I STOP USING COFFEE UNEXPECTEDLY AND IT CHANGED MY LIFE (MORE ENERGY AND LESS ANXIETY)

"Coffee helps me focus." That was the thing I said justify my coffee habit.

As a machine learning engineer, I have spent an ungodly number of hours focusing on a computer screen. And for most of my career, I have operated under the assumption that coffee or caffeine were necessary to perform that job at a high level.

Since I became a father, the anxiety disorder started to appear. It became more and more intense as days go by. I had been seeking solutions on the Internet to remedy the problem, e.g. the non-sleep deep rest protocol of Dr. Andrew Huberman. However, its effect on my problem was really small.

I had always loved the ritual of drinking coffee and I had been consuming about two cups a day since I started the working life. Until one day, the coffee supply ran out, and it had been raining heavily for days, making me reluctant to go to the grocery store. Fortunately, I still had decaf at home, so I used it as a temporary substitute to distract my brain until I could make a trip to buy more coffee.

Little did I realize, those few days would change my life.

WHAT HAPPENED TO ME DURING THOSE DAYS

Day one without coffee, I was really tired and I was irritably thinking about coffee all the time. I wish I had had a cup of coffee at that time.

On day two, I had a moderately bad headache. I was depressed and super unmotivated to get any work done.

Fortunately, on day three, I was already feeling much better, and I was beginning to feel the benefits of quitting caffeine.

BENEFITS THAT I HAVE OBSERVED WHILE QUITTING COFFEE

Although things were bad for the first few days, by the third day, I started feeling the benefits of quitting coffee. I was sleeping better and it was easier to wake up in the morning. I had more energy throughout the day, and I could think more clearly. Remarkably, I was experiencing reduced anxiety.

After encountering the shift in my energy and anxiety levels, I came to the conclusion that I had no desire to consume coffee in the future. The transformation in my life was so significant that I couldn't envision returning to my previous coffee-drinking habits.