Giving up caffeine, Part 1

Why I chose to go caffeine-free (and how it's worked out)

It’s been more than a decade since I gave up caffeine, and though some of you long-timers remember the story, many of you still ask, “Wait, why?” Let’s talk about my journey with caffeine, why I don’t drink it today, and how you can evaluate your own relationship with caffeine if you so choose.

2010: Burnout approacheth

In 2010, I quit my 9-5 job to take Whole30 full-time. I had been pulling double-duty for nearly three years, writing my CrossFit training blog and coaching nights and weekends while working my full-time corporate job during the week. When I quit my insurance gig, I threw myself into all things Whole30. As a new entrepreneur, I thought I had to hustle 24/7 to be successful. I had zero boundaries around work or my personal time, and I watched my stress levels ascend as fast as my health declined.

After a Whole30 seminar in Oregon one weekend, I was having dinner with friends and talking about my challenges with entrepreneurship and stress. Someone gently pointed out that perhaps my coffee habit wasn’t helping. I was drinking more and more to stay afloat, and though I’d taken week-long breaks before, they never stuck. A friend suggested maybe I should give it up for good—or at least for the foreseeable future.

I quit cold-turkey the very next day, because all of the things that made me an excellent drug addict make me throw myself into a potentially healthy habit change just as hard.