Living without stimulants for 6 weeks Pt. 1
Alright, so two weeks have passed already, and I figured I might as well document this for later reference.
Backstory
So, I’ve been to NYC for a few weeks, and NYC being NYC life there mostly consists of working your ass off, and then spending the money. In that style we’ve been out a bunch, staying up late, enjoying ourselves. The whole shebang.
After NYC, I felt kinda gassed and figured I’d cut back a few things to bring down the dopamine baseline and detox myself.
Rules
No coffee, no tea, no alcohol, or nicotine, NOTHING.
Clean eating, keeping up my daily routines, training, focus on work.
If you’d want to go really hardcore, you can also throw in no artificial sugars and no-fap. I skipped that one for now.
Two weeks later
Initially, I set myself the target of not consuming any stimulants for two weeks. But then the two week mark rolled around and I said, “Screw it! Let’s do another month.”
Why would I do that? Because I really felt the lack of caffeine, and I didn’t like that. I felt just a little more tired most of the time, even when very well rested, and wanted to see if that would eventually go away.
The longest I’ve gone before without drinking coffee, to reset my tolerance, was also two weeks. But this time was harder for some reason. Might be because I am allergic to pollen, and now is prime time, so that might affect my tiredness levels.
In terms of alcohol, I had a few days when I though: “Damn, would be nice to have a glass of wine with my food now.” But otherwise I don’t care. Especially after having listened to Andrew Huberman’s podcast about alcohol and the episode with Peter Attia. Huberman recommends zero alcohol, but 1–2 drink per week max. And Attia said that no alcohol is obviously optimal, but for the normal healthy person, 1 drink per day is fine.
I did not miss nicotine at all. I am not a smoker, but getting very small doses of nicotine (e.g. in form of lozenges) is actually pretty effective to boost focus. Peter Attia is a great advocate of the lozenges, for example. Interestingly, I did not miss nicotine, even though the focus boost it provides is similar to caffeine, just stronger and shorter lived.
Perhaps I miss caffeine most, because making a pour-over coffee is attached to a little ritual in the morning. There prob. are stronger neural pathways established compared to nicotine, which I did here and there when I was about to do some heavy mental lifting.
Since caffeine and nicotine provide some valuable benefits to us (in moderation and taken for a specific purpose), I am sure, I will start to consume them again after this period. Especially, caffeine, nicotine sparingly whenever I really need that extra focus.
At the same time, I am really trying to zone in on a daily routine that works for me. Again, I have taken inspiration from Prof. Huberman, as so many others have, and adapted his optimal, science-backed morning routine to my preferences (I’ll write about that one in another post).
In terms of alcohol, it’s likely that I will follow the general advice I got from Huberman & Attia. Aiming for a max. of 2 drinks per week. For me, it’s a matter of life quality. I want to be able to experience delicious things, without going overboard. Part of that is having a glass of red with your better half at dinner, or sipping a margarita with friends.
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Resources
Dr. Peter Attia: Improve Vitality, Emotional & Physical Health & Lifespan
