When the problem is...drinks!

[Ski40]

Or to be more specific, the sugar in them.
As someone who has barely managed more than 4 or 5 hours sleep on a very good night (more like 3 and under a few times a week!) for most of the last 10 years, I rely heavily on coffee and energy drinks to see me through the day.
I have anxiety issues that severely affect my sleep and 3 young children who seem to take turns to wake me up quite a few times a night. DH gets up at 5am for work and I never manage to go back to sleep afterwards, so I'm going through life in a semi comatose blur, only the continuous drinking of sugary caffeine helping me plod along until the weekend, when DH is around to help and I sleep a bit more.

Now I will describe my average cup of coffee for everyone to gasp in horror and tell me how I'm killing myself. The strongest coffee you can imagine, 4 teaspoons of sugar 😖 and full fat milk as I don't like the others. I have tried every type of sweetener but I hate them all, even Stevia, plus they all fail to give me the fast shot of energy I need. I have one in my hand continuosly and sometimes I have that and a bottle of Lucozade or Zero Coke on the go at the same time.
I can give up any food no problem, but I know what is making me fat is what I drink. I have tried to stop but the exhaustion and the withdrawl headaches always win!
My mum has type 2 diabetes and recently my dad and one of my brothers have been told they are pre diabetic too so that's a worry. I have had lots of tests and all come back clear, amazingly, but I am about 4 stone overweight and I can tell my adrenal glands are shot and I need to stop.

I take Sertraline for my anxiety problems which helps to an extent, but I would love to find a way to fight this permanent exhaustion without poisoning myself with all this sugar and caffeine.
I have tried ginseng supplements, vitamin C, apps that mimic rain etc to help me sleep, CBT for anxiety... but one bad day and it's back to the coffee and the Lucozade.
I don't want to be fat and exhausted any more. I was a small size 10 pre babies! A 16 now... I don't want to join my poor mum at the diabetes clinic.
Would welcome any idea on how to get my energy back whilst weaning myself off all that poison.
I used to love Zumba but since my last pregnancy a lasting SPD pain has put a stop to that 😣

And a big hug to anyone else struggling like this 😚

I'm afraid you have to do cold turkey. It will be painful for three or four days but there's no getting around it. You'll be ill otherwise.

How many cups of coffee with 4 tsps of sugar do you have in a day? Be honest!

I know... two days is the longest I have lasted without and believe me I turn into a monster
It's hard to tell how many, probably six big mugs? More on a really bad day. Ouch...

You don’t need to cut the coffee - just the sugar. I’d suggest you cut it back slowly until you’re drinking it with no sugar.

What kind of coffee are you drinking? If it’s instant, 4 cups of it won’t give you the jolt a proper latte from an espresso machine will give you. It’s a false economy at that level.

How late in the day are you having coffee and energy drinks? I’m sure you’re aware that your sleeplessness and anxiety may be closely related to the stimulants you’re having all day?

It varies, both, depending where I am and how much time I have or simply what I fancy TBH.
I cut it out in the evening and switch to milky hot chocolate or just water so it doesn't keep me up but there is always one kid or another waking me up even when I do manage to drop off. I guess I'm so used to disturbed nights that anything wakes me up, and once I'm awake all my worries start creeping in and that's that.

I have tried mixing half sugar and half stevia in a very pretty sugar bowl in the middle of the counter. There it sits. I'm so naughty I want a good slap really. 😶
I think owning up to what I'm doing is the first step! I will start keeping tabs now I hope. I'm determined this is the year I will kick it. Blimey I sound like I want to stop smoking. But I guess that is how that must feel! X
Thanks for chatting to me! What about you? Any bad habits to 'fess up back? 😉 x

It could be that the sugar and caffeine is contributing to you not being able to fall back to sleep. I only drink coffee in the morning because I know if I drink it in the afternoon it affects my sleep.

You either have to decide on going cold turkey or monitoring your sugar intake and sticking to a plan to reduce it. Once you get to zero sugar you will find you don't need it after a few days.

Ooooh it sounds like hell... 😢😢😢
But I'm a mum and my kids need me healthy so willing to è

Try. Sorry that was the 3 year old jabbing the phone for me!! 😂

I have phases of eating zero sugar and definitely feel better. Chocolate and sweets stay in the cupboard for ages (if hidden from kids) without me touching it. had 3 kids birthdays last week though so been eating it again....
I have slowly been reducing to buying no sweet stuff so kids don't have it either. My ds1 has terrible concentration, he cut it out completely for 3 weeks. We didn't tell the teacher but she sent me an email commenting on how ds''s concentration had dramatically improved.

