The Surprising Benefits of a Caffeine Break for Women Over 40

00:00Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else. Like two and a half to week three of being fully off, I started to feel so good.

00:32I started to feel like what it feels like to have natural energy, which I already have tons and tons and 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. Hey, everyone. Really quick before we dive into today's episode, I have an exciting milestone to celebrate with all of you.

01:06The WarriorBabe Show has officially reached 500,000 downloads. That's a half a million downloads in just a year and a half of being born. I could not have done this without you guys. Thank you all so freaking much. And now I want to hear your stories. If you could just take 10 minutes of your time to fill out a testimonial, that testimonial link is in the description below. That would mean the absolute world to me. How has The WarriorBabe Show positively impacted your life? What have you taken away from this show?

01:36How have you applied it and what results have you gotten? Your story could be featured in one of our special celebration episodes to come. So if you could, please head over to the testimonial link. The link is in the show notes below and share your journey with me. Thank you all so much for being an essential part of this freaking amazing The WarriorBabe Show community. You guys all rock. I love you all so much. So let's celebrate this achievement together. Again, that testimonial link is in the show notes below. Thank you all so much.

02:06Ayo! What is going on, you guys? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikki Stott, co-founder of Warrior Babe. And 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, Nikki 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. And I cannot believe we're almost to 170 and almost to 200 episodes.

02:42That's just wild. But anyway, here we are, episode 168. And today, I want to give you guys a little bit of a life update, specifically in the terms of my caffeine-free journey. First of all, let me just talk about that podcast that I released a couple weeks ago when I was in like the first week of fully cutting out the caffeine. And that episode popped off. That episode got so much feedback, so many downloads, and so many views.

03:16And I was mind-blown because I was like, holy cow, in that episode, I feel like I was like dying on being so dramatic. But literally, that's how it felt because it was so freaking hard to get through that podcast. And I felt like I didn't have one single train of thought in that podcast. But anyway, I wanted to circle back and give you guys a little bit of an update to let you know how the journey has gone. And to share, because I kind of like gave it away in the last episode, that I have reintroduced caffeine back two days ago.

03:48So let's just go back. You know, you guys listened to the episode where I gave you a little rundown that I had decided cold turkey. That just is a little bit about me. That's how I do things. And I think it's honestly the best freaking way to do things. But I understand not everybody is wired that way. But, you know, I shared in that last episode that that's basically how I started my fitness journey. Like when I like full-blown knew I had the support of a professional that was helping me along the way. When I, back in like 2015 is when I fully went in like a fully committed.

04:24The years prior to that was dabbling in it, not fully committed. And I talked about it all inside that episode. But in 2015, you know, I found the coach. I did all the things. Like many of what you guys do is like either you're in Warrior Babe, you signed up for it. Or you're doing other things. And like you're, you're, you're either, you're halfway. What I find a lot of people are like they're halfway out and they're halfway in. I fully just recommend you guys like once you commit to something, which a lot of you commit by investing into a program. You've invested into Warrior Babe. Like go full send. Like full send into it.

04:55But the heart, like the biggest thing you say is trust yourself and trust the process, which is actually really hard for a lot of people to do out of the get. Which I understand. But anyway, in an episode I talked about how I was, we, I decided to go full in. I fully committed. I just was like, all right, full send tomorrow. I'm cutting it out. Right? Because I was feeling all of these things. I was, the reason why I went into it is I was consuming way too much caffeine to begin with. If you guys didn't listen to that episode. Um, I was consuming, if you didn't hear it, wait till you hear this.

05:25You guys know Chameleon Cold Brew. It's a concentrate coffee. And I would consume about 16 to 20 ounces in the morning of the concentrate without diluting it with water. That's about like 500 milligrams of caffeine out of the gate. And then later in the day, I would have a Diet Coke. And then later in the day, I would have an energy drink. I was upwards of looking at like 800 to 1000 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. And because I have the understanding and the knowledge of what I do have, I knew internally some things.

06:00I was like crashing and burning adrenals. I was crashing and burning my, my effectiveness in sleeping. My, I'll get into like all the data and stats because that's what I want to talk about from what happened when I was on it. And consuming that much to what happened when I wasn't. Anyway, so I did the, I decided to go in. I started, so I was consuming that much, right? And then go, I knew I couldn't just like fully give it up.

