Whether you drink one cup of Sumatra coffee each morning or guzzle one pound of Starbucks House Blend throughout each day, you should consider giving up the coffee-drinking habit. Drinking coffee can impair your lifestyle and the way you interact with the people around you.
In this article, I’m going to give you three steps that will help you break your coffee-drinking habit. These steps assume that you don’t want to stop drinking coffee “cold turkey” and throw your coffee maker out the window. Doing so will likely result in a week of headaches and other bodily aches and pains.
Step #1: Write Down Your Plan To Break The Coffee Habit
This is the most critical step in breaking the coffee habit. Everything begins with a written plan. It’s not enough to think about how you want to quit drinking coffee. You need to write your plan down on a piece of paper. That cements your intention in your brain.
On a piece of paper, list each day over a two-week period. Then, write down the number of ounces you’ll drink each day. On Day 1, write down your normal coffee drinking consumption. Then, cut that consumption by half every five days.
For example, if you drink 20 ounces of coffee each day, use that as your starting point. On Day 6, only drink 10 ounces. On Day 11, drink 5 ounces. By Day 15, plan to drink 0 (zero) ounces of coffee.
Step #2: Implement Your Plan To Break The Coffee Habit
Plans are useless unless you implement them. If you currently order a Starbucks Venti (20 ounces) each morning, continue to enjoy it for 5 days. On Day 6, buy a Grande (16 ounces) coffee and leave 40% in the cup as you throw it out. On Day 11, buy a Tall (this is what Starbucks calls their “small” size). A Tall is 12 ounces, so leave a few sips in the cup. On Day 15, visit Starbucks and order a water (decaffeinated coffee is cheating).
Over this two-week period, you are training your body to perform throughout the day without the caffeine. On day 15, you can stop drinking coffee altogether and not suffer the severe headaches that breaking the coffee habit “cold turkey” would have induced.
Step #3: Use Diligence In Staying Away From Coffee
An action becomes a habit after 30 days of repeating that action. You will need to be diligent if you want to stop drinking coffee over the long-term. If you cheat and enjoy a small cup every now and then, your body will react by throwing off your sleep patterns and revisiting the prior coffee addiction you once had. After 30 days, you will find that you won’t miss having your daily dose of coffee and caffeine.
Breaking the coffee habit isn’t complicated or hard. Implement the 3-step plan above for 30 days. You’ll find that you have more energy, can focus more clearly and sleep more effectively than before.
