Quit coffee?

Go to hell. (What most of us would think/say).

Hear me out.

Recently I have noticed deep debilitating fatigue, deep within my soul. Something I could never put my finger on.

I’ve always gone to the gym, even BJJ, ate right, got sleep, but something deep lingered within the background…

I knew something was causing me to feel exhausted. I know it wasn’t my fitness making me tired; although, I would overtrain at times, even to injury.

One thing I admit is that I have always drank a ton of coffee in excess.

For example, I was drinking 2-3 Monster energy drinks per day, then also drinking way over 1 pot of coffee per day.

I know now I was totally and completely addicted.

My life certainly hasn’t been all peaches and cream, the stress in my life has always been high.

If you don’t know this already stress causes cortisol. Drinking too much coffee also creates cortisol.

I did some basic math in my head and came to the conclusion that my cortisol must be off the charts.

Boom. It finally clicked. I must have adrenal fatigue (adrenal insufficiency).

I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what could be throwing me off. I didn’t ever think coffee was harming me.

After all, you see everyone almost everywhere holding a cup.

Seems innocent right?

Not in my case. Between passing through the stresses of life and also pounding coffee I had debilitated myself. In my mind, I kept trying to obtain more energy, more productivity, etc. but in reality I was just feeding the addiction monster itself so I could stay “well” and in doing so completely throwing off my endocrine system.

The caffeine no longer did the trick. I was living how a drug addict lives. Just trying to stay well.

I quit coffee. I bought supplements to increase my DHEA levels (DHEA reduces cortisol). I started drinking more peppermint tea to keep me from relapsing back into the warm comfort of holding a nice cup of Joe.

My waist line has decreased, I started leaning out, my sleep has finally improved and I don’t feel like a worthless zombie all day with no energy. I became a revitalized version of myself.

I feel better at the gym, the brain fog is significantly lower, my choices have improved, I feel more natural endurance in my workouts, etc.

If you are hardcore coffee drinker like I was you may consider eliminating too much caffeine from your system. I quit cold turkey. You can too.

The key takeaway is to reduce cortisol by increasing your DHEA intake.

You can begin healing your endocrine system and take your life back from this seemingly very innocent substance.