It’s one of those days where I woke up at 3:30am and couldn’t fall back to sleep. This doesn’t happen “often” but enough that it’s annoying. I feel like I always wake up super early on days I can sleep in a little bit. Does this happen to anyone else? Well, I think I have read all the blogs and I have already had a cup of coffee so what better time than now to Think Out Loud?
I was thinking about writing a whole post about this, but I survived 6 weeks without coffee. Not that I ever doubted my survival, but I knew it would be hard, and it was. In case you missed it, I gave up coffee for Lent. Rather than go into tons of detail, I thought I would just share a few thoughts about how it went and what I learned.
I think the hardest part for me was smelling coffee. I LOVE the smell of coffee, so when Rob would make it or someone would brew a cup at work it made me miss it a lot. After the first day, I don’t think I had any “withdrawal” symptoms (I had a bad headache the first day). However, when I was tired for whatever reason it was hard not to have that as a way to get a little boost of energy.
I think caffeine really helps my running. This should come as no surprise, as caffeine has been found to be a performance enhancer, I just thought that after a few weeks my body would adjust. Looking back on the time I went without coffee, my runs were slower, and I felt like I had less energy. As soon as I started drinking coffee again my runs improved greatly. I am planning to do a few runs a week without coffee, so that I can really benefit from a boost of energy when I do have caffeine before a run.
Lastly, I think that not having coffee helped me to be more in tune with how I was actually feeling in terms of my energy levels. There was no hiding a need for sleep with a few cups of coffee. If I was tired, I knew I needed to get more sleep. I think we can sometimes use coffee as a crutch to make up for not getting enough sleep, so this helped me to recognize that I may need a little more sleep than I once thought.
All that being said, I am happy to be back to drinking coffee!
On another note, we just passed the 1 year mark of closing on our house! April 11th will be the 1 year anniversary of when we moved. I can’t believe it’s been a year already! I really don’t know where the time went.
Things are coming together slowly. We still have a few empty rooms and our next project is trying to add on a deck. This will make me really happy to have a place to eat/drink/lay outside this summer!
I think I have adjusted to having a commute, although I will always miss my 5 minute drive to work! It’s funny how things work out, because a few months after we moved I switched projects at work and now my office is out here in the suburbs (15 minutes away) which would have been a really annoying commute if I still lived in the city!
The one thing I miss about where I used to live is being able to walk down the block to go to yoga. Now that Rob and I share one car, it would be kind of mean if I went to yoga after work and left him on his own to get home. Besides, with working longer/later hours I feel like I just don’t have the time or energy to go to a class anymore.
And a couple of random thoughts about blogging stuff, because why not?
-Has anyone else been annoyed with the recent changes to Bloglovin? Like when I go to the homepage it shows me all the posts that people I follow have liked, and I have to click “feed” to actually see my unread posts. It’s been like that for 2 weeks or so and I am still adjusting.
-There was a stretch of time where my Blog spam was out of control. (I clean out my spam folder every day to check for real comments that got lost in there.) I realized they were all on an on page that isn’t even on my blog anymore! So I deleted that page and it seems to have gotten better. How do spammers comment on a page that isn’t even live? I don’t understand.
I should write more posts at 4am. Clearly the words flow best at this time of day (with the help of some coffee, of course). However, there is something to be said for writing with a glass of wine as well. Different styles and thoughts, that’s for sure!
Have you ever stopped drinking coffee? What did you notice?
Do you use Bloglovin? Did you notice the changes a couple weeks ago?
Do you feel like the past year flew by? Was your life different in any way a year ago?
Thanks, Amanda!
I did notice the changes on bloglovin and I have to do the same exact thing! it’s annoying. I was going to mention it too! I still am in awe of you for going that long without coffee! And agree with everything you said about it. I am good about drinking more decaf than regular but I enjoy the caffeine and need it 🙂
There’s just something nice about the caffeine boost. Now I know I don’t “need” it, but I definitely prefer it:)
THANK YOU for being annoyed by the bloglovin changes. GAH I hate it.
I sometimes have to give up coffee if I am in a place where I can’t get it, like a hotel that only gives you regular or something like that. I drink mostly decaf but I can tell a difference in my mornings when I am drinking straight decaf (I usually mix them). But I love the taste, the smell, the everything of coffee.
I think even a little bit of caffeine goes a long way! Most days 1 cup of regular coffee is plenty, the rest is just because I like the smell and taste so I try to do decaf for those.
Going without coffee is TOUGH–during my pregnancy I went cold turkey with caffeine. I knew if I had one cup I would end up drinking the whole pot! So happy to have that morning cup these days 🙂 it definitely helps with energy and gives you more stamina with running!
