How to Give Up Coffee and How to Become an Early Riser - Part I

How incredible is it that I find articles on the traits I'm quite infamous for in the family, on the same day. There are only 2 possible explanations when I wake up with a grouchy mood, headaches, a long face and snap at everyone throughout the day - either I didn't get enough sleep or didn't have my morning tea.

There is a mental program that sends signals "your day hasn't started yet" if the 100 ml of tea doesn't go in by 7:30 a.m. It gets worse. I get a kick only if the morning cup of tea that I consume is made by me. I don't adopt any special procedure..It is the regular Taj Mahal/Lipton/RedLabel mixture with 2 spoons of sugar, a little milk, crushed ginger sprinkled with cardamom powder for flavor. Satisfaction guaranteed. Thinking what a spoilt brat am I? Tea has been my favorite beverage since childhood. Mom wouldn't allow us kids to have tea. So I would sneak in every morning and steal a bit from her cup. On getting caught, she would hold my ears :(

Well as Steve says, Caffeine is the modern drug of choice in the work world, easily accessible, socially acceptable, readily affordable, and of course perfectly legal. This is so true. I cultivated a bad habit when I joined my new workplace April this year. I started drinking coffee (black without milk and sugar unlike what Indians are used to) 3 times a day because of easy accessibility. Everytime my colleagues would go to get coffee and would ask me to accompany them, I had a cup. Soon I was consuming more than my body could take! I had to STOP because of the adverse side effects like acidity and it killed my hunger and my digestive system went for a toss. Here are a few steps that I followed to fight my temptation:

How to give up Coffee:

Should you give up coffee?
Anything had in unreasonably large amounts is harmful. With time it becomes an addiction. If you notice side effects like decrease in appetite or concentration, then its time. I know of people who don't drink coffee in the evenings because they would end up staying wide awake through the night! More importantly, if you can't live a day without coffee at predetermined times and fight the urge, then its time to kick the habit or have it in reasonable portions!

Method 1:
Reduce the Quantity:
Instead of stopping the intake abruptly and traumatising oneself, reducing the quantity gradually over a week helps. That way you don't give room for any psychotic feeling that triggers false feelings of headaches due to lack of caffeine!

Method 2:
Break the habit:

Most coffee/tea drinkers develop a rhythm and a timetable like 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and so on when they have to have coffee come what may. It is important to break this habit and do something else. If your coworkers call you, then don't accompany them for a few days for the coffee break if you can't resist the temptation. This is what I did. If you can resist, then drink something else like water or eat cookies! Or if you feel like drinking something warmer, switch from coffee to a hot beverage like cocoa or some other energy drink.

Method 3:

There really is no method 3. It is more of a mental challenge. Every time I felt like having coffee/tea at work, I remembered all those days I suffered and challenged myself, "Don't I have even this much of self control? Am I so addicted" And remembered the one satisfying cup consumed in the morning.

For 2 weeks now, I'm surviving on just a cup of tea - down from 5 a day!