REALLY need help w/ the....

[rawnpawgirl]

I really need help with kicking the coffee habit. I love it so much. I have tried every coffee substitute out there and nothing is helping. Eating-wise, I have been 100% (or VERRRRYYY close) for over a month (since mid-May) and 85%-95% since January before that.

It is the one thing I can't seem to get over. I stopped for a week, had a horrible headache for 2 days, then craved it all over again. When I don't have my coffee in the a.m., I think about it all day long. Water doesn't help, smoothies don't help, exercise doesn't help (I ponder lattes during my workout).

Life is so short. Is it really worth it to give up something that is not all THAT terrible when it brings such joy? I mean, it isn't heroin or hard alcohol.

Please help....Tell me EVERY reason to give up coffee!!!!! I will print it out and post it everywhere.

I am ready to give up the battle. I can't stand feeling guilty all the time. I think that is more unhealthy than coffee!!

I would rather drink coffee and give up several years of my life here on Earth or be at not-quite optimal health than deal with this *$%#@!!!!

I have no problems with junk food, eating bites of cooked (at least right now!) only this coffee thing. It is making me crazy!

Does anyone have any advice? words of wisdom? Oh, and don't forget to tell me all the reasons coffee isn't good!!!

[mcasburn]

I just did it six weeks ago, because:
- Coffee contributes to an overly acidic system
- Coffee is heavily processed and roasted at high temperatures
- Coffee beans are often treated with agricultural chemicals
- Many coffee brands employ workers at less than fair wages
- Managing your caffeine levels all day, every day wastes precious time and money
- Addiction sucks, as a general rule. Why let a substance control you like that?

And my favorite reason to quit? I have FAR more energy now than caffeine ever gave me. It's consistent, clean energy that stays a lot more level. It's not "hyperactive oh my god do everything NOW!" energy, and it doesn't make me feel panicky or tweaked. It's a "natural high", I suppose. It feels really, really good. I started drinking coffee at age 14; I had NO IDEA I could feel this good without it, and I don't miss it a single bit.

Fair warning: it took me about four days to get through the really slumpish feeling, and my energy gradually leveled over several weeks. I was also quitting caffeine at the same time I went high raw, though, so it's hard for me to separate the experiences.

GOOD LUCK! You can totally do it. I know it.
-Melissa

[rawnpawgirl]

Thanks Melissa!! That is exactly what I need! Keep it coming everyone, please!

I need to "scare myself straight!!"

I CAN DO IT! I CAN, I CAN, I CAN! (Now, if I could just start believing it, and wanting it)

[Apasaraw]

Have you tried Maca root as a substitute? I haven't picked up any yet but I hear it has that taste we coffee poeple enjoyed...does anyone here drink it?

[D'vorah]

I just posted this to you over on the "Storm's View" thread. Reposting here:

Coffee is incredibly addicting. The caffeine is physically addicting. All aspects of the drink have some component of familiar, the warmth of the cup, the feel of it in your hand, the texture of the drink, the color, the aroma, the feel of it on your tongue, the social situations in which it is consumed. . .

I was horribly, horribly caffeine addicted. I tried many times over to get off, only to go through withdrawal yet again.

I finally ditched it last year during a Master Cleanse. I used a fruit-flavored fizzy tab thing that I bought from think geek dot com. I would mix it up and add it to my morning juice. Each day I would take out a very small amount and replace it with just water or juice. It took over a month, decreasing very gradually, but I got completely off without the withdrawal pain. I get tortuous take-me-to-the-emergency-room headaches from withdrawal.

Now I still love the stuff, and occasionally will have a little latte or something, decaf, and I only drink a little of it. I can do that once in a while without re-addicting. But I can’t have it every day, so what do I do about that?

Stressful situations are hard, I was just in Florida helping my dad during a very difficult time, and while there, almost let myself get re-addicted, it was so tempting to just have the whole thing and every day, it would have helped with the stress, I'm sure of it, and the stress was through the roof. But I kept reminding myself just how hard it is to get back off of it, and used extreme discipline to allow only a little bit and not every day.

Now, on the other hand, there's nothing against smelling, and I just LOVE the smell of coffee, so when I'm in the grocery, which has a Starbucks, I make sure I fully enjoy the richness of the aroma. I find that if I'm fully focused, I can enjoy the smell, imagine the temperature and texture, the feel of it in my hands, every aspect of it except the actual purchasing and taking in of the product. It's a little trick that can satisfy. It takes resolve and focus to stop there, though.

This works for fresh baked breads or other offending items just as well. It only fails to the extent I fail to practice it.

I want the coffee, or bread or chocolate, or whatever. I experience the desire as something much more powerful, I experience the desire as *need.* Without this food or drink that I desire or believe I need, I experience life as being less than complete. *I* am incomplete. The food completes me. Only it really does not, it just seems to in my thinking.

Remember the scene from You’ve Got Mail where Joe Fox’s big-box-Fox bookstore is in the process of being built and he says that they will be selling “legal addictive stimulants”? Later in the movie he’s talking about Starbucks and it shows a person making one of those complex orders that involve several different steps and ingredients to make his drink. Joe says that one goes into the store and makes ten choices to order one cup of coffee and they walk out with “an absolutely defining sense of self.”

It’s true.

If I eliminate that coffee, or fresh bread, or whatever my addiction is, then I lose something of that defining sense of self, or rather, the illusion of, and I experience myself as incomplete.

So, is the problem the coffee? The physical addiction? The desire? Or the experience deep inside of lacking, of being not-whole without this thing?

