Apologies for the clickbaity title, but it's true...

I have packed it in.

What are you talking about, you tw@?

Caffeine. Coffee and energy drinks are OUT.

As someone who absolutely loves their coffee, I never thought I'd be doing this.

I must admit, I haven't completely given up caffeine (I still drink tea, which can have a tiny amount in), but I have cut down a lot.

The reason?

Firstly, I used to be a 5+ cups of coffee per day man, and also used to treat myself to a cheeky pre workout sugar free energy drink, which is WAY too much caffeine to be consuming on the regular. Depending on the coffee I'd drink, this could get me to ~1g of caffeine which is dumb.

Secondly, after a particularly tough period of time last year, I realised all of this caffeine was massively affecting my anxiety and stress levels, totally fecking up my sleep and turning me into a jittery, snappy bellend.

I realised I'd had enough when I looked back at a time when my sleep was absolutely AWFUL.

A particularly bad time was when I couldn't sleep, so I got out of bed at 2am, went to 24 hour Tesco to do the week's food shop, then went to the gym straight after... all before 5 in the morning.

Something had to be done.

So after a much needed holiday in December, I gave up all high caffeinated drinks, and here are a few of my observations:

1. I sleep better, like a LOT better. We all know caffeine keeps us awake right? But what you might not know is this - the half-life of caffeine is approximately 5 hours, so if you have a caffeinated drink, especially later in the day, you will still end up with some caffeine in your system late in the day.

For example, if you consume 200mg caffeine at 2pm, it becomes 100mg at 7pm 5 hours later, then 50mg at 12am. 50mg is the equivalent of a Pro Plus tablet.

2. I had bad headaches at first, but these went very quickly. This is a reason a lot of people say they couldn't cut down on caffeine, but I didn't find them too bad at all.

3. I have my daytime energy, and actually feel tired in the evenings. Ya know, what's actually supposed to happen.

4. My stress levels are far more manageable.

5. I'm actually sensitive to caffeine now, giving it the desired effect. I had a Diet Coke the other day (forgot it had caffeine in it), and I was absolutely buzzing off my tits after. Whereas before, you could've given me enough caffeine to revive a corpse, yet I wouldn't feel a thing.

No, that's not necessarily the point in this post at all. 

However, I do think that a lot of us have become way too reliant on it when dieting, to stay awake, to keep us focused, and to get us through the day.

Sound like something you do?

You could probably do with cutting down then ;)

Much love,

JB