Stress eating, healthy eating habits, weight loss

Posted on: January 30, 2023February 17, 2023

Stress and Weight Gain — How Are They Related?

Are you feeling frustrated about your weight and what to do about it? Does your stress lead to weight gain?

Stress can be a powerful trigger of weight gain. The stress response affects many aspects of our lives, including food. When we are stressed, we have an overwhelming desire to ea, and if you try to eat in response to stress, it is likely that this will lead to weight gain. Being aware of stressful situations and avoiding eating as a way of coping with your emotions is a good way to ensure that you don’t tip the scales the wrong way.

How Stress Leads To Weight Gain

Stress can cause weight gain in a number of different ways. Stress can trigger the release of hormones that make you feel hungry, including cortisol and insulin.

It also affects the levels of leptin and ghrelin, which are responsible for regulating your cravings, appetite, and your feeling of fullness. With stress, these hormones are imbalanced, leading to feeling hungry and not feeling satisfied even if you’ve eaten plenty. This leads to overeating.

Stress also can make you so busy or tired that you don’t have time to eat right or get enough exercise. When you’re under stress, your body may crave high-calorie foods that are quick to digest and provide a burst of energy. Over time, these cravings can lead to weight gain if they aren’t satisfied with nutritious foods.

How to Break the Stress Cycle, Lose Weight, and Keep It Off

Stress causes us to eat more, and we may also crave high-fat, high-sugar foods when we’re stressed out. However, there are other ways that stress can negatively affect our health — including how much weight we gain. Here are a few strategies that can help you break the cycle of stress and weight gain;

Sleep well. Sleep is your Superpower. Sleep is essential for good health and weight management because it gives our bodies time to repair themselves from the day’s stressors. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep each night so that your body has enough time to perform its nightly repairs on your cells and muscles before the next day starts again!
Include stress management habits in your daily life. This could include making time for some deep breathing, even just one intentional breath per day, to pause and reconnect with your calm side. Being aware of your body, such as the tingling sensation in your hands and feet, is an excellent way to lead your attention away from the stressful thoughts and situation. Notice if you have tense muscles, and then gently release them. It’s impossible to feel stressed if your muscles are relaxed. Paying attention to your breath and your body is the best stress buster that you can practise, as you have your breath and your body anywhere you go. You can do it whether you’re busy or lying in bed, and it’s free!
Exercise regularly. It gets your body moving and helps relieve tension by releasing feel-good brain chemicals called endorphins. And regular exercise can help you control your weight over the long term.
Eat slowly. Slow down when eating meals, so that you don’t mindlessly scarf down everything on your plate — or even worse, eat other things throughout the day because you’re still hungry after meals. It’s important to eat slowly because it helps you feel full faster, which will help keep cravings at bay. It also helps you enjoy your food better, adding to your feelings of pleasure and satisfaction.
Stop skipping breakfast. If skipping breakfast works for you and your weight loss goal, go for it. But if it causes you to overeat in all your other meals, then skipping breakfast is not working for you. Skipping breakfast sets up overeating later in the day by making us ravenous and more likely to fall victim to junk food cravings. If you’re not hungry when you wake up, have something small like fruit or oatmeal with skim milk instead of skipping breakfast altogether.

The takeaway

Learning how to deal with your stress can not only reduce your chance of getting sick and lowering your immunity, but it can also contribute to weight loss. Work on your psychological health in order to be able to keep the weight off for good.

https://www.verywellmind.com/how-stress-can-cause-weight-gain-3145088

https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/stress-weight-gain

https://www.orlandohealth.com/content-hub/how-too-much-stress-can-cause-weight-gain-and-what-to-do-about-

https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/stress-weight-gain

https://www.healthline.com/health/stress/stress-and-weight-gain#diagnosis

Posted on: January 23, 2023February 17, 2023

3 Strategies For Dealing With Stress Eating

Do you eat more than you normally would when you are under stress? How often does that happen? Is it time to make some changes around that area?

