Thursday, January 19, 2017

Oh COFFEE!

For many people, the most difficult food/drink to work with on the cleanse is COFFEE!  I am forever grateful that I somehow lucked into not being a coffee drinker, but I can still appreciate how hard it is to work on reducing coffee intake.  When we drink coffee every day, our body expects it to be there and if we don't have it, we will definitely have an adjustment period which generally includes a headache, irritability, low energy.  The longer we go without coffee (or with a lower amount), the less present the symptoms become and eventually our body will adjust and we will no longer feel headache-y, grouchy, or tired.  This will usually even out within 3 - 7 days.
For some people, integrating green tea (which has a caffeine base, but is less stressful for the body) will make the transition off coffee more manageable.
For many people though, removing coffee directly isn't an option especially when we are drinking more than 2 cups per day.  An easier on the body way to go about reducing our coffee intake when we drink a higher amount each day is to slowly reduce the amount we drink each week.  For instance, if we currently drink 4 cups of coffee per day, we would start by reducing to 3 3/4 cups of coffee per day for 1 week.  The next week, we would reduce to 3 1/2 cups of coffee per day and we would then continue to slowly reduce by 1/4 cup per day each week until we either are able to remove the coffee or get ourselves to a much lower daily amount.  This process isn't necessarily directly cleanse based but more based on the goal of reducing our daily coffee intake long term.  
Ultimately every body is better without coffee, but if we can reduce our coffee intake to 1 - 2 cups per day, our body will be considerably less stressed by the stimulant and dehydrating qualities of coffee.  The other thing to keep in mind when we are reducing our coffee intake is to not reduce the ritual surrounding coffee as well.  Usually the act of drinking coffee takes us into a space of doing something nice for ourselves, where we slow down, savour, and enjoy.  This aspect of coffee drinking is a wonderful part of our routine!  If we are aiming to reduce our coffee intake, it is still nice to maintain this space by either having another warm non-caffeinated drink or doing something else that encourages us to slow down and treat ourselves when we would normally drink coffee.
And keep in mind, our goal doesn't need to be no coffee at all - any reduction we make will be a positive step in supporting our overall health!

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