Tristan Cole [elocnat]

I randomly decided to quit drinking Monsters towards the end of September. I ran out, had cancelled my subscription (in order to start buying locally), and just decided to go without it for a month and see where I'm at. My argument has always been that I just like the Monster flavor(s); I don't need caffeine to function. I only drink water (and alcohol) otherwise. I've never liked coffee and worst I've noticed is headaches if I quit for a bit. So what has really changed?

Well I lost weight for one - around 10 pounds. Before you say "well no shit you're not drinking a bunch of sugar", I only drank zero and low calorie monsters (30 calories per can). At most two a day, one in the morning and one after dinner. Important note: I only eat one (large) meal a day. I didn't knowingly change any habits - I still ordered out a few times a month, had beer on the weekends, and even had late night popcorn snacks probably more than I did in past few months combined.

Somehow it's been about a pound a day assuming I don't drink or make bad dietary choices - which I did purposely a few times because I was almost concerned! Losing weight has always been super hard for me, even when I've maintained a relatively steady diet. Before this I wasn't really losing any, more maintaining - which would be okay except that I'm probably 150 pounds overweight. I'm not at my heaviest, but still ~50 pounds over where I'm comfortable being. If I had known simply cutting out Monsters would help I'd have given them up years ago!

Look, I'm not saying for sure it's just dropping the caffeine, I'm just saying it is working for me. But what about other side effects? I did have the expected headaches the first week or two. I have noticed myself being more tired lately - specifically at the end of the work day. A meal is a good boost, but the caffeine added that little bit extra that seemed to help with focus or whatever. I honestly miss starting the day with a Monster from the freezer - cold water doesn't hit quite the same. Other than that, it really hasn't been that big of a deal.

Will I keep this up? I don't know. For now it's an obvious yes - because if I can keep my current diet and continue losing weight, Monster isn't worth that. However, I don't think caffeine is the real change there and I'll eventually plateau, so given that I do like the nighttime boost I may consider drinking one nightly instead of in the mornings - at least during the week. I don't feel that my focus or daytime mental energy has changed much at all, but I can definitely feel it at night. I've had more of an urge to just veg out instead of put time & effort into TCPD or other projects that require mental energy. Saving ~$100 a month is nice though.

I'll update again in a month to see where I'm at. Later!

I figured it'd be better to just make a small update here instead of a separate post. It's been about 3 months now and I have not gone back to caffeine since I posted this! I've had it through a few drinks (no energy drinks) at times but have not missed it or noticed any real differences.

The weight loss part did not stick -- notably I haven't gained any weight, but I have kept what I've gained off, even through the holidays. That's kind of a miracle for me. It seems like caffeine may intensify my food cravings. I've started snacking a little bit more at night over break than I was previously, but otherwise dropping caffeine seems to have at worst done nothing and at best helped out my routine.

So I'm planning to leave it out of my daily routine permanently. I'll continue making "healthier choices" this year in general...we'll see. Later!