless of how hard the transition is…

I made a similar decision just before Thanksgiving as a part of a 30 day challenge. The challenge was no Mt. Dew, no Red Bull, and I broadened it to no carbonated beverages period. I made it through the 30 day challenge and decided to keep going with it… so today marks Day 71 of no pop, Red Bull, or carbonated beverages.

I’ve been a coffee drinker so I figured I could just drink a little more coffee and I’d probably be alright. So far so good. The first week was terrible as I really had to change a lot of habits and develop new ones.

And I really think that was the secret was getting out of those old habits. I’d stop by the SA station by my house and get a $4 Red Bull every morning for the ride to work. My trade-off was I got a Keurig coffee machine and starting brewing 1 cup of coffee for my ride to work and that has worked. The coffee machine has paid for itself already. LOL!

I’ve made some other adjustments too… my fast food intake is very limited now and I’ve only drank alcohol 3 times in the last 4-1/2 months.

Its all working as I’m shedding weight pretty well and I’m not even exercising other than walking the dog twice a day for a total of 45 minutes. Just this morning, I’m down 7 pounds from Christmas and I have no idea how much I lost before that as I got myself a scale for Christmas. I’m probably in the 25-30 pound ballpark I bet of total weight loss.

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I got a wake up call when my brothernlaw dropped to his knees screaming as he passed a 6.5mm stone from the back of my boat. Dehydration and drinking 12-18 cans of soda a day is a sure way to have your penis plugged.

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A stone that size needs to be marked as structure…it may hold fish to this day!

Good luck B BK, your body will thank you in a couple of weeks once it figures out what the heck just happened.

I’ve recently kicked this habit too. I got sick around Thanksgiving, nothing to do with caffeine, but used it as a catalyst to go cold turkey.

So I’m 60+ days now no soda. I don’t drink coffee so I’ve been largely caffeine free as well. I was more concerned about the soda, carbonation, etc but being off caffeine is nice too.

I was 6-8 diet mountain dews per day and had tried to quit by limiting sodas in the past. It always led back to the bad habits so I went cold turkey.

Now I don’t crave it at all!!

Good luck!

ET

When you cut soda, you cut sugar, sugar makes you fat. I have a buddy who is a dentist, and he says that chronic soda drinkers and meth users have similar dental issues. Keep up the good work. No reasonable person would put a cup of sugar in 12 oz of water and drink it, but that is approximately what you get with a can of dew.

When I switched to water years back it was to cut down on the 4-5 Diet Cokes per day. I now drink 50-60 oz of water per day and that is great from a health standpoint – but I have to admit I get a little tired of plain water all day.

So I did find an all natural soda and have one per day to break up the monotony and give me a little pick me up. The brand is “Zevia” and it has no sugar, no artificial sweeteners and none of the preservatives they are now linking to osteoporosis. There’s about 10 different flavors and 2 have a little caffeine (about half of Diet Coke) the other 8 or so have no caffeine.

To me, I think most things in moderation are probably okay and I have the one Zevia per day. Seems to work for me. You can pick it up at Lunds or Walmart…I’m sure other places to. Web site is http://www.zevia.com

Today was the first day I did not wake up with the stomach pains and headache. Feeling better for sure, still moody and irritable though so watch out.

PROPEL Water!! I was drinking a lot of pop and really without intending it,, I haven’t had one in months. I couldn’t do JUST water, I needed some taste. Propel can be expensive if you buy singles in stores but Sams Club has the packets you put in a water which are exactly the same. I’m having great luck with it, you may too

What people don’t understand is that diet soda is probably worse for you when losing weight. Soda in general is terrible stuff except when mixed with a little Jim Beam . Coffee is starting to show some health benefits along with tea. Like anything, moderation is the key. Good luck.

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What people don’t understand is that diet soda is probably worse for you when losing weight. Soda in general is terrible.

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Correct. Aspartame is a bad stuff when ingested in high doses. Your liver actually converts Aspartame into formaldehyde. I have actually seen formaldehyde toxicity in a patient who drank about 8 cans of diet coke/day.

As a dentist, I can tell you that diet pop isn’t much better for your teeth and your body as a whole than regular pop(possibly even worse). Chronic pop drinkers are why I can afford St.Croix rods and take nice fishing trips . We all need to re-train our taste buds and got off all the artificial flavorings. “Water substitutes” such as Propel, etc are very acidic and can still damage your teeth. Water=Good.

I would slowly whine your body off it. I did the same thing a few years ago and the best way is to use alittle less each week. The headaches where terrible, when I went cold turkey and I had the shakes real bad. You wouldn’t think something like caffeine would have such a bad withdrawal.

Almost two weeks! Stomach aches are GONE! Headaches are GONE! A little lightheaded and dizzy sometimes (body low on sugar) but a banana or orange fixes that. Other than that, I’m feeling almost back to normal.

I guess I probably shouldnt have cut so much sugar out of the diet. A few minutes ago I had a glass of lemonade and now I cant keep my leg from twitching.