Stress eating is a common challenge for people who are dealing with difficult life circumstances. If you are stressed out, it can be hard to focus on the right foods and eating habits. This can lead to weight gain and a higher risk of developing chronic conditions like diabetes.

If you are dealing with stress eating, here are some strategies you can use to help keep your eating habits under control.

Strategy #1: Develop awareness around what triggers your stress eating

Become aware of your stress eating triggers. Identify the situations or events that often lead you to reach for food when you’re feeling stressed out. For example, if you tend to eat more after you talk to your mother on weekends, you’ve found your trigger. This will make it clear for you that it is that stressor that you want to deal with, and not really hunger. Hence, you need stress relief, not more food.

Taking the time to pause and listen to your body will help you develop that awareness. When you start to crave for food when you are under stress, pause for a moment, and ask yourself if you are indeed hungry. If you are hungry, then you need food. If you are not hungry yet you are craving for food, ask yourself, “What am I really craving for?” If you listen to your body, thoughts and feelings, you could discover that you are indeed looking for something else, such as love and care, or companionship, or acceptance, and so on.

Having this awareness will give you options. How else can you satisfy that craving that does not involve food (as you are not really hungry)? Maybe you can call a dear friend for support or companionship, or maybe you take a few minutes to remind yourself that you only need acceptance from yourself.

Remember, you have options on how to fulfil your needs. Create that list of options and place that list where you could easily see it, especially when you’re stress eating. It could include taking 3 deep breaths, taking a short walk, playing with your child, stretching, doing some house chores, and other things that can distract you from food.

Strategy #2: Practise mindfulness.

Mindfulness is a technique where you focus on what you are experiencing in the present moment. It helps you become more aware of what’s happening around you as well as inside yourself at any given moment.

Take a few minutes every day to sit quietly and focus on your breathing or listen to soft music. This will help reduce stress by focusing on something else other than the stressor. Then notice what thoughts pass through your mind, and notice how you feel physically (e.g., relaxed or tense). Relax your muscles as you breathe. It’s impossible to feel sterssed if your body is relaxed. Try it. This habit helps you in dealing with stress eating, because you can think about other options besides food to calm yourself down.

Also mindfulness when you’re eating. Be there 100%. Experience your food fully. Notice what you see, hear, smell and feel. Notice the colours, steam, texture, and just how the food feels in your mouth and as it travels to your throat and your tummy. Mmm yum.

Doing this will give you more pleasure and hence more satisfaction, which helps prevent over-eating. Mindfulness is such a great practice, not just with eating. It helps you experience the simple joys of life every day, it helps you live in the present moment, and it helps you stay out of your head (where almost all of the troubles begin).

Strategy #3: Take a self-compassionate approach

Negative self-talk, shame and guilt do not help you in developing healthy eating habits. Don’t assume that being hard on yourself will create change.

We all have difficult times. We all have food cravings. Seeking comfort in food does not make you a bad person, and it doesn’t make you lesser as a person. Your behaviour and your cravings do not define who you are. It’s okay that you are going through a difficult moment. Everyone does. It will pass, and you can handle it.

Remember that self-compassion is not an excuse to eat anything you want. Of course, you need to adopt habits that support you in reaching your goals. Practising self-compassion when you find yourself stress eating will remove the guilt that people normally feel when “giving in”, and guilt is not good for your health and well-being. Self-compassion means you give yourself a break sometimes, recognising all the factors that lead to your choices.

With self-compassion, you develop kindness towards yourself. This increases self-esteem and emotion quality, which help in creating better choices in your lifestyle. Small things that make you nicer to yourself can indeed improve eating habits.

Which new habit do you commit to develop? When are you going to start? What happens to your life when you develop that new habit? Who else will benefit when you can deal with stress and develop healthy eating habits?

Posted on: January 16, 2023February 17, 2023

6 Tips To Make Your Mind And Body Work Together For Your Weight Loss

Are you wondering why you want to lose weight so much but you can’t seem to stick to it? Is your mind not cooperating? Or is it your body that’s not cooperating? Find out 6 tips to help your mind and body work together towards achieving your weight loss goal.