I’m driven. I MUST have this thing. I experience some sense of deserving it. It in some way seems to make up for the losses in other areas of my life, and after all, it’s just one little cup of coffee.

So, now, instead of having the coffee, I deeply enter into enjoying the smell. I take it in. I “taste” it without actually tasting. I hold the experience inside of me. I fully experience it in the moment. So, now, I find that I don’t have to have it, hold it, own it or even actually drink it in order for it to be part of my experience or enjoyment of life. I don’t actually have to have the food or drink. I can have all of the sense of enjoyment that actual consumption would have offered me.

I wouldn’t have believed it possible, but it’s one of the things that I learned during a forty day Master Cleanse. If the family went out to eat, I went too, only I would carry my lemonade drink with me. They would be eating foods I had previously loved. I wouldn’t. But I could smell it and taste it no less. And the funny thing is, when I reintroduce food, many of those things no longer appealed to me. Unfortunately, some things still do.

So, I can apply this practice to any food or drink that is offensive to my understanding of healthful living. If my daily circumstances aren’t too stressful, I can stay on top of it, if I’m really focused and committed, I can make it work. If I refuse to give myself excuses, I can stick with it.

For me, it works now on coffee, because I am also acutely aware of the intense, extreme physical pain that will result in re-addiction. It isn’t so successful for me yet with other foods, perhaps because I’m not so in tune with the long-term price I might pay for indulgence. But if I keep at it, maybe I’ll find myself a successful full-time raw-fooder yet.

And maybe, just maybe, if I practice that often enough, even the false sense of need will fade and the lies that I am incomplete will no longer hold sway over me.

:-)

Deborah

[mcasburn]

*thunderous Applause*

[Graciebeliever]

D'vorah!!!!

Wow! Although I was reading this for the coffee issue ( I drank a LOT), I came away better able to deal with the other cravings in my life. I have been high Raw for almost 30 days now and yesterday I had to go food shopping for my 2 teenage boys. Holy macaroni was it harder than I expected. not so much the sight of things but the smell. I tried to block it out but couldn't. What you said about embracing the smells and experiencing the comfort without using, is a wonderful idea that I will take with me and use. There is no reason for me to deny the enjoyment of the smell of fresh bread or hot coffee. SOO next time I will eat well before I go (all the right things of course) and as I walk the isles, I will enjoy the sites and sounds and if I need to close my eyes and remember the enjoyment and make it my friend and not a stumbling block :)

THANK YOU!

[Mary]

Hi Rawnpawgirl...

I've only been raw a week, but gave up coffee on day 1. I was a two-cup-a-day person, and they were big cups with half & half and sugar!

The first day I went raw and was without coffee, I had the most intense headache I have ever had in my life! Even though I wanted to get through it without pain killers, I went ahead and took aspirin that afternoon to get me through that day - my head felt like it was going to explode, so my husband watched the kids and I went to bed at 8 p.m.!

The second day, I still had a headache, but it was manageable without drugs. I had thought about tapering off slowly, but I figured I'd just get it over with.

I know how you feel though... it's really horrible, but you will feel much better! I don't need coffee to wake up anymore!

Take care,

Mary

[rawnpawgirl]

Wow- Devorah, that is sooooo true about coffee (or any addiction) being part of your internal definition of what completes you. You don't realize it is the case until you truly contemplate it and are brutally honest with yourself.

I really am grateful for you post, and the other ones too!

kirsten

[Lay-Lay]

It is a wonderful feeling to be free from addictive substances. I love being in control of what I eat and drink, not the other way around.

[Lady Green Jeans]

What wonderful feedback on your request!

I adored coffee, too. The couple days to get it out of your system and past the headache are truly worth it.

A couple more reasons:

Save your adrenal glands from early burnout.
Eliminate the bad breath caused by coffee consumption (also get whiter teeth because no coffee's staining your pearly whites!).

[mcasburn]

At work, I sit right next to the kitchen and I smell buttered toast all day long. I've started referring to it as "toast candles" - it's a smell I can truly enjoy without connecting it back to actually eating something.

[berrymarymac]

I used to have to have coffee everyday. I maxed out with 6-8 shots of expresso one day, and learned that it will cause me to pass out and not remember much, except waking up! I just stopped drinking it about a month ago, I don't know why. But I never really liked coffee, I had to have expresso with maybe a little bit of cream or straight up. It gave me heartburn and I would mix it with ADD medication and I never seemed to be able to give it up, despite feeling like I was dying in my own body and mind! But once you get over the headaches, it's home free from there!! Oh, and if you have a coffee machine...get rid of it!! We threw ours away and it really helped with the addiction by not having the temptation there.

[RawFoodieMom]

Great suggestions so far. :)

As a former/recovering coffee addict, I'd like to add this: Since you've already tried to go cold turkey, and had the horrible headache for 2 days, why not do it a little slower and be a little easier on yourself. Start by reducing the caffeine content by 1/4 every couple of days. Ask for 3/4 regular, and 1/4 of the cup decaf (or try going straight to half/half). Then reduce by 1/4 cup giving yourself gradually more of the cup decaf than caffeinated coffee. Wherever you get your coffee they should have no problem with this. Then once it's all decaf, and you've gotten the caffeine out of your system, you can start to reduce the number of cups a day to get rid of the "habit" of sipping coffee, and maybe replace it with another raw drink to sip. :)

Take a couple of weeks or so but then you'll be done with it. :)

Debra