Hi Ski40, I am wondering if your coffee and energy drinks are contributing towards your anxiety? I'm actually a qualified personal trainer and I have a client who suffers from bad anxiety and drinks a lot of coffee. One of my first bits of advice to her was to switch to decaf - which she has done and has noticed a big difference in how anxious she was feeling. Caffeine in large doses will speed up your heart rate which will contribute to the anxious feelings. Have you tried gradually cutting down or gradually switching to a more decaf version? I mix our coffee half and half decaf and caffineated for our filter machine - stops my husband being wired to the moon! Try and tackle one habit at a time - sort out the caffeine first before tacking the sugar, small steps when trying to change a habit are more effective in the long term. I have written a blog on it if you're interested which might help.

Well done 😄
It 's hard to keep kids away from sugar specially at Easter and Christmas. Also April is 8 bdays in my immediate family. And I agree the difference when kids have less sugar is shocking xx

Thanks Kristabell, yes I would love to read it thank you. It looks like I'm going to need a ton of motivation for my coffee detox ☺

ski I've found Millicano decaf an acceptable sub for caffeinated instant. It comes in a tin rather than a jar. You'll likely get a 2 day headache on changing so paracetamol to hand will help. Follow dosing instructions of course.

Good luck.

Here you go Ski40, good luck and feel free to get in touch with any questions if I can help. :)

www.exerciseformums.com/blog/6-top-tips-to-keep-your-new-year-resolutions

Thank you ladies for all the kind words of advice, here I am also if anyone else is in need of motivational hugs or (gentle!) kicks up the backside 😁. Going to make my current cold coffee the last one for today. Deep breath!! X

Did you try xylitol? It doesn't have that sweetener specific taste. it is a lot more expensive than the others but you could try by buying a small quantity first
Although, I think 4 teaspoons of sugar for 1 coffee is a lot.. I would cut back on that as well, no matter if it's sugar or replacements.
I replaced the milk in coffee with cream

Thanks Kerryleigh. I am going to try to start using my 50/50 mix and gradually increase the ratio of sweetener to real sugar. See if that does the trick.I will do that with normal and decaf too. And stop any caffeine before 6 pm.
Funny how giving up chocolate or pizza is nothing to me, but the thought of giving up caffeine horrifies me.
Thanks everyone for the advice xxx

Another one suggesting that all that caffeine and sugar is probably contributing to your anxiety.

I gave up caffeine about 15 years ago. I drink decaf coffee now (but not very often and yes, I know that still has a little bit of caffeine in it). If I accidentally drink a 'proper' coffee I feel absolutely awful later that day. After the initial hit I then have a massive crash where I feel anxious, jittery and very very down.

And yes, cold turkey the best way. You'll feel absolutely dreadful for about a week, but then you'll feel better.

I’m no medical expert but just reading about the coffees and sugary drinks just screams out to me to be causing your anxiety and difficulty in sleeping. Yes I know you’ve got young children waking you but I think that’s a different tiredness to the type of exhaustion you must be feeling as you’re continually over stimulating during the day. Your adrenaline, glucose levels must be continually flat out. I think like others have said gently tapering or just going cold turkey may well make you feel like shit for a few days but I bet you come out the other side feeling like a new woman. And you can medicate any headaches etc with paracetamol etc. No real advice apart from what others have said but maybe treat it like a Dry January type approach and try it for a month and see how you feel?

Thank you ladies! It's lovely to see others taking a moment out to encourage others onto the right path. I am pleased to report I kept away from the coffee this evening though I did have a tiny teeny bit of Zero Coke when DS2 was playing up and I felt I had no energy at all to deal with him.
My absolute worst moment is just before getting the two eldest up and ready for the school run, so I know I will have one then, but I will cut out the reward one I have when I get back home. That one is normally a huge, very indulgent one if the school run has been stressful. As in, if I have whipped cream there it will go on top. Ouch.
I'm thinking of trying to add cinnamon to it in place of some of the sugar, as it's good for controlling your own blood sugar.
I've also thought of trying different flavoured herbal teas in the next few weeks. I don't dream of being a size 10 again, but a healthy and energetic 12 would be so lovely. Thank you for everyone's support. If anyone else needs to start a caffeine or sugar detox, we could cheer each other on along the way! x

How is it going today ski40?

Hi! Well...not too bad actually thanks! Only on my second coffee so far, made it weaker and only 3 tsps sugar each instead of 4, not a massive change in taste so pleased but I definitely feel the tiredness 😁. No coke either, I had lots of water instead. So far being a good girl (ish) but it has been a quiet day so will see if I fail in a stressful one...
I logged into my current online shop order and made some changes- got rid of coke and got decaf coffee. Will not take my purse on school run to avoid straying at the corner shop 😂Thanks for checking in! It helps to feel accountable because people have taken the time in asking. How are you getting on? X

Sounds good for day 2. Reducing spoonfuls of sugar (and not replacing with sweeter) will help get you used to drinking less sweet stuff. ...

I was just going to say what a PP said, I think you're in a vicious circle - feel tired so glug the caffeine and pop, that makes you unable to sleep...and so you go round and round.

I too was wondering if the caffeine is contributing to your anxiety...racing heart etc

Good luck with weaning yourself off. I bet you'll feel a million times better