06:31So I weaned off and I cut back about half in the first week. Um, and then in the second week I cut back a half from that half. And then I full sent into no caffeine, um, about mid June or mid May. So I started end of April. It was the 29th. I spent two weeks weaning off and then, uh, mid, mid May is when I fully cut it out.

07:04And then that's when I recorded that last episode. And I was like struggling to get through it because in the first week of no caffeine, like I felt a little bit of the symptoms of being fatigued, being fat, being tired, you know, brain fog a little bit. Um, the headaches, the crashing in the middle of the day, even with the, uh, lesser caffeine. But come that week when I recorded that podcast, that was the hardest week that I had experienced where I couldn't think through my thoughts.

07:35I was wanting to take a nap in the middle of the day. Like this was worse than how I felt worse than when I was on that much caffeine that I was on. And so that what it, it, it, it trickled into like the following week after that. But then by like week, like two and a half to week three of being fully off, I started to feel so good. And I started to have feel like what it feels like to have natural energy, which I already have tons and tons and tons and tons of energy to begin with.

08:06So to feel that once again, without the enhancements of caffeine was amazing. I was able to, and I'll talk about how I also strategically paced this around when I was about to get my period to when, um, uh, to when I was going through ovulation, all that. I kind of like played that into play. Uh, but I was, I felt so freaking good. Um, I was cranking through work. I was sleeping like a baby. I'm going to get to the data in a little bit. I was think my, my, my thoughts were clear as day.

08:37Like I was able to formulate con, like I was able to think through things and like also be more attentive in meetings and conversations and not get too far ahead of myself, which what I was doing, I was telling everybody along this journey. That was really close to me that I felt like the caffeine before was giving me tons and tons of anxiety. And I don't typically like, I'm, I'm a very, like, like, like I'm not an anxious person to begin with, but like, I felt like this, like, and of course anything at that point, that's like that much caffeine is going to, I didn't give anybody any type of anxiety.

09:12If I'm having a thousand milligrams a day of it. Um, but I, I wasn't feeling that way after the, come the third week and the third week is when I, it felt really, really, really good, um, to dive into the data a little bit. So obviously I have the aura ring. I've had the aura ring before it was even freaking cool. This is like the most consistent, um, fitness tracker that I've used for years and years and years. It is so freaking accurate. I love it so much. I highly recommend it. I am, um, blown away the data that it can give you in terms of sleep.

09:44Like this is the one thing I use in terms of sleep. I don't care what steps say. Steps aren't really that accurate. Um, I don't really log starting training. You can do all those things. Um, but I don't really pay attention to that. It does also the period, uh, for, for us women, it, it lets you know when you may be about to be getting your period based off of body temperature, uh, and heart rate elevation, things like that. But anyway, back to around the caffeine. So prior to me deciding to go off of it, normally through a normal months like period, I am really, really good at sleeping three out of four weeks of the month.

10:20The, the week that I'm about to get my period, it's, this thing picks up my elevation in body temperature. And so my readiness score, I go base things off of readiness and sleep score. My readiness score goes down. Um, and I, my readiness score goes down and. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause?

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11:22Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warrior babe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warrior babe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. When I'm about to get my period. So my sleep isn't as effective. My, my REM sleep is a little bit lower. My deep sleep is a little bit lower around that time. Anyway, also to like why I wanted to actually just pin this in.

11:55Why I wanted to plan this around like my period was I wanted to go off when I was about to get my period. And I want it to come back on around when I was about to get my period. So I spent about five weeks in total being off of caffeine, not including the two weeks I did the taper. So in all in all, the whole journey was about seven weeks. But prior to it, again, I can normally sleep pretty well throughout the night, three weeks out of the four weeks of the month. Hey, hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show.

12:28It means a lot. I hope you guys are enjoying it and there's so much more to come with it. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons. And also it would help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show. When I was consuming that much caffeine, my readiness score was very low. There's this new data. I'm going to bring up the app right now. There's this new data on the Oura Ring where it has this type of resilience meter.

