Struggling to give up coffee - energy crashes - tips please

[JMAngel1]

So somehow I have ended up needing 4-5 nespresso pods per day - the last one as late as 7pm just to get me through til bedtime. However I am more and more exhausted, have very heavy legs and am aware I often can become a little manic at work.

So I have tried reducing to 2 pods a day, last one no later than 3pm but I literally can't do it. Tonight I was like a zombie and had to have another one at 5.30.
I have been googling and wonder if I have now got adrenal fatigue whereby I've stimulated my adrenals with caffeine and now they're shutting up shop which is why I'm having such dreadful energy slumps.
I go to bed exhausted, sleep 8 hours and wake up feeling as tired as the night before and then I need a coffee - sick of this cycle I'm in. Doesn't help that I'm peri menopausal as well. Otherwise I'm pretty healthy - eat no sugar, gluten or dairy, drink at least 2 litres water a day and do yoga or pilates most mornings (after my coffee - wouldn't be able before).
Has anyone been in this situation and managed to wean off coffee ? If so, how?

Hopeful bump!

[Not helpful]
The only time I managed to give anything up was when I was pregnant. When it stopped being about me and was about protecting bump, I gave up cigarettes, sugar and coffee. I’ve stayed off the cigarettes, but I’m definitely back in the sugar (in spades - wish I could quit but the choc hob nobs keep calling me) and I’m creeping up in the coffee - happily did a few years without, this year started with one a day, then 2, then oh go on then have a third... slippery slope.
I replaced coffee with hot water when I did manage to stop it, but let’s be fair, it’s nowhere near as nice to drink.
Good luck

Thanks, it's not that I'm craving the taste of a coffee - I have decaf pods if I really want the taste of it. It is literally that I don't have the energy to get through the day and it's scary. Feel like I've done this to myself but I don't know how to break the cycle.

Do you have another way of making coffee (filter or cafetière) so you can mix normal and decaf? Can increase the relative amount of decaf each week to slowly wean yourself off. Could do the same with the pods of course, just seems a bit wasteful!

Good idea Spam 88 - although how can I boost my energy whist weaning off the coffee?

I think you'll find you just get used to it.

If you google how to wean yourself off then there are some articles that will give you suggested ratios. That's what I was going to do when giving up caffeine before TTC the first time, but in the end I couldn't bring myself to cut the caffeine any earlier than necessary so ended up going cold turkey. Definitely wouldn't recommend that - the headache was horrific!

I had a similar problem but it was with instant coffee, not coffee pods, so it was a bit easier for me because I mixed the coffee granules gradually increasing the ratio of decaf to caffeinated. I had given up caffeine before and found that i got headaches if I went cold turkey.

A can of coke has about a third of the caffeine of a strong coffee, so you could use that to wean yourself off th caffeine.

There is a podcast called Feel Better Live More.

Listen to the episode about sleep. They were saying that caffeine after midday can affect the quality of your sleep. So it seems like it’s the coffee that’s actually making people feel tired even though they think it’s helping them keep going.

You might have to endure a bit of time where you feel worse but I have stopped having any caffeine after midday and I have never slept so well.

Good luck- I feel you pain