It's true. I drank a cup of black tea with a tablespoon of soy creamer. Sounds harmless, right? I decided to read Stephen Cherniske's, Caffeine Blues: Wake Up to the Hidden Dangers of America's #1 Drug
, before going to bed and I learned that, prior to this week, I was drinking 6 - 7 times the amount of recommended dosage of caffeine per day! It required reading this book to take me out of my state of denial about my caffeine use. Cherniske also suggests that cutting down on caffeine intake requires gradual decrease in dosage, just like you would take anyone off any drug. So I am currently drinking 1 cup of black tea ( 70 mg of caffeine/ cup ) or 1 cup of coffee ( 100 mg of caffeine/cup ) and 1 tablespoon of organic cream or soy milk.
After 6 days, I decided my first approach was too extreme and ridiculous. In fact, I know better than to pull the rug out from underneath an addict. But all is not lost, for I will forge ahead. My intention for this cleanse is to make lifestyle changes and that is definitely happening. I just needed to ween myself first.
IMPORTANT LESSON #1 Go Gradually into the Cleanse. Take yourself off slowly from foods you habitually eat, but have a plan to do so. Honestly look at what the REALITY of your intake is on any number of substances. Start first with an honest intake of how many grams or milligrams or pounds or gallons of foods and beverages you consume. Make an honest plan with yourself to decrease intake by a certain amount every day. In my case, I could have chosen to go easy on myself and decrease by 100 mg/week. That means having 1 less cup of coffee, tea, or chocolate every week. But more realistically I personally could have decreased by 100mg per day and gotten to the exact place where I am find myself today, drinking one cup/ day.