1. Know your outcome and find your inner motivation to lose weight.

How clear are you in what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it? When you have clarity in your desired outcome, your determination and motivation to work for it increase significantly.

Ask yourself these questions:

What do I want? (State it in positive terms, so instead of saying “I want to lose weight”, say “I want to be healthier, look good and feel good.”)
Is it within my personal control?
Do I really want it, or am I just saying I want it? Am I just feeling external pressure, or is it something that I truly want for myself?
How will I know when I’ve got it? What do I need to see on the weighing scale or in your clothes size, hear from people around me, and feelings I need to feel for me to know that I’ve achieved what I want? (Make sure that you can get concrete evidences for your desired outcome.)
What will happen when I get my goal? How will this benefit me? How will achieving this goal affect other aspects of my life?
What would happen if I didn’t make the change?
What wouldn’t happen if I didn’t make the change?

2. Prepare yourself.

Long-term weight loss takes time and effort. If you truly want to lose weight and keep it off, you need to commit yourself to a permanent change in your eating habits and activity level.

To find out if you’re ready for long-term weight loss, ask yourself these questions:

Am I willing to make the time commitment to make these changes?
When, where and with whom do I want to do this?
What resources do I ned to get this outcome?
Am I ready to give up my unhelpful eating habits?
Who needs to know about my plan? What kind of support do I need from them?

Once you’re ready, staying committed and changing habits will be easier.

You are responsible for your behavior and for the successful achievement of your weight-loss goals. It is helpful to use support, of the right kind, which will help you stay motivated and focused. The right kind of support helps you develop a healthier lifestyle, encourages you positively without shame, embarrassment or sabotage, and listens to your concerns and feelings.

3. Change your eating habits.

Check out our blog post on 12 Eating Habits for Permanent Weight Loss. Here are some of our favourite tips:

Take time to eat mindfully and properly.

Eating slowly makes you feel fuller and can help with weight loss. This is because chewing food longer slows down your eating, giving your brain more time to receive signals from the stomach that it is full. Research shows that chewing each mouthful until it is liquid helps digestion and promotes weight loss.

More importantly, being mindful, being fully present in your eating experience will help you enjoy your food, which contributes to your feelings of satisfaction and joy. This satisfaction with your food also helps prevent over-eating.

Eat within a 12 hour window to achieve optimal body fat levels.

By restricting your eating to a window of time each day, you can allow your body to undergo a process called autophagy, which involves the elimination of old and worn-out cells. In turn, this can have many health benefits, including improving blood sugar levels and weight loss.

Eat fruits and vegetables and boost your gut microbiome.

The diversity of your gut microbiome, the collection of bacteria that live in your gut, is lower in those who are overweight. Some gut bacteria extract energy from food better than others, so if you want a diverse gut microbiome, you should eat plant foods like fruit and vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains. Eating a variety of colours of fruits and vegetables will also support a wider variety of good bacteria in your body. As they say, “Eat the rainbow every week”. Frozen fruit and vegetables can be cheaper than fresh produce and can obviously last longer if price and longevity are important to you.

This also increases your fibre intake. Fibre prolongs your feeling of fullness after meals, reduces your feeling of hunger and appetite, and reduces your total calorie intake.

Reduce your alcohol consumption.

Alcohol contains 7 kcal per gram, whereas fat contains 9 kcal per gram. Drinking 4 bottles of wine a month adds up to a yearly consumption of around 27,000 kcal, which is equivalent to eating 48 Big Macs per year. Drinking 5 pints of lager each week adds up to 44,200 kcal over a year, equivalent to eating 221 doughnuts.

So, if you’re trying to lose weight you need to think about what you are drinking as well as what you are eating.

4. Move. Find a cardio workout that you like.

You lose weight when you are on calorie deficit, which means that you burn more calories compared to how much you eat. When you’re trying to lose weight at home, cardio is an almost mandatory tip. While it’s much easier to do cardio outdoors, you can do it at home as well. Here are some options of cardio you can do at home:

There are thousands of free exercise videos on YouTube. Experiment on which channels and exercise routines will work best for you.
HIIT workouts are high-intensity interval training sessions that are short in duration but maximize the amount of calories burned and muscle built. HIIT extends your body’s ability to burn calories even after workout.
Skipping rope can burn a great amount of calories and help you tone your muscles. You can even do it without a skipping rope! Try it.