Congrats on your 1 year home anniversary!!
Thanks!
It sounds very challenging to go 1 month without coffee, but it sounds like you did draw many positives from it. That’s so interesting about the runs but I’ve definitely heard people avoiding caffeine the week before a race and then taking it on race day for the same reason. Have a great day!
It makes sense that cutting out caffeine before a race would help with race day performance! Not sure I would want to give it up again though, even just for a few days:)
Ha – I don’t even blog anymore and I hate what has happened with BlogLovin’! 🙂 Seems like they are making it harder just to get to see the blogs people want … which is why I depend on email subscriptions, WP Reader and Feedly!
Congrats on the anniversary – today is the 8th anniversary of us closing on our house here in the Corning NY area. It is also ~21 years since we closed on our first house in Massachusetts, where we lived until moving to NY. It is funny that each time we moved it was right around my birthday – the first house I had cake on boxes the day of our closing, and for this house my birthday was in the hotel we were at before closing!
As for the coffee thing, I only stopped making it during both pregnancies for our boys as Lisa wasn’t drinking it (which was the advice at the time) so I got it at work instead. But about 18 months ago I gave up soda, and haven’t gone back – nor have I missed it! But I DID feel the lack of caffeine, as I was pounding the Diet Mountain Dew in 24oz bottles ~2 per day! Ugh.
Our life a year ago was similar but different – we were preparing for the high school graduation of our older son, now we prepare for our younger son. We were getting ready to send one off to college, now we’ll have both heading off! Crazy!
I used to use google reader (I think that’s what it was called- I can’t even remember!) to read blogs and then they got rid of it so I went to Bloglovin. It’s slow and sometimes posts don’t show up, but I feel like trying something new would be even more confusing, so I have just stuck with it.
Congrats to you guys as well on your house anniversaries! And I can’t believe how fast the past year as gone, each one seems to go faster than the last!
My boyfriend gave up coffee for Lent this year too. He was such a grump the first week, but got better after that. He was so happy to get back to drinking coffee after Easter though!
Thanks for reminding me to check my blog spam! I had completely forgotten about it and there were a bunch of real comments in there!
I don’t think I was too grumpy without caffeine, but my husband may have a different opinion on that!
Facebook changed how I can see my blog page’s timeline, and it took me a week to figure it out. I didn’t want to sit down and see what they’d done.
My yoga has gone by the wayside for my PT exercises, but I like doing yoga at home much more than a studio. If I’m doing a routine at the end of the day, I don’t have to get in the car and drive.
Thats definitely the nice part about doing yoga at home!
Oh dear lord I feel like I would DIE without coffee! I realize that’s dramatic–I actually didn’t have time to make coffee this morning before I left the house and feel like a grump. I actually think I would give up wine before coffee, which sounds insane!
I think it would have been much easier to give up wine than it was to give up coffee!
Congrats on a year in your house! This year has flown by—Ryan and I are coming up on one year since we moved out of Indiana and to Seattle.
Coffee definitely helps me run better. I read a study recently that said it reduces your perceived exertion for any given pace, even if you drink it regularly. Which makes sense! Great job on giving it up for Lent and enjoy having it back!
That’s interesting that it helps your running even if you drink it regularly! I can’t believe it’s almost a year since you guys moved to Seattle!
im not a coffee drinker so i cant relate to your struggle but i know what its like to make changes to your diet and see a difference in your running that is no fun. and ugh i do not like the new bloglovin look either! i want to see my feed not things other people like, this is not pinterest 🙂
I don’t know why they made those change! Very frustrating!
Yay for one year in your home! We’re nearing on 2 ad I still have no idea how. Time truly does fly! Also not a fan of the new Bloglovin feed. I don’t use it too much since for whatever reason my computer doesn’t love it and goes super slow, so now it’s just another hurdle for me, ha!
My Bloglovin is always slow too! But it’s what I’m used to so I continue using it.
3:30am?!?! OH NO! Callum slept in our bed last night and I probably got 5 hours of sleep total, woken up several times with a kick to the ribs. Super fun. I can’t believe you moved a whole year ago! Time goes so fast. And yes, the smell of coffee IS the best. 🙂
Sounds like you had a fun night! And I know, time really is flying.
When I started very occasionally drinking caffeine after cutting it out almost completely for more than 2 years, I noticed I definitely feel that boost. When it became more like 3-4 mornings of the workweek, the boost did seem to go away -and now I try and reserve for the 1-2 mornings when I really need it as you mentioned.
It’s great to have that additional boost from the caffeine!
