Should Women Over 40 Take a Break From Caffeine?

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By like two and a half to week three of being fully off, I started to feel so good. I started to feel what it feels like to have natural energy, and I already have tons and tons of energy to begin with. So to feel that once again without the enhancements of caffeine was amazing. I felt so freaking good. I was cranking through work. I was sleeping like a baby. I'm going to get to the data in a little bit.

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Ayo. What is going on, you guys? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode number 168. Not going to lie, it's getting a little bit harder to say the numbers as they get bigger. I cannot believe we're almost to 170 and almost to 200 episodes. That's just wild.

But anyway, here we are, episode 168. Today I want to give you guys a little bit of a life update, specifically in terms of my caffeine-free journey. First of all, let me talk about the podcast I released a couple weeks ago when I was in the first week of fully cutting out the caffeine. That episode popped off. It got so much feedback, so many downloads, and so many views. I was mind-blown, because in that episode I feel like I was being so dramatic, like I was dying. But literally, that's how it felt, because it was so freaking hard to get through that podcast. I felt like I didn't have one single train of thought in it.

Anyway, I wanted to circle back and give you guys an update to let you know how the journey has gone, and to share, because I kind of gave it away in the last episode, that I reintroduced caffeine two days ago.

So let's go back. You listened to the episode where I gave you a rundown that I had decided to go cold turkey. That's just a little bit about me. That's how I do things, and I honestly think it's the best freaking way to do things, but I understand not everybody is wired that way. I shared in that last episode that that's basically how I started my fitness journey, when I knew I had the support of a professional helping me along the way. Back in 2015 is when I fully committed. The years prior to that, I was dabbling in it, not fully committed, and I talked about it all inside that episode. But in 2015, I found the coach and I did all the things.

A lot of you are either in WarriorBabe, you signed up for it, or you're doing other things. What I find is a lot of people are halfway out and halfway in. I fully recommend that once you commit to something, which a lot of you do by investing in a program, you've invested in WarriorBabe, go full send. Full send into it. The biggest thing I say is trust yourself and trust the process, which is actually really hard for a lot of people to do out of the gate. I understand that.

But anyway, in that episode I talked about how I decided to go full in. I fully committed. I was like, all right, full send tomorrow, I'm cutting it out, because I was feeling all of these things. The reason I went into it is I was consuming way too much caffeine to begin with. If you didn't hear that episode, wait till you hear this. You guys know Chameleon Cold Brew? It's a concentrate coffee. I would consume about 16 to 20 ounces of the concentrate in the morning without diluting it with water. That's about 500 milligrams of caffeine out of the gate. Then later in the day I would have a Diet Coke, and later in the day I would have an energy drink. I was upwards of 800 to 1,000 milligrams of caffeine in a day. And the other day I was like, why am I so freaking tired? I was crashing off of that much caffeine.

Because of the understanding and knowledge I have, I knew some things internally. I was crashing and burning my adrenals. I was crashing and burning my effectiveness in sleeping. I'll get into all the data and stats, because that's what I want to talk about: what happened when I was consuming that much versus what happened when I wasn't.

So I was consuming that much, and I knew I couldn't just fully give it up. So I weaned off. I cut back about half in the first week, and in the second week I cut back half from that half. Then I full sent into no caffeine around mid-May. I started at the end of April, on the 29th, spent two weeks weaning off, and mid-May is when I fully cut it out. That's when I recorded that last episode, and I was struggling to get through it.

In the first week of no caffeine, I felt a little bit of the symptoms: being fatigued, being tired, a little brain fog, the headaches, the crashing in the middle of the day, even with the lesser caffeine. But the week I recorded that podcast was the hardest week I had experienced. I couldn't think through my thoughts. I was wanting to take a nap in the middle of the day. I felt worse than when I was on that much caffeine. And that trickled into the following week.

But then by about two and a half to three weeks of being fully off, I started to feel so good. I started to feel what it feels like to have natural energy, and I already have tons and tons of energy to begin with. So to feel that once again without the enhancements of caffeine was amazing. I'll also talk about how I strategically paced this around when I was about to get my period and when I was going through ovulation. I played that into it. But I felt so freaking good. I was cranking through work. I was sleeping like a baby. I'm going to get to the data in a little bit. My thoughts were clear as day. I was able to think through things, be more attentive in meetings and conversations, and not get too far ahead of myself, which is what I was doing before.

I was telling everybody really close to me along this journey that I felt like the caffeine before was giving me tons and tons of anxiety. I'm not an anxious person to begin with, but of course that much caffeine would give anybody some type of anxiety if they're having 1,000 milligrams a day of it. But I wasn't feeling that way come the third week, and the third week is when it felt really, really good.

