This is probably one of the most difficult topics for my clients, and everyone is individual in how they approach it. Some people work really hard to stop drinking coffee, but it is not always possible in the short term. It can be especially difficult to reduce caffeine during pregnancy because people who regularly consume caffeine may experience withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, lack of energy, brain fog, decreased alertness and others when they reduce coffee or stop it. For a pregnant woman, this can create another challenge.
It feels like there is no outing, meeting a friend, official meeting, lunch or dinner without coffee. Coffee has become such an integral part of our lives that when I meet a friend, I still sometimes say, “Let’s meet over a coffee,” even though I no longer drink it.
I worked in large corporations, had responsible positions and travelled globally for business. This required a lot of energy and adrenaline too, so I was drinking three to four cups of coffee a day.
I used to get some funny sensations in my stomach after drinking coffee and would simply change the brand, but the improvement was temporary. Even when I moved to Sweden from Liechtenstein, I talked to the barista I used to buy coffee from and asked him to send me his delicious coffee by post to Sweden.
I used to have a coffee machine, a moka pot for all kinds of stoves, a French press, a special coffee cup with a filter that I bought in Cambodia, and a manual paper-filter cup at home.
There are three topics related to caffeine dependency that I would like to talk about in this article:
The first is the habit.
A habit of drinking something when you are in a meeting, seeing a friend, having a coffee break with your colleagues after lunch, or visiting a customer and being offered a coffee. It has become a global trend to drink coffee no matter what we do, even when we are on the go.
The second is the energy boost.
We get an energy boost from coffee, and for me, this was closely connected with the adrenaline-driven feeling that helped me be productive and have enough energy to finish the work day.
The third is taste and smell.
The taste and smell are something many of us love—or used to love.
There is also another perspective on dependency that has been important in my own understanding of this subject.
Medical Medium describes addiction and dependency through a framework in which glucose deficiency and the body’s reliance on adrenaline are important factors. This is the perspective that resonated with me and influenced the way I approached giving up coffee.
I am sharing this as a framework I personally believe in and as part of my own experience, rather than presenting it as a universally accepted medical explanation.
For me, the question became: what could I do to stop relying on coffee and gradually change my habits?
So what did I do?
My approach was gradual.
I gradually decreased my coffee consumption until I entirely stopped it. I believe that changing a habit takes time, and in my own experience, coffee involved more than simply changing a daily routine. I also felt that I was changing my relationship with the energy and stimulation I had been relying on.
So what exactly did I do?
First, step-by-step I reduced my coffee consumption to once a day.
This one coffee a day became a kind of “meditation ritual” for me. I would drink it when I was with someone, alone in a café, or on my balcony, and I would fully enjoy it.
This lasted for several months until I started switching to decaf coffee.
I would drink one cup of decaf once a week instead of normal coffee. Then I would drink decaf twice a week and gradually reduce my caffeinated coffee consumption.
Slowly and gradually, I switched to decaf coffee.
Then I started substituting decaf coffee with chicory coffee, making sure it was 100% pure roasted chicory root, or chaga coffee made with 100% chaga powder and no additives.
This whole process took more than a year for me.
And one of the most important things I did during this period was to pay attention to my glucose intake. Following the framework I had come to believe in, I wanted to make sure that my body had enough readily available glucose rather than relying so heavily on adrenaline-driven energy.
I started eating loads of foods that I personally consider healthy sources of glucose, including fruit, potatoes, honey and maple syrup.
For me, this was an important part of the process, and I did not experience significant withdrawal symptoms while gradually making these changes.
What I do now
Nowadays, when I know I am visiting a friend or going somewhere where I will be offered coffee, I take my chicory coffee with me.
A few months ago, I did drink a decaf cappuccino with oat milk (and nothing more added) at 11 a.m. in the morning. Even though it was decaf and I had it at 11 in the morning, it gave me a feeling of being high and I could not sleep at my normal bedtime. It was such a clear reminder to me of what coffee had been doing to me for many years.
Over the last couple of years, I have had several occasions when everyone around me was drinking coffee and I could have had a clean decaf coffee. But honestly, I don’t like it anymore.
The idea of coffee getting into my stomach simply doesn’t resonate with me anymore, so I drink either chicory or just water with lemon.
And this is something I find quite remarkable.
I used to have so many different ways of making coffee at home. I used to travel with it, order it from another country and drink three or four cups a day.
Now I can sit next to people drinking coffee and genuinely have no desire for it.
For me, that is what gradual change looks like.
A note about decaf coffee: There are several methods used to remove caffeine from coffee. During my transition, I chose decaf made using the Swiss Water Process, which uses water and filtration to remove caffeine rather than chemical solvents. This is the type of decaf I personally recommend to my clients as a transition toward a coffee-free life.
Please note that decaffeinated coffee is not necessarily completely caffeine-free, and individual caffeine sensitivity can vary.