I quit coffee & alcohol. It helped!

My experience swearing off fun liquids.

"If you need coffee or alcohol to function, you’ve already lost. Your mind is your most powerful weapon, and you’re handing control over to a f**ing drink."* — David Goggins

Long time subscribers to Serviceable Insights know from my September 2024 article Why I’m Quitting Coffee I intended to stop consuming coffee, for at least a month. Not only was I curious to see how this would change my health and performance, but I felt it was necessary to see how uncomfortable the change would be. Despite the discomfort I went 6 weeks before my first sip of caffeine.

Shortly afterward I was looking for another test then a few nights of above average alcohol consumption inspired another cessation challenge. I don’t drink often but as I’ve gotten older, the effect of consuming alcohol has become more noticeable. I’ve gone over a month without drinking many times but I’ve never consciously monitored the effects like I did with the coffee challenge.

I went 6-7 weeks before my first alcoholic drink. With this I feel qualified to share my reflections on what I learnt from these two experiments, to give you the reader the possible motivation you need to finally do what you know you should have done a while ago.

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What Happened When I Quit Coffee?

I was two days in when I wrote my article about quitting coffee. I had yet to experience the headaches many avid coffee drinkers report once they stop drinking coffee for a couple of days. On a relative basis, I suppose my consumption of 1-3 espressos per day wasn’t enough to experience withdrawal symptoms. On the other hand, my appetite was out of control. I don’t normally eat anything until around noon, which serves me well. Without my morning espresso, by about 10:15 AM, the feelings of hunger were very noticeable. Morning workouts probably didn’t help either.

As the weeks went by, this did not change. If I had a bigger dinner the night before, it was less noticeable but undoubtedly caffeine serves as a major diet suppressor. This is not surprising, since many stimulants can have this effect. Beyond the diet, after about a week I did notice an improvement in sleep quality. I did not use a tracker and kept a similar bedtime but found that I was waking up earlier by about 30 minutes each day without any additional feelings of fatigue. Without my post lunch coffee if I had a bigger lunch I would feel a noticeable crash, making me less productive than usual from 1-2pm (my apologies to the shareholders).

The main thing quitting coffee did was remove the mask of ignorance surrounding my energy levels. Contrary to popular belief, caffeine does not give you energy, it blocks adenosine receptors which prevents your brain from realizing it’s tired¹. You can think of this as disabling the low gas indicator on your car instead of filling up the tank. The caffeine crash you experience once it wears off is the wave of stored adenosine hitting all at once. Over time, chronic caffeine use leads to higher adenosine receptor sensitivity, which is why you need to keeping consuming higher doses for the same effect.

It’s okay to have busy stretches where you sleep less than normal but you need to be aware of it. With coffee it helps you convince yourself you’re fine, when you aren’t. This is why taking occasional breaks from coffee is important or you will need to keep increasing the dose, which will eventually have negative impacts on your sleep, gut health, teeth/oral health among other issues.

After my experiment, I did eventually start drinking coffee again but the break was positive. Some people such as Michael Pollan described their first coffee after a long break as almost a drug like experience (see below). I can’t say the same but I noticed with a smaller dose, I would get a larger boost.

(Skip to 10 minutes for him talking about his first coffee after 3 months)

The main thing I noticed about the pause, was I drink coffee when I’m bored. My energy levels are more closely linked to my activity. Skipping the gym, boring assignments or useless meetings kill my energy more than missing a cup of coffee or a poor night of sleep. The idea of quitting coffee is difficult because we live in a society where everybody is bored out of their mind.

Don’t believe me? Ever felt exhausted after a long day of work but instead of taking a nap or going to bed you watched 6 hours of reality TV, sports or doom scrolled on social media? You aren’t actually tired, you just tell yourself you are. If Sydney Sweeney, Brad Pitt or your celebrity crush of your choice rang your doorbell asking to go for dinner/drinks, something tells me you suddenly wouldn’t feel so tired.

Put down the coffee and do something that interests you.

Here are some other maxims to control your caffeine consumption

• Defer to the Italian rule on coffee: no lattes or cappuccinos after 10AM.

• Don’t put sugar in your coffee. You are just adding a sugar craving on top of your caffeine dependency. Take a look at the labels of those non-dairy milks. Oat, almond, pistachio and alt milks are often filled with sugar and other chemicals.

• Don’t drink coffee out of boredom. Focus on doing things that give you energy and most importantly avoid things that drain your energy.

