How to Decrease Your Caffeine Habit

If you’re anything like me, you love a rich mug of coffee in the morning, and an early afternoon energizing espresso.

It seems that no matter what time of day, or what season of the year, caffeinated beverages tend to be our go-to, especially for career women.

Whether it’s iced tea or coffee in the warmer weather, or a heart-warming mug of steaming coffee or tea in the colder weather. It can be that dessert-like pumpkin latte in October, or for some, a crisp Coca Cola on a hot summer day.

The Ugly Effects of a Caffeine Habit

One downside to these delicious, caffeinated beverages, is caffeine is habit-forming. You might start out with just one cup a day, but before you know it, you’ve got a habit. One cup can then increase to two, three, and maybe even more.

Contrary to what you may have heard, caffeine is not chemically addictive in a physiologic way. It only raises dopamine, the reward hormone, a small amount, unlike most, or all illegal drugs.

That may not seem so bad until you start noticing some negative side effects. Perhaps you start noticing the slight jittery effect, heightened anxiety, or a tough time falling asleep.

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I personally feel all three of those. I also experience a generalized feeling of discomfort an hour or two after that second drink (usually black tea or espresso).

As much as I enjoy the flavor, I don’t enjoy those feelings, and I’m guessing you may not either. That’s why I want to talk to you about how to decrease your caffeine habit. Particularly, without having to entirely give up your favorite energy-boosting beverage.

However, if you do want to quit caffeine entirely, you’re going to want to follow these steps also. Stick around to the end, where I’ll talk about nixing that caffeine habit for good.

Determine Your Why

I first want to ask you why you drink coffee, tea, or another caffeinated drink? Is it for the flavor, the comfort of the warmth, or the energy boost from the caffeine?

This is important to bring awareness to. It will be helpful in choosing which drinks are here to stay and which ones should go.

When you ask yourself the question of “why?” you may notice that it’s more than one of those reasons. If you’re like me, it may be both for the flavor, but also as an early afternoon “pick me up.”

Interestingly, I’ve found that the afternoon espresso really only leaves me feeling jittery, yet I still am drawn to it.

Why is that?

When I ask myself “why” a second time, I realize it’s because I look forward to sipping something tasty in the afternoon while I’m working. Are there other things I can sip that will still give me that satisfaction? Definitely. (Keep reading and I’ll mention a few alternatives.)

Think about what your why, and then explore that a little further like I did. You will probably find out something very useful. (You can use this for anything actually! Like, why does that annoying work colleague talk so much about her weird cat?)

Once you have awareness as to why you are performing a certain behavior, you are better able to control that behavior. Your brain can now make the connection between your thought or feeling that drives the behavior.

Once that becomes interrupted, the behavior sequence is now interrupted. Once the behavior sequence is interrupted, the caffeine habit cycle gets broken.

You’ll still be able to perform that behavior, but it will be a conscious decision, rather than an automatic habitual one.

How Does the Caffeine Make You Feel?

Next, you want to ask yourself how you feel about 30 minutes after drinking your caffeinated beverages. How you feel after drinking it, is the consequence of performing the behavior.

Every behavior has a consequence. If the consequence is interpreted as “good” to your brain, you will keep performing the behavior. Sometimes though, we may think a consequence is good. However, when we really bring awareness, we may see that it really isn’t.

So again, I want you to ask yourself about 30 minutes after you start drinking your caffeinated beverage, how it makes you feel.

Doing this around 30 minutes into your drink is very important. It takes as little as 15 minutes for the caffeine to start taking effect, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Also, it tends to reach it’s maximum effect between 15-45 minutes.

Then you will determine if you like the effects that you have from your caffeinated beverage if any at all.

You may notice that you really don’t feel any more energized or focused. Or perhaps there are feelings or sensations you don’t like. If so, what are they?

Try to put some descriptive words on the feeling or sensation, so it’s more “real” to you. When you can describe how something feels in detail, you are better able to identify it in the future. When you can identify it in the future, you can manage it much easier.

You are then going to want to see how you feel about a few hours later. Do you still feel any effects? If so, what are they and do you like them?