5. Manage your stress and embrace good sleeping habits.

Even if you have a very good diet and you exercise regularly, your body will sabotage your weight-loss efforts if you are experiencing chronic stress or chronic sleep deprivation. Both situations increase your body’s cortisol level.

Long-term exposure to elevated cortisol has a number of negative effects on the body, such as increased blood sugar and decreased action of the hormone called leptin. When leptin levels decrease, this stimulates intense hunger and appetite and can lead to increased food consumption.

Cortisol also promotes protein breakdown, which means that if you are constantly stressed or sleep-deprived, your body is naturally breaking down the muscles you’ve worked so hard for!

6. Change your mindset.

You can’t just eat healthy foods and exercise for a few weeks or months and have long-term weight management. To lose weight, you have to take an honest look at your eating patterns and daily routine, assess your personal challenges to weight loss, come up with a strategy to gradually change these habits, and plan how you’ll deal with these challenges if you’re going to succeed in losing weight. After a setback, simply start fresh the next day. Remember that you’re planning to change your life. It won’t happen all at once; it’s an ongoing process. Stick to your healthy lifestyle and the results will be worth it!

Here are some questions to ask yourself to encourage your brain to support you in making the change:

What’s not working?
What triggers the problem?
What stops me from getting what I want?
What beliefs and internal dialogue are not helping me?
What stops me from fixing this?
Who benefits from me not fixing this?
When have I achieved something that was challenging at first? What did I do?
Who do I know who’s like me and successfully achieved their health and weight goals? What did they do?
If I had already achieved my goal and I were looking back, what do I see as the things I had done in order to lose weight?
What will I learn after I’ve reached your goal?
Who else will benefit once I’ve reached my goal?
After I reach my goal, what will happen next?

Practise self-compassion yet curious to find out what happens if you keep moving forward with your goal. Also recheck the ecology of your goal around various aspects of your life and your environment. Aiming for a weight loss goal of 1 to 2 pounds a week is realistic and attainable, but how do you know if it’s realistic for you? To reach this goal, you need to burn 500 to 1,000 calories more than you consume each day through diet and exercise. How can you manage this kind of calorie deficit?

Be flexible and be willing to adjust your plan, keeping in mind what would work best for you as a whole person, not just what would shed the most pounds the fastest.

Start one habit change now!

While every tip may not work for everyone, it’s likely that you’ll find several that will suit your way of living. Try applying a couple of these tips and begin to lose weight today.

Start by asking yourself the powerful questions we’ve shared with you above, and see what happens.

References

https://www.evergreen-life.co.uk/health-wellbeing-library/7-tips-for-weight-loss-how-to-reduce-bmi/

https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/health/are-you-lactose-intolerant-here-are-food-options-to-fulfill-your-need-of-dairy-products-101672290559726.html

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/advice/a17162/lose-weight-faster-karas-0302/

https://www.godigit.com/health-insurance/weight-loss/weight-loss-tips-at-home

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/alcohol-advice/calories-in-alcohol/

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/managing-your-weight/12-tips-to-help-you-lose-weight/

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/losing_weight/index.html

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/weight-loss/art-20047752

Posted on: January 9, 2023January 13, 2023

6 Effective Ways to Improve Your Immune System

Your immune system is your body’s first line of defense against illnesses. It uses a system of chemicals and proteins in your body to fight off viruses, harmful bacteria, infections, and parasites. A stronger immune system means less chances of you getting sick.

Here are six ways to build and maintain a strong immune system:

1. Get Vitamin C.

The key to fighting infections is increasing your white cell count. Eating citrus fruits with vitamin C can help you gain an upper hand on infections. The body doesn’t produce or store vitamin C, so eat citrus fruits and those high in vitamin C, such as bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, papaya and kiwi fruit. Orange juice and supplements will also help.