Happy home-i-versary! Wow that went fast. I came late to the coffee game when I started drinking it in my mid 40’s. First it was only on long run day, then all run days now everyday. I too love the smell and just the warm mug in hand. And of course the mental clarity! Yes Bloglovin has been irritating! Ugh!
I don’t know how you made it so long without coffee! I feel like I really depended on it during my college years. But now I really just enjoy it each day, and love the taste.
Congrats on 1 year in the house AND 6 weeks without coffee! I love coffee. It keeps me “regular”, which is prob my fav. thing about it. 🙂 I did not notice the bloglovin changes mostly because it confuses me a lot. I used bloglovin, but I can’t say I fully understand it.
I don’t think I understand it either! I just know how to read posts I follow, but i don’t like that other random posts show up in my feed.
I wish caffeine had an effect on me but it doesn’t. I can fall asleep immediately after drinking coffee or tea (a lot if it), and caffeinated gels never seem to be different than caffeinated ones. It’s a bummer because I have no way to give me a boost. I still do drink tea and sometimes coffee just because I like it. I actually like the bloglovin changes because many times the posts people save are ones I’m interested in but didn’t see. But I can see your point too!
That’s too bad that you don’t get a boost from caffeine! And I never really thought about how you get to see posts you missed from the new Bloglovin. I think I just get so fixated on wanting to read the posts I follow that I try to ignore everything else, just because I don’t have time to browse other stuff.
I had to give up coffee because of stomach problems and I miss it a lot! But, I do feel better without it.
That’s so sad that you can’t drink coffee anymore! But I’m glad you feel better!
Way to go on surviving without coffee! I am very sensitive to caffeine so I rarely have it, except occasionally when meeting a friend at a cafe. But I have wondered if I should tap into it more as a performance enhancer for running!
I was really amazed at home much better my running felt after adding it back in!
I had stopped drinking coffee for a period of time before, and you’re completely right about what it does to you when you do stop! I don’t think that I will be taking a break from coffee anytime soon again though.
Me neither! I am so happy to be drinking it again!
I’ve never been brave enough to try to stop drinking coffee – I’m really impressed! I’m just making excuses, but my schedule is too crazy to give up the thing that gets me through my long commute and keeps me energized at work. And I totally agree about the Bloglovin’ changes! I miss the old version.
I wouldn’t recommend giving it up:) I mean, I’m glad I did it but now I am back to enjoying it again without any intention of stopping again.
Wow congrats! Six weeks is a long time to go without it, especially when you just quit cold turkey. I’m cutting WAY back on my coffee intake as well…it adds so much to my anxiety and I just don’t need it! I’m trying half-caf for now, because like you I love the smell, the taste…really just the whole routine/experience of “having a cup of coffee.” It’s a huge part of my day!
I have been trying to do one cup of regular and one cup of decaf, and that seems to be going well!
Count me in as another annoyed with Bloglovin changes. I do always find it interesting to hear about coffee drinkers giving up the habit. We had friends and when he went cold turkey (he drank multiple cups at work) he had headaches for nearly a week. Moderation is the key to everything! I do like my gels with caffeine and enjoy that little boost during a race.
Yes, moderation is definitely key with most things!
i just stopped using blogloving altogether like a month after i signed up. i was having so many issues with it and their customer service team was not helpful at all. it just wasnt working out for me.
so interesting about cutting out coffee and the effects/realizations you had! Good for you on finishing it 🙂
I have been using bloglovin for so long that Im scared to try anything else! But it definitely gives me trouble all the time.
I can’t believe it’s been a year already – time flies!
I don’t think I’ve ever gone 6 weeks without coffee but I have successfully given it up for at least a few weeks before. I got the headache after the second day and it lasted for two days and then I was fine. BUT, I was tired more and I just missed it too much. I love the smell and taste of coffee and so I’ve finally given up on trying to give it up hehe 😀
Sounds like we had similar experiences without caffeine! I won’t be giving it up again either:)
Wow 6 weeks without coffee? I LOVE the flavor and smell of it. It’s become so routine that I’m sure I would miss the habit.
I think that was the hardest part for me! I got used to not having it after a week or so, but I still missed it!
Great job on your 6 week hiatus from coffee. I don’t drink coffee very often, but do rely on my caffeine in the morning, LOL!!! I tried bloglovin but never really got in to it. Sorry to hear there are icky changes!
I don’t think I realized how much I appreciated the little caffeine boost each morning!
6 weeks without coffee!!! Great… I couldn’t have been able to live so long without coffee…. But coming back to drinking coffee after a long break is really a very good experience….