Let’s just come out with it now. I haven’t had any coffee for more than 30 days.  The cleanse indeed initiated this surprisingly astonishing news that breaks people’s hearts when I tell them. The faces I get are equivalent to notifying a recent breakup of your favorite couple. I can’t say I was an obsessive coffee drinker to begin with – you know the type that gets migraines if the coffee bean ceases to exist. That said, I enjoyed the coffee culture and what it had become. Living in Brooklyn didn’t made it easier – Brooklyn has perfected the art of coffee shops. Visit South Brooklyn and you will gladly agree. On average, I had 2 cups daily. But the real question was – what did my dependency stem from? I realized that I leveraged it simply to enhance my mood.

It has been an average of 2 months since my last cup of coffee.  The question you might have for me is – what has improved or changed?  Well, I don’t have a dependency on a stimulant to keep me awake.  If I feel the need for a “pick me-up”, there could be a number of things my body is trying to tell me: I need more sleep, eat a snack, drink more water or brew some tea.  One of these always settles my issue. What I’ve learned is that feeling tired is typically a state of mind, similar to being hungry all the time.  As I mentioned above, coffee drinking is also a cultural movement.  I have found that it takes other creative proposals, on my behalf, to meet up with others outside of the coffee shop scene.  It’s funny how many invitations begin with “let’s catch up over coffee soon!”

If you are thinking about letting go of coffee because you’d like to break free from the enslaving chains or want to experience natural energy – highly recommended. I did devise a list of ways you can slowly develop this shift.  Especially if you do experience the heavy side effects:

1 ) Do Not Cut Coffee Cold Turkey

As with any addictive drug, you want to lower your dependency gradually.  Here you can find one blogger who  set out a week by week plan on how to decrease your intake.

2 ) Find Your Ideal Substitute

Find the substitute to coffee that works for you.  For me, I started to drink Yerba Mate tea every morning because it scratched the itch for something warm on a cold morning.  Other alternatives are matcha lattes, green teas, chai teas and any kind of herbal tea.

3 ) Develop a Sleep Schedule

Begin to understand how much sleep your body needs.  Do you operate better on 5 or 7 hours of sleep?  What habits are keeping you up late at night for no good reason?  When you establish a sleep pattern and give your body enough sleep to restore a day’s work, it pays you back handsomely with good energy all day.

4 ) Water Please

Nobody believes me but drinking water actually can keep you from being tired as well.  Our cells love to be hydrated.   Think of yourself like a plant, we stand taller and prettier with fresh water.

Half the battle of reducing your coffee dependency is the fear of letting it go.  After that, the results speak for themselves.  It definitely feels powerful to be the individual at work that does not need coffee to enhance their productivity.  I dare you to be different!