Caffeine has a half-life of about 5 hours, according to this article in Medical News Today, so just be aware that about ½ the caffeine dose is still in your body 5 hours after taking that first sip.

Make A Small Behavior Change

Now, I’d like you to take some action and change the actual behavior somewhat. You are going to determine which caffeinated drink you think you can decrease, eliminate, or exchange for a decaffeinated version. This is where determining your “why” comes in handy.

Perhaps one of your caffeinated beverages doesn’t really provide you with the effect of increased energy or focus. It may be a caffeine habit that doesn’t even serve you. In that case, you may choose that one to eliminate.

Or, you may choose the one that just puts you over that edge, and leaves you feeling jittery or anxious.

Are you someone who has difficulty sleeping at night? If yes, then I would strongly consider eliminating or exchanging the beverage that you drink the latest in the day.

Caffeine effects can last quite some time depending on how much you drink, your age, gender, body weight, etc. Many sources say for the average person (whatever that really means), caffeine stays in the body for about 10 hours.

Just be aware that if you go to bed around 10pm, you may not want to have any caffeine after noon.

Another thing I want to note is that you may absolutely love the stimulant effects of the caffeine. Despite this, you may still want to decrease your caffeine intake for another reason. If this is the case, then I recommend just decreasing the volume you are drinking with each drink.

For example, if your caffeine habit is to normally buy a large coffee at Starbucks, go down to a medium. If you normally fill your travel mug to the brim, then only fill it to ¾ of the way full. Are cream and sugar your thing? Then you’ll also be benefitting by decreasing these as well!

• Read (or skim) this too! Sugar Addiction: How to Stop the Cycle
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Some people like my husband, Paul, like having a large volume of a beverage to drink. He likes that he can enjoy sipping it for longer. Therefore, for people like him, an option would be to try doing half regular and half decaf.

When you start with small changes, you will be less likely to go back to your old ways. The easier it is for you to perform a behavior, the more likely you will do it again.

Choose a tactic that is easy for you though. Everyone differs and you may find another way besides what I mentioned above, that works better for you.

Some Ideas for Exchanges

Seltzer or mineral water (my favorite, and provides a feeling of energy as well)

Decaffeinated tea (most herbal teas are decaffeinated)

Decaffeinated coffee or espresso (these days, decaf has improved in flavor and can be just as tasty as regular)

Water (can dress it up with fruit, and it can make you feel like you have more energy)

Repeat

As you probably know, a very important component to forming a new habit, is repetition. If you can perform your new behavior most days of the week, it is more likely to become a new habit more quickly.

Start with frequent repetition and then slowly continue to eliminate or exchange.

If you find yourself going back to your original amount of caffeine, you just went a little too quickly. That’s okay, just start small again, and take more time to decrease the amount.

I’d rather you make a small change, do it frequently, then add onto that. It will take some time to feel dramatic effects from your new habit. You’ll notice though that it will be an easier and almost guaranteed way to be successful.

• Read this too! New Habits Made Simple With Habit Stacking
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Quit Your Caffeine Habit Completely

Totally optional, but you may find that you really like how you feel when you don’t drink caffeine. You may not even miss the flavor at all. If this is the case, you can keep decreasing the amount you are consuming. Just follow the steps above, until you’ve completely broken your habit.

You can always re-decide in the future if you want to start drinking caffeine again. Or, you may just set an intention for yourself. An example would be “I will only drink caffeine if I need it to keep me alert during a long car drive.”

Another Tip

One thing that typically drives a behavior is an external activator, or cue. This can be something you see, smell, hear, taste, or touch. Regarding behaviors like drinking coffee, small and sight often are the cues. So, try to decrease your exposure to these external activators. You’ll decrease or kick your caffeine habit in no time.

Final Notes

As you can see, you’ve been taken through a process to change your behavior. This process includes finding what drives your behavior, plus the consequence of the behavior. You’ve also discovered the small changes you can make to your behavior to change the results.

Bringing awareness to what drives the behavior, you can see if you were really getting benefit from the behavior. If not, then it is much easier to make the change.

Once this behavior sequence is repeated multiple times, it becomes a new habit, but one that has a more desirable outcome. It’s also a new caffeine habit that you have more control of.