2. Keep a healthy diet.

As with most things in your body, a healthy diet helps keep your immune system strong. A healthy diet means eating plenty of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, lean proteins and healthy fats. This helps maintain your immune system homeostasis.

According to Dr. Lin, “When your body has sufficient amounts of the micronutrients found in these foods, it helps maintain your immune system homeostasis.”

3. Reduce stress level.

Whether stress comes on quickly or builds over time, it’s important to understand how chronic stress affects your health. Stress can potentially have a secondary impact on your immune system if it leads to sleep disturbances, a tendency to eat less healthy food, reduced water intake, less frequent exercise and more. Stress is different for everyone and the activities that help relieve it are too — for example, meditation, prayer or exercise.

4. Exercise regularly.

Exercise is one of the best ways to strengthen your immune system, especially as you age. From simple walking to tough-to-resist strength training, regular exercise can help keep you healthy and happy today and into the future. The recommended amount of moderate exercise such as walking is 150 minutes per week.

5. Get enough sleep.

Sleeping and immunity are closely tied. Getting adequate rest may strengthen your natural immunity. You may sleep more when sick to allow your immune system to better fight the illness. Adults should aim for 8 hours of sleep each night, teens need 8–10 hours, and younger children and infants up to 14 hours.

If you’re having trouble sleeping, the most important step is to establish regular sleeping hours: go to bed at the same time each day, and get up at the same time each day. This will establish your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle.

Be mindful of your caffeine and alcohol intake, as they have negative effects on sleep. Avoid stimulating activities such as strenuous exercise and stressful tasks close to bedtime. Also limit screen time for at least an hour before bed as the blue light emitted from your phone, TV, and computer may disrupt your circadian rhythm.

6. Drink plenty of water.

Protecting your health is important because dehydration can cause headaches and hinder your physical performance, focus, mood, digestion, and heart and kidney function. These complications can increase your susceptibility to illness. You should drink enough fluid daily to make your urine pale yellow. Water is recommended because it’s free of calories, additives, and sugar. While tea and juice are also hydrating, it’s best to limit your intake of fruit juice and sweetened tea because of their high sugar contents.

As a general guideline you should drink when you’re thirsty and stop when you’re no longer thirsty. You may need more fluids if you exercise intensely, work outside, or live in a hot climate. Make sure you drink plenty during the day and limit fluids in the evening so you won’t need to go to the toilet many times at night.

Wrapping Up

Making lifestyle and dietary changes can strengthen your immune system, including reducing sugar intake, staying hydrated, exercising regularly, sleeping adequately, and managing stress. Healthy eating, exercise, lowering stress levels, and taking vitamins can keep your energy levels high and your immune system healthy.

References

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-to-boost-immune-health

https://www.perfecthealthsupplements.com/blog/best-vitamins-for-immune-system/

https://www.riversidemedicalclinic.com/10-ways-to-boost-your-immune-system/

Posted on: January 2, 2023January 17, 2023

Caffeine and Insomnia

Are you having difficulty falling asleep at night? Do you regularly drink coffee, tea or energy drinks in the afternoon and at night? Or perhaps you only drink it in the morning but do you seem to be quite sensitive to the effects of caffeine?

If so, this article is for you.

Caffeine has a half life of 5-7 hours. It means that after 5-7 hours, 50% of the caffeine has already been removed from your body. It also means that after 5-7 hours, you still have 50% left in your body, which could be around much longer and may be the reason why you can’t fall asleep at night.

For example, you drank a cup of brewed coffee with around 114 mg of caffeine at 4 pm. At 10 pm, you’ll still have 57 mg of caffeine in your body. It’s like having a cup of instant coffee at 10 pm.

Some people won’t be bothered by this, but if you’re like me, this would mean that your mind would still be wide awake after midnight! Not fun.

Caffeine is Everwhere

80% of the world’s population use caffeine. It is the second most traded commodity after oil. It has truly become a natural part of human life, particularly because of its ability to perk you up.

