Cut the Caffeine. Just do it

I’ve been there. You’ve been there. We all have been there.

We are drained and we just keep reaching for the caffeine… because… well, it makes us feel alert and alive.

It’s undeniable that we live in a culture that is overworked, over caffeinated and doesn’t spend enough leisure time with our friends and our families. Caffeine is the number one drug of choice in this country, so why do we go to it so easily?

I was feeling myself in one of those slumps. Too much going on, business was booming and hectic and I was falling behind. So I would grab the caffeine throughout the day. I use a WHOOP strap to check my recovery and it was in the gutter all the time. Didn’t matter how many hours of sleep I got my heart rate variability was not very high and my resting heart rate was higher than usual. I had to stop the trend!

I am a professional CrossFit Athlete, Doctor, CEO, Gym Owner, and adventure enthusiast who’s top values are health and integrity. Something had to be done. Luckily the gym I own was doing a challenge during the month of August and it was all about Sleep and we got different points for the different questions asked.

The five questions being asked were how many hours of sleep did you get. More than 8, More than 7, More than 6. It asked us if we had caffeine at all that day, whether or not we had any screen time within 30 minutes of bedtime, did we do a bedtime meditation or mindfulness routine and the last was if you hit snooze in the morning at all.

This was the kick in the butt that I needed to cut caffeine because I wanted to earn points, but more so create a healthier and sustainable option for myself to be productive and get the most out of my life and my workouts.

Let's be honest, the few week or so was rough. Really rough. Although I do know, because I have researched this and teach this to my patients often, that we tend to read for caffeine in our daily lives to take the place of something we are missing. Whether that means water, sleep or proper nutrition. I would want to reach for it, or grab some on my way to work… but I didn’t.

Throughout my month with no caffeine I was able to find that grabbing a Metta allowed me to stay focused throughout my day in the same sense caffeine did but I could sleep really well when drinking it. Something I was not able to do while drinking caffeine.

Our resting heart rates tend to stay higher than they should if caffeine is present. When our resting heart rates don’t drop as low we are not able to recover as well as we need to. This can cause performance to plummet in both the physical and mental sense. Caffeine also messes up our body's ability to utilize melatonin in our natural sleep cycles, so we can’t recover in that way either.

You might ask why one would ever want caffeine in the first place if we know all of these things. Caffeine is a drug. Like any other drugs it lights up a portion of our reward center of the brain pressuring us to use more and more of it. This can lead to a slippery slope that can lead to adrenal fatigue if we are not careful. Kicking the caffeine is not easy and it's better done with a group of people and some deeper motivation, but it can be done.

So when does your month of no caffeine start? I dare you to try it!