Personal choice
On September 28, 2021, I made another resolution: no more coffee. This is not the first time. Among the data records stored locally, the earliest one dates back to October 2015.
Why is that? Coffee is a good thing. It has many benefits, no doubt about it. As a long-time coffee drinker, I just made a personal choice and wanted to do it myself. The rest of you, keep drinking if you like. Even with my closest friends, if they still drink coffee, I still do. This is not a perfunctory comment, this is what I really think.
That sets the tone of this article: I make personal choices and try to live with them.
Quitting coffee can be challenging. Once I stopped drinking coffee, I faced an adjustment. For half a day, I repeatedly stood up and walked to the water cooler, almost reaching for the ground coffee and pure milk. Caffeine withdrawal headaches continued from the first afternoon into the next day.
Fortunately, the pain of staring into your body is tolerable. It’s just inertia that keeps me thinking over and over: coffee? I need to try not to be tempted by sounds that tempt me to have another drink.
Fifteen years now, seven years later, I’ve had this recurring belief that I should stop drinking coffee. It’s become an obsession. This obsession only wakes up again when the body sends a strong signal.
Body signals
Canker sores are the easiest to recognize. One will be good, another will come. Daily supplements of B vitamins and multivitamins have not been able to stop it. There’s always a pattern to look for: a recent caffeine spike and days of less than seven hours of sleep. Once you cut back on coffee, you’ll soon get better until you’re cured.
Sleep quality is easy to identify, and it manifests itself in several ways.
One is to sleep less. Wake up naturally before the alarm goes off. Although there is a hold in urine, the sun rises hot and other factors, but without these interference factors, will naturally wake up, a look at the bracelet, the actual sleep is less than 7 hours.
Second, deep sleep is short. Even with more than 40 minutes of aerobic exercise, the length of deep sleep was significantly lower than in the past. Like less than an hour or just over an hour. It’s hard to get longer, deeper sleep.
Third, it is difficult to catch up on sleep. Even if the whole body feels tired tired, brain vertigo card immediately, lying on the bed at this time also difficult to calm down. Reluctantly let go of the phone, use the most effective sleeping position, can relax for a moment, but still keep the heart, can’t fall asleep.
Sleep quality can be confused with mood and menstrual periods. After controlling for these variables, it follows that caffeine keeps activating the brain, making it harder to relax when it should. Because we don’t get enough or good sleep, we need more caffeine to wake us up, making it harder for the brain to get a good rest. It’s a vicious circle.
There were several times when I was on my second or third cup of coffee and suddenly found my heart racing and my head spinning. As a brain worker, it’s easy to notice that your brain occasionally stutters like your computer, or is about to break down.
Coffee helps brain workers activate their minds, which, along with caffeine, make it hard for us to relax and rest. We are addicted to caffeine and fervently express our love and dependence on it.
On the occasional weekend out with my family without coffee, I would yawn all the time while having a headache and feeling sore and limp. Now I realize that’s caffeine withdrawal.
We are addicted to many things. Do one action, get a positive feedback, and then repeat the action. It’s everywhere. Even we often need to actively addict ourselves to this effortless repetitive behavior.
There is no point in me and you talking about why we don’t drink or why we drink. Each mainstream view has already formed a map in the brain. I’m all for coffee and no coffee.
A noisy parliament
The brain’s decision-making mechanism is like a noisy parliament. Yesterday a certain module was so powerful that it dominated the decision not to drink coffee at all. I slept, I had a headache, I was boiling.
Some modules said in a rational voice: Your decision is wise and wise, I support it, but is it not scientific to completely stop drinking immediately? You’re feeling pretty bad right now, too. Why don’t you try a gradual approach? Try two teaspoons instead of three.
A module is very impulsive, immediately put the cup into the coffee powder, was blocked by several modules together. It wronged: accustomed, do not drink afflictive!
Some modules try to calm down and say with tolerance: coffee does not matter whether it is good or bad. If we must evaluate it, then it is a good thing. All the benefits mentioned on the Internet are undoubtedly fully agreed with, but I decide not to drink it now.
Yes, after all, my body has been sending out strong signals lately that I shouldn’t drink so much coffee.
Drink three cups of coffee to use three packets of pure milk, the calories are not small oh.
Modular awareness: A habit cannot be removed, but a new habit needs to be created. For example, when you think about drinking coffee, why not go to the hula hoop?
Modules that have been violently repressed will be looking to fight back. This is the reason why every time you make a decision, you get off to a good start and end up nowhere.
The good news is that caffeine is found not only in coffee, but also in tea and chocolate. What I have decided to give up this time is coffee, but tea and chocolate are not affected. To replace my coffee habit, I start a new habit of drinking hot tea. The caffeine added by tea and dark chocolate will ease caffeine withdrawal. This is all expected and acceptable.
summary
This is just another public decision: announcing a plan publicly brings the social feedback and inner satisfaction that it has been completed. This, like the lucidity that caffeine brings, is essentially an illusion.
I don’t put myself in any position on whether coffee is good or bad. All I care about is whether these seven years of obsession can be fulfilled this time.