I love a good coffee
I truly can enjoy a mug of coffee that's just perfect. To me, good coffee is some sort of art form. My boyfriend often asked me to please work my magic on his coffee so that he has the best cup. I always feel exactly how much sugar and creamer to add without measuring it. I rarely fail.
For a few years, we've had Senseo coffee after using a percolator for several years before that. I have to admit, that with the coffee that we bought back in the time we had a percolator, Senseo was heaven for me. Especially the dark roast pads made me enjoy my coffee every single time. There was a period that I didn't drink a lot of coffee, but I noticed when the pandemic arrived and my boyfriend started working from home, I got infected by his cravings for coffee as well as the other way around. Meaning that my own cravings weren't my own anymore and vice versa.
Things got out of hand
I noticed having headaches more and more days of the week, sometimes days in a row, affecting my mood and functioning those days. The conclusion was at some point, I had to drink less coffee, and maybe also start by replacing the dark roasted pads with the regular roast. I think that already made a bit of a difference but at some point, I was (again) drinking a few cups in the morning, for lunch, and afternoon, sometimes topped by coffee after dinner as well. For a long time, I always said I could drink coffee even at 8 or 9 PM without having sleep issues, which was true, but I didn't count the headaches for the inconvenience which were honestly maybe even more problematic at some point.
Migraines and coffee cravings
I have to admit, that even when having migraines at some point, the cravings for coffee never left. I always said: "I need my coffee before I can function in the morning!". I seriously felt that this was true, I didn't leave the house ever to bring the kiddo to the kindergarten before I had some coffee. Even if this meant that I had to get up 30 mins earlier to be able to enjoy the coffee peacefully. And then a few mornings arrived where I had no choice but to leave without coffee as I forgot to buy creamer for example, and I noticed that it wasn't that bad to drive the car even without my coffee. Where I always felt that I would not function without a good coffee, I now experienced several times that this wasn't true, it was the addict inside me telling me I NEEDED THE COFFEE!
I started to cut down drinking coffee some months ago
I experienced a natural dislike for the coffee and didn't enjoy the coffee anymore. This was first caused by the awesome coffee we found, not being available anymore in the supermarket we always bought it, making us try out other blends. Without success, none of them were giving me the same satisfying feeling as the other coffee did. While I started to cut down to 2 or sometimes 1 coffee a day, my boyfriend kept craving coffee for even months to follow. I had now overcome being affected by his cravings, and refused to drink it even if I smelled the scent of coffee (which I love so much!).
Extreme headaches followed when I didn't drink ANY coffee
I started to notice a pattern when I hadn't drink any coffee for 1 or 2 days straight, I was again suffering from extreme headaches to the point that I could not even touch my laptop for most of the day. The light was hurting me too much and soon I realized this was the detoxing process and this made me realize even more that I didn't want to be a coffee addict anymore. I didn't want to feel this bad simply because some day(s) there was no coffee available.
I started to drink iced coffee
Not the extremely strong ones, but the more latte ones were my replacement when I really wanted to "taste" some coffee flavor. These have helped me through the process of detoxing from being a coffee addict. The other thing that helped me a lot was the fact that our coffee machine broke down, and we went back to having a percolator again which made me enjoy the coffee a lot less. I think in the past month, I only had 2 coffee and then I didn't touch it again.
No more headaches related to caffeine
I can't remember the last time I had a serious headache like I used to have due to the caffeine, making me realize that this was the right thing to do. I will not say that I will never drink a coffee again, but now that I'm 100% aware of the effect it has on one's body, to me it's not worth drinking it daily just because of the habit and to feed the addict inside me. I rather enjoy a cup of coffee every once in a while, than having headaches every time that I decide not to. Although I can manage to have an iced coffee every once in a while now as a replacement, I know that when the winter arrives, my cravings for a hot drink will try to take over to convince me to have a coffee more often, once that's the case, I lean towards trying decaf for the first time in my life.
But I'll deal with that once that's the case, for now, I'm doing just fine without it!