12:58And that basis, it's contributed over your nighttime recovery, your daytime recovery, and your daytime stress load, which is based off of your HRV. So a few of these things were really in like the red. Like I'm even going back to April 23rd, but I started around April 29. So there's like a huge like jump up, right? If you guys are watching on video, you can see it. But I started to climb from solid to strong.

13:30And then I did reach exponential along the giving up of the caffeine. And that's my nighttime recovery again, my daytime recovery, and my daytime stress load. Anyway, prior to the whole deciding to switch, my readiness score was totally dropping. It was in like the 70s where I'm normally in like the high 80s, 90s. If you guys know I'm talking about the Oura Ring again is what I'm basing all this data off of. And then my sleep scores were pretty solid, but I always pay attention. I like to pay attention to their readiness.

14:01But my sleep in terms of REM and deep and what else is on there? My REM, my deep and my efficiency were not the best prior to when I was having a thousand milligrams of caffeine or upwards of that much. And that's where not only where I was like, okay, I'm burning out some things internally, but my sleep is being affected. And I know how sleep is so freaking important for one's progress in a journey when it comes to fitness and when it comes to results.

14:32So that's like, these are some other like me knowing that I was consuming a lot, but also recognizing this data inside the Oura Ring. I was like, something needs to change. So when I came, when I started to taper down is where you can see like this, this bar graph from the, in the resilience factor is going up. Oh, and not to mention prior to my HRV, which is your body's ability to handle, handle stress. Like this thing tracks in the day, how stressed you are, how relaxed you are, how engaged you are, and how restored you are.

15:05And for consistent on end, I was stressed. Like I feel like I totally was self-inducing anxiety. Like I'm not kidding you. And the data kind of showed it. So once I decided to cut back, right, the trend goes from solid to strong, which is improving. And then I sat there for a little bit. And then eventually I came on up to, from strong to exceptional. And that was, that was last, or that was the beginning of June. So this is like a little bit deeper into my, to the caffeine free.

15:35And I was like, man, this is pretty freaking crazy, right? So, and again, some factors do play a role with like menstruating because around my period, like I can, I noticed the dip in the data in my HRV, in my, um, my sleep and my, my, um, readiness score. But those three things were being impacted when I was on caffeine, no matter what week of the month. So when I was off the caffeine, all of these numbers were improving. My REM sleep was through the roof.

16:06I was having way more dreams than I normally have. Um, my HRV went back up to, I was like hovering around like the hundreds where I am normally 130 and then on average, 130, 140. And my spikes can go up to like 200. I hadn't seen that in a couple of months. Um, and then, yeah, my readiness was increasing and it was going up to like the high eighties and the high nineties. And I hadn't seen like, regardless of period or not, or menstruating or not, or whatever part of the cycle I was in, I hadn't seen those numbers even like on that same week, the month

16:41before and the month before 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'm seeing the positive rewards, not only mentally from how I'm feeling, the natural energy, the reduced, like, like the clear, the clarity of thought, the, the ability to have, um, and articulate conversations and the ability to be engaged and, you know, actively, uh, you know, present in situations and conversations. But I was also seeing and reaping the rewards on the data.

17:14And I was thrilled. I felt, I felt amazing. I felt so freaking good. Um, and I still do, but what wanted me to introduce it, it, it came, I was like, honestly, I was pretty mad at myself why I hadn't set a date because I'm big on like, okay, end date comes here and I, I know I can, you know, start to go back to what I wanted to do. Um, but I hadn't done that. And so I was like, at that point, me not setting a date, I'm someone that will just keep going and keep going. But I internally felt that I truly love coffee.

17:49What I missed the most was the experience of having coffee. I enjoy waking up in the morning, having obviously water first, and then having my, 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. And like, I even share with you guys on social media on Sunday, um, which this recording will be out next week.

18:19So I will be full, a full week back into having caffeine. I just started back up two days ago of having, of reintroducing it back in. So basically, um, I started back up on Monday and the, the deciding factor was I sent out a story and I was like, guys, should I go back? But more on, so what was happening mentally for myself was one, I didn't set a date and I should have set a date when I was going to go back. Like I've learned that for next time.

