I’ve had a love/hate relationship with caffeine for years, well, actually decades. Hey, I’m an old fart.
Many, many years ago I decided to experiment to understand my body better, so I could listen to my body to help me navigate life.
It began by eliminating alcohol completely, cold turkey. I know the biggest fear for many people who contemplate making a move like this is how their behavior might change, specifically in the presence of drinkers. But I managed to maintain my ability to be an annoying idiot even without a few beers, so I never had that problem with my gang.
Eventually I started dabbling with alcohol again and then learned the true impact it has on mind and body. To sum it up I felt like crap the next morning even after a beer or two. I never realized what a depressant alcohol is, and how it makes me think, “Aw, what the hell, let’s drink some more!”
The real enlightenment came in the after work get togethers at the bar, listening to everyone else bitch about their jobs. Funny, when I stopped drinkin’ I stopped bitchin’!
Next up on the list was caffeine. Once again, I decided to go cold turkey. Bad idea. It wiped me out to the point where I could barely get up in the morning. I got tested for mononucleosis and Epstein Barr before it dawned on me, I was in the grips of caffeine withdrawal. See Hey, Just Ride 23
For the next 10 years or so, I’d take breaks from caffeine to clean out my system. Missing that morning boost is obvious, but not so obvious is the ability to have a more peaceful mind and feel less anxiety.
Eventually I went full-on caffeine free for about 10 years. I’d occasionally have a Coke or a regular coffee and immediately get reacquainted with my heartbeat pounding in my chest and need to be doing something, anything, until the crash.
Then I started seeing more studies about the benefits of caffeine, so I got the band back together, so to speak. Mixing my caf’ and decaf as to not overwhelm myself.
The benefits of getting going in the morning, less debating about whether or not to ride, and no post ride naps (although I’ve yet to do a long ride) have been plusses.
But I’ve found myself on more than a few occasions out on my ride as the caffeine cloud subsides and I realize I didn’t fuel myself enough beforehand (I’m a light or no breakfast guy, the result of other experiments), or that I didn’t bring enough backup fuel to re-energize!
Today’s question: Do you keep tabs of caffeine input, or not? If you do, how do you regulate intake?
Two cups of half caff every day. Unless I only have one.
I drink two cups of full gas every morning, and 1 or 2 in the afternoon, and then sometimes one after dinner, but rarely.
One cup of black tea, a cup of green tea and then some times one more cup of black tea all before noon. The only time I drink coffee is when I get together with my riding buddy from PA because when we do shit, we do it together.
Great reason!
Morning weekdays it’s 2 cups iced with some sugar free creamer blended with chocolate collagen peptides and sometimes chocolate LMNT. I will randomly accent with cinnamon and/or cayenne pepper. I make my wife her coffee every morning too. I sip iced coffee mixed with espresso at work usually until 2 PM.
Days off it’s regular brewed coffee in the AM and then iced coffee sipped during the day.
Proud coffee achiever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybNF2wXJtjI