  Speaking of which.

What Happened When I Quit Alcohol?

With my adenosine receptors returning to baseline, I decided to take a break from another common vice: alcohol. You might know it as aqua vitae, demon water, booze, royal nectar, or fun juice. I wouldn’t consider myself a big drinker with 4-8 drinks per month, usually coming in one or two evenings. However, after some quick research, I discovered it puts me above average. In my defense, alcohol consumption isn’t normally distributed; it follows a power law. Most people don’t drink or consume very little, while those that do, drink staggering amounts.

In any case, 1-2 drinks per week isn’t considered problematic by most national health guidelines. That is unless you live in a country that produces beer or wine, in which case they’d probably tell me my intake is dangerously low. My experiment was simple: See if going from 1-2 drinks per week to zero for six weeks would change anything.

I’ve taken extended breaks from alcohol before, the longest for three months while studying for the CFA Level III exam. At the time I had to constantly explain myself to people who couldn’t fathom why I’d voluntarily abstain. I was at an age where friends and colleagues wanted to grab drinks on any day ending in "Y," and my absent cocktail in hand seemed to offend at least one person every time. “What’s the harm in just one drink?” or “Bro, just do one! Only one Irish Car Bomb, and I’ll leave you alone!”

Aside from these stray comments, quitting alcohol is much easier compared to coffee, video games, social media, or many other habits I’ve given up over the years. For one thing, your body tells you to give up alcohol through a biological survival technique the French call “La gueule de bois”². English speakers might know this as the hangover.

Likely because of the pain associated with drinking, sobriety has become much more normalized compared to the last time I consciously stopped. Most bars and restaurants in major cities have started offering a wider array of non-alcoholic options. They even discussed this during an episode of Emily in Paris. Many people around me had also quit drinking or were at least attempting Dry January. I attended a work team dinner during this period and nobody ordered any alcohol. Except for one guy who hadn’t had a drink in years but decided to be different that night³.

The health risks associated with drinking are well documented: cancer, diabetes, dementia, liver failure, heart disease, chronic fatigue you name it. If you spend enough time researching, you’ll find alcohol increases your risk for virtually every health problem imaginable. It disrupts sleep, damages organs, weakens the immune system, and dries out your skin. Some studies argue that small amounts of alcohol benefit the brain and heart. Others claim that the social benefits of drinking outweigh some of the negatives. This could be true but these studies were very likely sponsored by beneficiaries of the spirits industry. It also sounds like a convenient justification for people who don’t want to limit their consumption.

In my case, I didn’t feel much of a difference from completely abstaining from drinking for 6-7 weeks. I didn’t do blood work or use a sleep tracker but I felt about as same as I did coming off the break from coffee. Based on what bro and girlboss scientists on the internet promised, I was supposed to experience better sleep, glowing skin, improved cognitive function, a stronger immune system, grow two inches and earn a higher credit score. None of that happened.

The likely reason? My baseline drinking level was already low enough that abstaining didn’t make a noticeable difference. There are studies that state otherwise but from my experience, there’s little contrast between 1-2 drinks per week and none. That said, with the exception of a few fine wine, scotches or champagnes, alcohol consumption is fairly pointless. If you need liquid courage to feel comfortable in social situations, it sounds like you should probably try to address the root cause of the problem but I get it; therapy is painful, expensive and much more time consuming than the occasional beverage. If you want to enjoy an occasional drink, I won’t be the one to stop you.

If you are serious about improving your health, setting a hard zero-tolerance rule is easier than trying to manage the quantities you are drinking because discipline is overrated. If you insist on wanting to enjoy the occasional drink, here are some tips that can help:

• Never drink alone & don’t drink at home (unless you’re hosting a party).

• Quality over quantity. Avoid the cheap stuff that burns on the way down. If you’re old enough to remember where you were on 9/11, it’s time to stop drinking like you’re still in college.

• Time your last drink wisely. Have your final alcoholic beverage at least three hours before bed, and chase it with water or electrolytes. This won’t eliminate the effects of drinking, but it’ll help you wake up feeling less like garbage.

At the end of the day, alcohol is optional. If you feel an occasional sip adds value to your life, enjoy it responsibly. If not, you’re not missing much and increasingly people are giving it up so you won’t be alone.

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1. Here is a cool thread diving a bit deeper if you are interested in how coffee works. Link

2. The direct translation into English means “wooden mouth”. Those that have experienced it, understand why.

3. Here is your shoutout Justin.