Caffeine is actually the most commonly used drug in the world. It is a stimulant found in coffee, tea, softdrinks, chocolate, energy drinks and snacks, and some medications and supplements.

It would help you if you have an idea of how much caffeine is in your food and drinks so you’ll know how to control your caffeine intake and timing.

Different brands have different caffeine content depending on the type, origin and preparation method. This is the caffeine content of 1 cup (240 mL or 8 oz.) of common beverages:

Brewed coffee – 70-140 mg (average of 95 mg)
Instant coffee – 30-90 mg (average of 60 mg)
Energy drinks – 50 – 160 mg
Black tea – 47 – 90 mg
Green tea – 16 – 36 mg
Soft drinks – 20 – 40 mg
Chocolate drink – 2-7 mg

“Decaffeinated” does not mean “non-caffeinated”. Decaf can contain up to 15%-30% of the original caffeine content.

Decaf coffee – most have 8-14 mg, but others have up to 20-32 mg of caffeine
Decaf tea – < 5 mg

Chocolate contains caffeine, as well. 1 oz (28 grams) of chocolate has:

Milk chocolate – 1-15 mg
Dark chocolate – 5-35 mg

Check out your favourite beverage and snack and its caffeine content here. How are you after 390+ mg of caffeine in one drink? I’d be shaking and puking all over the place, if you ask me.

How Much Caffeine is OK?

Most health literature including that of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) state the following:

200-300 mg of caffeine a day is considered to be moderate That is equivalent to two to three cups of coffee, or 4-5 cups of tea per day. 1 cup is approximately 240 mL or 8 oz.
400 mg is the recommendeddaily limit of caffeine. That’s 3-5 cups of coffee, or 8-10 cups of tea per day.
Excessiveintake is more than 400 mg, such as eight to ten cups of coffee per day.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women should not exceed 200 mg of caffeine per day, or two cups of coffee.

Aside from the amount of caffeine, you also need to consider when you take it if you want to have a good night’s sleep.

Different people have different speed and efficiency at which their bodies break down caffeine.

Some (gifted and annoying) people have no problem falling asleep and staying asleep even after drinking coffee after dinner.

But if you’re like most people, you may find it difficult to fall asleep if your last caffeine intake was after 2 pm.

Much worse is if you’re like me who is very sensitive to caffeine, which means that the effects of caffeine last longer (especially if it’s brewed coffee).

I never really drank too much coffee or tea because I experienced a lot of its side effects. I also drank my coffee and tea before noon, usually at 10 am because I learned my lesson the hard way: drink it in the afternoon and I’d still be staring at the ceiling at 4 am.

My usual intake was only 1 mug of coffee and sometimes I would add 1 mug of tea. In total, it would only be around 150 mg of caffeine for the day, but the after-effects were pretty strong, particularly if I had brewed coffee:

Hyperacidity, heartburn and acid reflux (sometimes vomiting acid with some of the coffee)
Shaky hands and muscle tremors
Racing heart
Nervousness and anxiety
Insomnia

I tolerated these for over 20 years because I thought I needed what caffeine could give me in return: energy and alertness after my sleep deprivation the night before.

Never have I thought that it was actually my caffeine intake that was worsening my insomnia and my fatigue the following day.

How Caffeine Affects Your Sleep

The effects and clearance time of caffeine vary from person to person, depending on age, weight, gender, and genetics. However, it has two effects on your body that may be worsening the quality of your sleep.

(1) Caffeine blocks your body’s natural signal to go to sleep.

As you already know, caffeine is a stimulant that helps increase your alertness, especially when you’re feeling sleepy. It does that by blocking the effects of adenosine.

Your brain naturally releases a chemical called adenosine as soon as you wake up. The longer you are awake, the more adenosine is built up.

The more adenosine that has been built up, the more sleep pressure you feel, and the more sleepy you become.

After sleeping sufficiently, your adenosine stores are cleared, ready to build up once again while you are awake.

But if you have caffeine in your body, it blocks adenosine receptors. Basically, the sleepiness effect of adenosine is ignored.

