Ok, coffee lovers, just hear me out for a minute. I’m come in peace and this is a judgement-free zone. I just want to share with you why I decided to make the switch from coffee to tea and the changes I noticed as a result.
You can’t keep doing the same things expecting different results, right? Well, I got to the point where I knew something absolutely had to change when it came to my caffeine consumption and here are a few reasons why.
Caffeine Sensitivity
I’ve been drinking coffee since college, but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago I started paying attention to how my body reacts to the caffeine in coffee. I began to notice how sensitive I was to it. It only took a small amount to make me feel jittery and anxious. Also, if I had any coffee late in the day, I would for sure struggle to go to bed at night. So, I started drinking half-decaf coffee drinks to cut back. And that leads me to the next reason.
Chemicals in Decaf Coffee
Because I had started drinking more decaf coffee, I was curious about any health benefits. To my surprise, I found that the process to extract caffeine, in some brands, involves using harmful chemicals. I also read that decaf coffee could have harmful effects on the heart by increasing a specific cholesterol in the blood. This is because decaf coffee is often made from a bean with higher fat content. It was clear to me that decaf coffee was not healthy and I needed to consider an alternative.
Crashing
Most days I would have my coffee by 7:30am and by lunch time I was crashing. I was anxious, tired and could not focus enough to be as productive as I needed to be. I would eventually go outside or go for a walk to get some sun and wake myself up a bit. But I still struggled to get through the afternoon. And by the end of the day I was feeling like I had not accomplished as much as I should have and I was too exhausted to stay up any longer to try and make up for it.
Not Sleeping Well
I’ve never been a morning person. It’s always been hard for me to wake up super early in the mornings unless I had to for a very important reason like making it to the airport on time for work travel. Otherwise, I’m hitting snooze and going back to bed. However, I began to notice that no matter how early I went to bed and how late I woke up, I was always exhausted and never felt rested. And that is a miserable feeling to have day after day. So, of course I would fix my cup of coffee to get me going every morning. And the pattern continued. And on top of not feeling rested in the mornings, I started waking up at random times during the night and having a hard time falling back asleep. If nothing else, I needed my rest so this was the last straw.
Tea Lattes Changed My life
Because of all of the reasons outlined above, I decided that tea was my next best option. Before, I drank tea for the health benefits, not the taste. But, I was re-introduced to tea lattes via Pinterest and my life hasn’t been the same since. I had seriously been missing out on the RIGHT way to drink tea. If you are unfamiliar, a tea latte is simply tea, added sweetener and milk. It does not SOUND delicious, but just trust me on this one. My favorites are chai tea lattes and earl gray tea lattes. I use honey as my sweetener and my milk of choice is vanilla almond milk. Just steep the tea, add the honey, warm the milk, and froth it a bit before adding it to the tea. The addition of the milk and honey helps satisfy the craving for my usual coffee drinks. In addition to the taste, I began to notice changes as a result of my switch almost immediately.
What I’ve noticed since switching
From day 1, I noticed the energy boost from tea felt more natural. I never feel anxious, but I feel alert and more focused. I’m able to be more productive without feeling jittery. I also notice that I was am not crashing by lunch time. The energy I get from tea is longer lasting than coffee and I don’t find myself needing to take a break to re-focus. After about a week I notice I am no longer feeling miserable in the mornings when my alarm goes off. I actually feel rested when I wake up now. I’m sleeping better throughout the night and not waking up at random times like before. And if nothing else, better sleep makes it all worth it to me.
I’ll be honest and say that I was not expecting to see significant changes so soon. And I didn’t think it would be this easy for me either. I won’t say that I’ll never drink another cup of coffee again, but just in the past few weeks, I’ve learned just how much coffee can affect my energy and mood during the day, and my sleeping habits at night. Making the switch to tea has been totally worth it and I wish I had done it sooner. Coffee has a lot of health benefits, and caffeine effects people differently. So this is not a post to shame coffee drinkers. I just want to share my experience in hopes that it may help someone else dealing with similar issues related to caffeine consumption. If you’re interested, below is a link to a simple chai tea latte recipe you can try. Enjoy!
Chai Tea Latte Recipe https://hip2save.com/recipes/diy-starbucks-inspired-chai-tea-latte/
