Caffeine reliance?

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Drunk on the Moon

Carbonite Member
Hey guys,

I find that my working day is made a little easier with the help of caffiene....be that cans of coke, tea, coffee (has to be a mocha chocca, can't stand coffee on its own) or caffiene pills.

I've noticed lately tho that I need a caffeine kick while at the gym weight lifting and when I box, otherwise I feel sloppy and weak, as stupid as that sounds. This is on top of the other supplements I take (not roids lol), I'm talking protein shakes etc.

I do love a good 2 litre bottle of cola when editing as it gets my creative juices flowing (maybe its the sugar??).

Anyone else find they need a little bit of caffeine to get them thorough the day? I know that seems a little obvious but does anyone find they MUST HAVE it??
 
I suggest cutting back on that!

I'm not one to talk though, I have my cup of coffee almost every day... Oh how dependent we are.
 
LOL yeh I have been getting carried away recently, at least a 2 litre bottle of coke a day. I'm still in good shape tho, but I worry for my teeths sake :)
 
Four or five cups of coffee spread throughout the day is no big deal. It's good to have water at the same time though.

But soda? That stuff is pure crap.
 
Drunk on the Moon said:
LOL yeh I have been getting carried away recently, at least a 2 litre bottle of coke a day.
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That's just ridiculous. Seriously, the sugar alone (or rather HFCS) isn't good for you at all, and is just an impediment on exercise. Not to say you're out of shape, but you could be performing much better without it.
 
I usually drink a can of Coke in the morning, and iced tea, lemonade, or Arnold Palmer's the rest of the time.
 
I'm utterly addicted to the stuff (soda/pop/cola/whatever), and I hate that I am - a bit of caffeine is great for the brain but not bundled with a weeks worth of sugar
 
most the work day all i drink is very strong coffee and water. like to the point of shaking.
 
I am a coffee addict and putting on a pot is the first thing I do in the AM when I wake up (well, after a little stop in the bathroom, of course). I have been trying to cut down, and now limit my self to one 32 oz pot a day. I have been drinking strong coffee for so long, I just don't see how anyone gets a caffeine kick from sodas. BUT, if that is your thing, power to ya. There are a lot worse things out there.

BTW, I say a thing on the History channel (or PBS, or C-SPAN Book TV, you get the drift) that presented the argument that the political and scientific enlightenment that sprang up in the 18th century was directly related to the establishment of the coffee house as a central social hub in large cities in Europe and America, where young intellectuals congregated and hashed out new ideas to the wee hours of the morning buzzed out on caffeine. I can see that.
 
i've had to change my eating habits recently and caffeine is one of the things i've given up. so now i drink the non-caffeinated 2 litres of coke instead. :2vrolijk_08:
 
I've just recently become a coffee person now that I'm getting paid work as an editor. I thankfully never liked soda much, so I don't have to worry about the sugar. I put soy milk in my coffee and nothing else.

I'm a little worried about getting too hooked on caffeine though. Caffeine has about a five hour half-life, meaning if you consume 200mg of caffeine, five hours later you will still have 100mg in your system, and so on. If I drink a cup or two in the morning only, I'll be fine by the time I go to sleep, but there's another problem with caffeine...

A big part of deep, time-efficient sleeping, is to have your body temperature have its peak in the middle of the day and its "valley" in the middle of night. If you drink coffee, you won't peak, you'll just have a sustained plateau throughout the day, which translates to an opposite plateau at night. I'm obsessed with time-efficient sleeping and especially having a deep REM period (lucid dreaming as well as solidifying memories), so I probably shouldn't be drinking caffeine.

On the other hand, I notice a huge positive difference in my mental activity when I've had a fair dose of caffeine, so I don't know what the best option is.

If I have time in the morning, and I don't want the caffeine, sometimes I'll replace it with an alternative: two huge glasses of water, an apple, multi-vitamin, and an Emergen-C packet. The apple has natural sugar that gives an energy boost, the multi-vitamin is just good all-around, and Emergen-C has lots of Vitamin B12 in addition to Vitamin C. The two glasses of water are the biggest part of the equation though. Dehydration is one of the fastest ways to impair brain function, so giving your brain all the water it needs is important to feeling alert and awake.

With that said, I usually just go for the coffee (ugh!). Maybe typing this post will make me change my habits a little bit.
 
I was drinking 4+ double espressos a day and recently I spent a season switching from coffee to black tea, now its like one strong cup of coffee is too much for me, I cant even have starbucks anymore- so even more recently I have switched from coffee and tea to exclusively drinking beer during the work day and holy crap- my productivity and creativity are off the charts! Highly reccomended alternative.
 
Drew Ott said:
I've just recently become a coffee person now that I'm getting paid work as an editor. ... I put soy milk in my coffee and nothing else.

I'm a little worried about getting too hooked on caffeine though.
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I think I'd be a little more worried about all that soy...
 
I used to drink a ton of pop, pepsi and mountain dew to be exact. I was probably drinking a 2 liter a day as well. Stopped cold turkey and spent a full day in bed with a killer headache from lack of caffeine. Eventually started drinking it again and worked myself back up to drinking way too much.

Last summer I had some pain in my chest and spent a few days worrying about it before reluctantly going to the doctor about it. Thought it was something with my heart so I quite drinking caffeine again. Turns out that I had a pinched nerve that was cause the pain, but still haven't really gone back to the caffeine. I'll drink something with caffeine maybe once or twice a month and even that might be over estimating.
 
Over a year ago I quit drinking caffeine altogether. Used to drink coffee everyday, plus soda, usually iced americano's from starbucks. Once I quit I definitely noticed a boost in my energy, more sustained energy, and less crashes midday. Every now and again I drink a Sambazon Rio Energy, it has guarana which is used in energy drinks I believe, and yerba maté, which is naturally caffeinated, similar to tea. I like the taste and it gives me a slight boost the mornings I feel sloggy.

I feel like over dependance on caffeine has only negative effects on energy levels, as well as brain function. Everybody will preach till they're blue in the face that it's good, it's needed, etc. but it's like any other drug, too much isn't a good thing.

I sound like an ad…
 
Drunk on the Moon said:
True. But I can't help but love a bit of coke daily lol.
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That's not a bit of coke. By drinking that much coke, you're increasing the chance of getting diabetes before you're 50 at least ten fold. You're also increasing the chance of pancreatic cancer, heart conditions, and the list goes on. The chance of that much coke NOT contributing to a horrible disease is small.

That and it's horrible for your skin.
 
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