So even if you have plenty of adenosine in your body, you won’t feel sleepy after taking caffeine.

Remember, though, that just because you feel awake doesn’t mean that your body no longer has the high levels of adenosine. Caffeine simply blocks it. It’s defying your body’s natural signal to go to sleep.

The problem is when you’re actually trying to go to sleep but you can’t, because you still have caffeine in your body.

Remember the half-life? You may still have 50% or more of the caffeine you ingested in the afternoon!

Caffeine is one of the most common causes of onset insomnia, which is the difficulty to fall asleep. It’s normal for people to fall asleep within 15-20 minutes in bed (this is called sleep latency).

Back when I was still drinking coffee, it could take me 1-3 hours to fall asleep. My mind would still be racing at 2 am, no matter how much deep breathing and meditation I tried to do.

Never have I seriously thought that it was caffeine causing it. I thought it was just stress and ineffective meditation!

This difficulty to fall asleep reduces your total sleep time and reduces the overall quality of your sleep. Prolonged sleep deprivation leads to a variety of health problems.

(2) Caffeine can wake you up a few times each night to urinate.

Caffeine stimulates your bladder, which leads to frequent urination. Have you noticed that you go to the toilet more after your caffeine intake?

And it’s not just the frequency that’s the issue, but also the urgency! Prolonged bladder stimulation can lead to incontinence, as well.

Urinary frequency leads to water loss. You feel thirsty more quickly because of this, and so you drink more fluids to make up for the water loss.

With this diuretic effect and your increased water intake, you’re expected to get up a few times at night to urinate. I used to get up 3-5 times a night to visit the loo.

That doesn’t really help you get a peaceful, uninterrupted sleep. For the elderly, this also increases their risk for falls and injury.

Cut Down or Cut Off Caffeine?

Responses to caffeine vary from person to person. If it does not affect the quality and quantity of your sleep, your energy level, anxiety and other aspects of your health, there’s no problem at all.

But if it does, maybe it’s time for you to consider reducing your caffeine intake, or even giving up caffeine entirely.

How would you know if caffeine is affecting your sleep? If you constantly find yourself wanting to go to sleep before noon time unless you get your boost of caffeine, it is highly likely that you are suffering from sleep deprivation that may be worsened by caffeine.

Here are some tips for you if you want to cut down or control the quantity and timing of your caffeine intake:

Take your last caffeine before 2 pm, or even earlier if you are sensitive to caffeine. See which caffeine-cutoff-time works best for you by observing your ability to fall asleep and sustain sleep, as well as your energy level the next day.
Use halfof your usual amount of coffee or tea, or brew it half of the time you usually do.
Try decaf, but remember that it still has some caffeine in it, and it’s still additional fluid that can increase urination at night, so it’s best to avoid it close to bedtime.
Also cut down on the sugaryou put on your beverage. Sugar is a topic for another day, but it’s worth noting here that lessening added sugar every day compounds to big health benefits in the long term.

If you are ready to quit, here are some tips for you:

Be very clear with your reasonfor quitting. Your reason must be more important to you than the pleasures and benefits you get from caffeine. I loved drinking coffee so much, I really did. But I realized that I love my health more, and if I could sleep better and feel better, that would mean the world to me. Knowing clearly what is more important to you will help you make the habit change sustainable in the long-term.
Be prepared for withdrawal symptomsfor up to 10 days, such as: throbbing headaches, insomnia, tremors, palpitations, fatigue and drowsiness (yep, I experienced all of them when I gave up coffee). If you go to work, it’s best to quit on a Friday so you can have Saturday and Sunday at home. Expect to be pretty much shattered in the first 4 days, but after that, the symptoms slowly disappear and you’re free! Woohoo!
Talk to the people who could provide supportfor your decision. This may be your significant other, your children, relatives, friends and co-workers that you normally drink coffee and tea with. Some of them may make fun of you, some of them may tempt you to take caffeine again. Some of them will be happy for you. Some of them won’t understand your decision, but as long as you understand your reason 100%, that’s all that matters. Most of them, though, would be happy to support you. You’d be surprised that they’ll offer you a non-caffeinated drink the next time you visit them.
Also remember that you can still have funwith your caffeine-loving friends during their coffee break, or when you go to a cafe together. You don’t need to disown them because you’ve quit caffeine and they haven’t. You can simply drink something else and enjoy the moment with the people you enjoy being with. And they like being with you, too, with or without caffeine.