To dive into the data a little bit: obviously I have the Oura Ring. I've had the Oura Ring since before it was even freaking cool. It's the most consistent fitness tracker I've used for years and years. It is so freaking accurate. I love it so much and I highly recommend it. I am blown away by the data it can give you in terms of sleep. This is the one thing I use for sleep. I don't care what the steps say. Steps aren't really that accurate. I don't really log training. You can do all those things, but I don't pay attention to that. It also tracks the period for us women. It lets you know when you may be about to get your period based on body temperature, heart rate elevation, things like that.

But back to the caffeine. Prior to me deciding to go off of it, through a normal month, I am really, really good at sleeping three out of four weeks of the month. The week I'm about to get my period, it picks up my elevation in body temperature, and my readiness score goes down. I base things off of readiness and sleep score.

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When I'm about to get my period, my sleep isn't as effective. My REM sleep is a little bit lower and my deep sleep is a little bit lower around that time. That's also why I wanted to plan this around my period. I wanted to go off when I was about to get my period, and I wanted to come back on around when I was about to get my period. So I spent about five weeks in total off of caffeine, not including the two weeks of the taper. All in all, the whole journey was about seven weeks. But again, I can normally sleep pretty well three weeks out of the four weeks of the month.

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When I was consuming that much caffeine, my readiness score was very low. There's new data on the Oura Ring, and I'm going to bring up the app right now. It has a resilience meter, and it's based on your nighttime recovery, your daytime recovery, and your daytime stress load, which is based off your HRV. A few of these things were really in the red. I'm going back to April 23rd, and I started around April 29th, so there's a huge jump up. If you're watching on video, you can see it. I started to climb from solid to strong, and then I did reach exceptional along the way of giving up the caffeine. That's my nighttime recovery, my daytime recovery, and my daytime stress load.

Prior to deciding to switch, my readiness score was totally dropping. It was in the 70s, where I'm normally in the high 80s and 90s. Again, I'm basing all this data off of the Oura Ring. My sleep scores were pretty solid, but I like to pay attention to readiness. My sleep in terms of REM, deep, and efficiency was not the best when I was having 1,000 milligrams of caffeine or upwards of that. That's where I was like, okay, not only am I burning out some things internally, but my sleep is being affected. And I know how freaking important sleep is for progress in a fitness journey and for results. So knowing I was consuming a lot, and also recognizing this data inside the Oura Ring, I was like, something needs to change.

When I started to taper down is where you can see the bar graph in the resilience factor going up. And not to mention my HRV, which is your body's ability to handle stress. This thing tracks during the day how stressed you are, how relaxed you are, how engaged you are, and how restored you are. And consistently, on end, I was stressed. I feel like I was totally self-inducing anxiety. I'm not kidding you, and the data kind of showed it. Once I decided to cut back, the trend goes from solid to strong, which is improving. I sat there for a little bit, and then eventually I came up from strong to exceptional. That was the beginning of June, so a little bit deeper into being caffeine-free. I was like, man, this is pretty freaking crazy.

Again, some factors do play a role, like menstruating. Around my period, I notice the dip in my HRV, my sleep, and my readiness score. But those three things were being impacted when I was on caffeine no matter what week of the month. When I was off the caffeine, all of these numbers were improving. My REM sleep was through the roof. I was having way more dreams than I normally have. My HRV went back up. I was hovering around the hundreds, where I'm normally on average 130, 140, and my spikes can go up to around 200. I hadn't seen that in a couple of months. My readiness was increasing, going up into the high 80s and high 90s. Regardless of whether I was menstruating or whatever part of the cycle I was in, I hadn't seen those numbers, even on that same week the month before and the month before that, when I was consuming as much caffeine as I was. I hadn't seen those numbers in a while.

So to see those numbers start to improve, I was like, heck yeah. I was seeing the positive rewards not only mentally, from how I was feeling, the natural energy, the clarity of thought, the ability to articulate conversations and be engaged and actively present in situations and conversations, but I was also seeing and reaping the rewards in the data. I was thrilled. I felt amazing. I felt so freaking good, and I still do.

So what made me reintroduce it? Honestly, I was pretty mad at myself that I hadn't set a date, because I'm big on, okay, the end date comes, and I know I can start to go back to what I wanted to do. But I hadn't done that. And without setting a date, I'm someone who will just keep going and keep going. But internally I felt that I truly love coffee. What I missed the most was the experience of having coffee. I enjoy waking up in the morning, having water first, obviously, and then having my coffee to start my day. I missed that experience. Regardless of how I was feeling and regardless of the data improving, I did miss that experience.