18:50Uh, also it, I just, I was feeling like intuitively I wanted it back. It's not that I needed it back. I just wanted it back. And I didn't want to like restrict or torment or go down a rabbit hole of which like I didn't need to fully, I don't need to give up coffee forever and nor do I want to. And that was never my intention. It was just to give myself a break. So I put in my story and you guys helped me out. Thank you so much. I put it on Instagram and I was like, gosh, should I go back? And you realize, you know, two options were, yes, you've done this long enough.

19:22The other one was like, no, keep going. And like 80% of you guys are like, yeah, you've done it enough. So thank you. Cause you guys were helping in my decision process. So, and at the point, like I had, I felt great. I feel like I did the experience. I did the journey. I've never done this before. I saw data improvement. I saw me physically and mentally improve. Um, so I, I had, I had my experiment that I wanted. I basically was like my own little experiment, uh, guinea pig here. So I had what I wanted and I was happy and I was proud of myself for the journey.

19:53And I just wanted to go back because I miss it. And there was never any intention to give it up entirely. Coming back on it on Monday, man. I can't tell you guys, like I'm not, I joked around with them. Our coaching team today, our lead coaches, I was like, maybe I'll just get a full send back to a thousand milligrams a day. And I was like, 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 Monday. I, uh, walked across the street to whole foods and I was, um, I got like a, a can of, or a can of, um, cold brew and it was only 140 milligrams of coffee.

20:25And that was all I had, or no, 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. So I'm trying to ballpark it around that on a daily basis. Um, I did go back. I, I, I told myself I was like having this battle. I was like, I'm not going to go to chameleon cold brew again. Um, the concentrate, because I feel like that just gave me tons and tons and tons of anxiety. I, it wasn't the chameleon cold brew that gave me the tons of anxiety. It was the amount that was giving me tons of anxiety.

20:56So yesterday and today, um, I had maybe like less than 200 milligrams again of the caffeine. I want to truly try and keep it around that because I feel the best now. So time will tell, I'm going to, you know, continue to consume the caffeine, have the coffee and see how my numbers, if they go down, if they improve, they stay the same, uh, time will tell. So I guess I'm going to do now a follow-up podcast to that with being back on caffeine

21:29after some of their period of time. But I am getting my period any freaking day now. Um, so there is a little bit of like, like data that could play into that too, as well. So I'm going to have to maybe report back in like six weeks on the journey coming back onto the coffee. But anyway, all in all, like I shared with you guys in that last video, the pros, the cons of giving it up. Um, I definitely experienced, like, I felt like it was a really cool experiment to do to self.

21:59And like, you, I'm not saying you guys have to do it, but if you feel like some things are off and you feel like you're consuming the caffeine, but at the end of the day you're tired, maybe it's a good little test to do to see if, uh, you can restore some things naturally. And yeah, I mean, that's why I just wanted to really just kind of shorten sweet podcast. But I just wanted to give you guys an update on that journey. And I thought that, you know, since it was just a highly listened to podcast that you guys would enjoy.

22:30Again, hearing why I did it, the process of giving it up, how I felt, the data that I saw, the evidence that was noticed, and then the deciding factor to come back on. And then I'll have to follow up in a couple of weeks to let you guys know how I'm feeling being back on. But I'll tell you, man, I missed it. I missed it. I showed up to the coaches meeting today. I was like, I'm back. Um, and then if you're not watching on video, I was just waving my coffee in front of, because there's literally still like a sip left of it. That's why I'm like nursing the heck out of it. Um, but it felt, I love coffee.

23:00I just love the taste of it. I enjoy it. It's a good experience. And I like, 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 podcast with you guys. I hope you enjoyed the little update. And, uh, be sure to continue on listening to all the podcasts that are to come. There's going to be so many good ones in the near future. And I can't wait for you guys 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.

23:31Really quick. If you're a woman aged 45 through 65 and finding menopause challenging, listen closely. Warrior Babe is here to help you reclaim your body and your confidence. At Warrior Babe, 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.

24:06Don't let menopause hold you back any longer. Head over to WarriorBabe.com forward slash apply and join our amazing community today. That's WarriorBabe.com forward slash 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.

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