After I Gave Up Coffee

Because of the side effects that I experienced with coffee, I finally decided to give it up right after my 40^th birthday. I still drink tea because it does not give me the side effects that coffee does, and I enjoy drinking it, not because I absolutely need it to keep me awake. However, I still make sure that I don’t drink caffeinated tea after 2 pm.

In my 20 years of coffee dependence, it was normal for me to fall asleep 1-3 hours after going to bed and to get up 3-5 times each night to urinate.

Now, it normally takes 15 minutes or less to fall asleep. I get up 0-2 times a night to visit the loo, versus 3-5 times before. I still have to work on my fluid intake at night, but this is a big improvement!

I feel more relaxed because I’m sleeping better and no longer have coffee to trigger palpitations and anxiety.

Because I’m sleeping better, my body is recovering better. I feel better overall and I have more energy the next day. I never needed coffee to give me energy.

No more coffee-related headaches! No more dependence. I’m free!

My teeth stains have started to disappear, as well.

Has my sleep quality reached 100%? No, but it has improved so much since I’ve given up coffee. My sleep tracker has been giving me a sleep score of 88-96, which is very good, and I get that in most days.

I’m not saying that quitting coffee fixed my sleep all by itself. I practice other things that help me improve my sleep, from deep breathing to wearing yellow-tinted glasses and everything in between, but it was definitely being coffee-free that has allowed all the other factors to work.

Do I still have trouble staying asleep sometimes? Yes. “Someone” is snoring. Cough and colds happen, stress happens, coronavirus happens, and it’s not always easy to get optimal sleep.

It’s normal to occasionally experience difficulties sleeping. What’s not normal is when it happens regularly, leaving you exhausted and sleepy during the day over a long period of time.

Before quitting coffee, it was difficult for me to fall asleep and stay asleep regularly. Now it’s a different story, and for someone who’s had insomnia for a long time, this is a big achievement. Having good sleep had always been in my birthday and Christmas wish list.

If you are suffering from insomnia, please consult your doctor. I understand how frustrating it is. I hope that you will explore lifestyle-related changes and natural sleep remedies and steer away from sleeping pills and alcohol, which cannot provide natural sleep. Go ahead and read my article on Why Alcohol Does Not Give You A Good Night’s Sleep.

Choose At Least One Simple Habit You Can Start Now

My goal is to inspire you to develop simple health habits one at a time. You’ll be surprised to see how your new habit will eventually make you feel better about your health and about yourself.

Your habits also have a compounding effect, and they’ll lead you to the kind of health and the kind of life that you’ll have 20, 30, 50 years from now. It would be great if you work towards the kind of health you want to enjoy in your retirement years.

Which one of these would you like to start with today?

Have an idea of how much caffeine is in your drink, food or medicine. A lot of people don’t know that there’s caffeine in chocolate, for example. You have to know yourself. Google is here to help you.
Be more aware and in control of the timing of your caffeine intake. Most people sleep well if they take their last caffeine before 2 pm, but you may be different.
Brew your coffee or tea for less time.
Gradually shift to decaf and non-caffeinated drinks.
Quit caffeine, particularly if you have insomnia or anxiety.

Which new habit did you choose? Please let me know by commenting below. I’d also love to know your thoughts after reading my article. I wrote this for you and I hope it will help you.

References

“Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker (2017)

“The 4 Pillar Plan” by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee (2018)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6230475/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3805807/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27225921

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajprenal.00129.2015

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/what-is-caffeine#section3

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/caffeine-side-effects#section6

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/285194#myths

https://www.medicinenet.com/caffeine/article.htm#what_are_the_sources_of_caffeine