Caffeine Experiment

[Yoda]

Lezlie,

 

I just read your coffee quandrary and I'm in the same basic situation--I love/need caffeine but it makes me tense when I'm getting off it (on and off during the day). Stargazing and moongazing have reduced my cravings a fair amount which has enabled me to experiment with the "little house on the prarie" coffee program.

 

I've read a fair amount about the American pioneers and one thing I've noticed is that they sure loved their coffee! They could be on the brink of starvation, but they'd still run to the store and buy coffee on credit.

 

The way they drink coffee interests me: they don't touch the stuff until night when all the work is done and they use it to socially animate themselves, sing, play with the kids, etc.

 

I'm just starting this program and it took about a week for the caffeine w/drawl headaches to clear up that got me in the afternoons. And I'm doing maybe 200 mg every night. So far so good. Also, at night I just seem to get tired rather than tense when it's getting out of my system.

 

A new project, just fyi.

 

-Yoda

[peter falk]

times i dont do coffee i find a good qigong practice restores harmony and avoids the withdrawal headache. good to do it before the withdrawal comes. something else to play with.....

[lezlie]

i only *really* crave coffee when i'm doing boring things, like my job for instance, or running errands, or something equally as mindless. if i'm seeking energy, i go for some matte, or apple juice, or vitamin water, or regular water.

 

i love the way coffee smells and tastes, so in a boring situation, it can make it seem a lot less dull.

 

it gives me the jitters about 35% of the time. especially if i have also taken a vitamin.

 

i also enjoy coffee as a treat, after a big meal with friends or something.

i don't want to go back to the days where i drank 3 cups every morning.

iiieee, but i also do not wish to give it up completely.

 

hmmm, but if your withdrawl symptoms are too annoying to handle, i would recommend some yerba matte to smooth them out. it doesn't make you jittery, or at least, not me.

[neimad]

yerbamate to replace the stimulatory effects of caffeine in the morning,

 

passionflower tea to calm at night and also to break the addiction (one of its properties is the breaking of addictions).

[spyrelx]

I gave up coffee and alcohol for a month (I chose february -- being the shortest month -- so I've just come off the wagon).

 

Both were hard for different reasons. Alcohol was situational for me. Certain times during a meal I wanted a glass of wine, and most socializing involves alchohol, and I'd really want one.

 

Coffee was more need driven. I agree with the post above, that its pull is greatest when you're bored or trying to slog through something. It's really a mood-elevator as much as a stimulant. It changes your head.

 

Yoda, I don't know why you'd be taking 200 mg of caffeine at the end of the day. It seems like an incredible waste, at the wrong time. If you're trying to quit, I would think by the end of the day the headaches/withrdrawl are at their weakest point and you're body just wants rest (i.e., it's EASIER to avoid grabbing some coffee). So it seems counter-intuitive to me.

 

I also agree that yerba matte or regular green or black tea, is a helpful substitute (all three contain caffeine in some form or another). You could also try ginseng, which is also a good overall stimulant (in powerdered capsule form -- one or two capsules broken open in hot water -- much stronger than the teabags).

 

Good luck

[Yoda]

Spyrelx,

 

Any benefits on the caffeine experiment or are you just glad it's over? You might be right, I'm just checking into this pattern. I'm thinking that the American pioneer kept their energy in a steady state through the day. I'm thinking that caffeine at night was the only form of entertainment they had back then--more of a socializing drug, and that's sort of what I have in mind for it as well.

 

-Yoda

[Moose]

hey - it be the lurking moose. all this talk of coffee has got me all excited in the fingers. actually i dont touch the shit unless i am actually making it for other people (in a cafe). i have tried to lose this irritating vocation many times but like a rash in your warm areas but it often comes back (usually after an extended period of over consumption of beer). anyway - i was doing the coffee thing today and so here i am still shaking at 10:52 pm, almost six hours after knocking off. I just knock back a couple while i am punching out the lattes to really speed up the output - bang - smash - latte, long machiatto, flat white - hand over fist. yell at the waiters to hurry up and take 'em out.

 

thankfully i only do this once or twice a week. and even then i avoid the coffee machine three out of four shifts and just wash dishes or hit the floor and be rude to customers.

 

time now for yoga and qigong - and hopefully sleep sometime tonight.

 

giddeeup.

[vidiami]

First coffee in the morning is holy ...

I've quit coffee so many times I can't remember. After a certain time of not drinking coffee, I seem to forget the reason why I quit and so I take it up again. I've noticed that it's actually helpful to drink coffee when it comes to training. Without it - it can sometimes be really hard to motivate myself. So I've come to the conclusion that it's better to drink coffee and train properly. The last time I quit I did noticed how much cleaner internally I felt. So maybe in a near future I'll go there again. It's funny - I'm not a heavy coffee drinker, usually no more than once a day. But usually when I quit I've get real nasty headaches for a couple of days.

 

I've been to see Mantak only once but that time he had an interesting story relating to coffee (and other drugs). He was showing everyone pictures of webs spiders had done under the influence of certain drugs like marijuana, cocaine, ... , and coffee. I've guessed they spryed the spiders or something. Anyways, one of the worst webs - it just didn't look like the spider had been his usual selft - was done when the spider had been given coffee. Mantak's comment was simply - no one thought coffee was this bad ...

[Moose]

its not something you want to be drinking too aften. but then worrying about the fact that you do is even worse.

[IanB]

Hi All,

 

I love coffee some times I think to much, some times it makes me ill but the first almond mocha after walking to watersons is a god send.

 

IanB

 

Ps the new site look good.