It’s 10pm, and I can barely stay awake. It seems like the past few sleep-deprived days have taken a toll on me. But shoot, I still didn’t finish taking that quiz due tomorrow morning… I chug another Americano for the long night ahead.
Like many other college students, I have a toxic reliance on coffee. That is, I drink coffee every meal of the day (and sometimes in between meals) to stay awake.
Sure, coffee has improved my digestion and has helped me concentrated in class. Yet, when your life really starts to embody the quote “but first, coffee,” something is wrong. Remember—coffee shouldn’t be a “necessity.” It’s just a drink. It shouldn’t give you horrible mood swings or disrupted heart rates that can trigger anxiety.
So what can we do to stop relying on coffee?
The first step is to identify why you’re drinking coffee. Do you often have to stay up late at night? Do you feel groggy in the mornings? Do you have trouble focusing in class? Are you trying to improve your metabolism?
If you said yes to any of the above questions, try to find a solution to your problem in a world without coffee. For example, you can be more proactive by finishing assignments early so that you don’t have to stay up to cram them at night. You can go on morning jogs instead of chugging coffee to improve your blood flow in the morning. You can try sitting in front of the lecture halls or ask your friends for tips on how to concentrate in class. For your metabolism, you can eat less fatty carbs and replace them with more protein-rich food.
The second step is to set realistic goals or limits to your coffee consumption. If you’re drinking three cups of coffee per day like me, try limiting your intake to one cup a day. I recommend choosing either the morning or early afternoon and limit your coffee intake to that specific time each day to set a routine for yourself.
Once you follow these steps, it’s time for you to actually implement your plan! It can be really hard at first to resist your daily dose of too much coffee—try starting off substituting coffee with low-caffeine tea instead (e.g. white tea or matcha). Don’t try blocking all things coffee suddenly from your life; you’ll feel hopeless about your goal and have a horrible rebound!
I know that not every coffee-lover has an unhealthy relationship with coffee. In fact, a lot of my friends drink coffee as an accompaniment to their pastries and not because they are addicted to it. Just remember not to let coffee take control of your life! What you eat and drink makes up your body. Let’s try to not let coffee come first.