I even shared with you guys on social media on Sunday. This recording will be out next week, so I'll be a full week back into having caffeine, but I just started back up two days ago, on Monday. The deciding factor was I sent out a story asking, guys, should I go back? Mentally, what was happening for me was, one, I didn't set a date, and I should have set a date for when I was going to go back. I've learned that for next time. Also, I was feeling intuitively that I wanted it back. It's not that I needed it back. I just wanted it back. And I didn't want to restrict or torment myself or go down a rabbit hole. I don't need to give up coffee forever, nor do I want to. That was never my intention. It was just to give myself a break.

So I put it in my story on Instagram, and you guys helped me out. Thank you so much. I was like, gosh, should I go back? The two options were, yes, you've done this long enough, or no, keep going. Like 80% of you said, yeah, you've done it enough. So thank you, because you were helping in my decision process. At that point I felt great. I felt like I did the experience. I did the journey. I'd never done this before. I saw data improvement. I saw myself physically and mentally improve. So I had the experiment I wanted. I was basically my own little guinea pig. I had what I wanted, I was happy, and I was proud of myself for the journey. I just wanted to go back because I missed it, and there was never any intention to give it up entirely.

Coming back on it Monday, man. I joked around with our coaching team today, our lead coaches. I was like, maybe I'll just full send back to 1,000 milligrams a day. Just kidding. I don't think I would ever do that. I learned my lesson. So I'm phasing it back in slowly but surely. On Monday I walked across the street to Whole Foods and got a can of cold brew, and it was only 140 milligrams of caffeine. That was all I had. Actually, I had maybe a Diet Coke in the afternoon, which is only 50 milligrams of caffeine. So all in total, I had 190 milligrams of caffeine, and I'm trying to ballpark it around that on a daily basis.

I was having this battle with myself, and I told myself I'm not going to go back to Chameleon Cold Brew, the concentrate, because I felt like it gave me tons and tons of anxiety. But it wasn't the Chameleon Cold Brew that gave me the anxiety. It was the amount that was giving me tons of anxiety. So yesterday and today, I had less than 200 milligrams of caffeine again. I truly want to try to keep it around that, because I feel the best now.

So time will tell. I'm going to continue to consume the caffeine, have the coffee, and see how my numbers do, whether they go down, improve, or stay the same. I guess I'm going to do a follow-up podcast on being back on caffeine after some period of time. I am getting my period any freaking day now, so there is a little bit of data that could play into that too. So I may have to report back in about six weeks on the journey of coming back onto coffee.

But all in all, like I shared with you in that last video, the pros and the cons of giving it up: I felt like it was a really cool experiment to do on myself. I'm not saying you have to do it, but if you feel like some things are off, and you're consuming the caffeine but at the end of the day you're tired, maybe it's a good little test to see if you can restore some things naturally.

That's why I wanted to do a short and sweet podcast. I just wanted to give you guys an update on that journey, and since it was such a highly listened-to podcast, I thought you would enjoy hearing again why I did it, the process of giving it up, how I felt, the data I saw, the evidence I noticed, and then the deciding factor to come back on. I'll have to follow up in a couple of weeks to let you know how I'm feeling being back on.

But I'll tell you, man, I missed it. I showed up to the coaches meeting today and I was like, I'm back. If you're not watching on video, I was just waving my coffee around, because there's literally still a sip left of it. That's why I'm nursing the heck out of it. I love coffee. I just love the taste of it. I enjoy it. It's a good experience. And I like the energy it gives me. Even though I'm already naturally highly energetic, it gives me a little bit more of a boost, and it's fun.

Anyway, I wanted to share that with you guys. I hope you enjoyed the little update. Be sure to keep listening to all the podcasts to come. There are going to be so many good ones in the near future, and I can't wait for you to tune into them. Until then, appreciate you guys. Love you all. See you in the next one.

Hey, everyone. Thanks for sticking around to the end of the show. I hope you really enjoyed that podcast. Really quick: if you're a woman aged 45 through 65 and finding menopause challenging, listen closely. WarriorBabe is here to help you reclaim your body and your confidence. At WarriorBabe, we've empowered over 18,000 women to lose stubborn body fat, build toned muscle, and understand their bodies better. Our personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more ensure you get exactly what you need to see real results, and real results that last. Imagine feeling stronger, more energized, and in control of your health. Don't let menopause hold you back any longer. Head over to warriorbabe.com/apply and join our amazing community today. That's warriorbabe.com/apply. The link is in the show notes below. Thanks again for listening to the episode, and I'll see you in the next one.