What do you take with Coffee in the morning in front of a busy day?
For me: Coffee, with L-theanine (calm), Choline or Eggs (support) and 1mg Nicotine Gum (synergistic).
It last me 4 hours without a break with top performance.
What is your coffee routine? Please share with us!
Just straight up black drip coffee. I like Starbucks Sumatra offering and usually buy whole bean and grind it right before. Sometimes I drink a Ghost energy drink at the same time. Not saying that’s good, just being honest.
Fresh ground coffee, pour-over, a dash of almond milk, add cacao powder, inulin powder, and collagen peptides, and creatine. One large tablespoon of each powder (about 5 to 10 grams).
No coffee unless I am lifting that AM. If I drink coffee, I drink it black (nothing added).
I think it is important to not need caffeine. In that case, using a little bit for performance enhancement and health is good. But if you need caffeine to make up for poor sleep or other issues then you have already lost….and caffeine is a crutch that keeps you from fixing yourself.
I one time abstained from caffeine entirely for a month and then took about 450 mg right before a squat workout (what can I say? I was quite a bit younger when I did this). It definitely works to increase strength and performance, but not by enough that I consider abstaining from caffeine worth the sacrifice. I hear you with the “don’t let it be a crutch” argument, but unless your intake is absurd, I personally don’t believe you’re leaving much on the table by maintaining a regular caffeine habit.
Could be. The question is do you need the caffeine to function normally…if so then you are permanently using a crutch. If you only use it to feel better than normal, then “not leaving much on the table”…I agree. If you just like the taste, use decaf to see whether the caffeine is a crutch or an enhancer.
The problem with “enhancer” is that people develop a tolerance and need to keep upping the dose. So even in the case of “don’t need it but want it for enhancement”…don’t use it everyday.
Or just do what you want. But this is low hanging fruit. We take experimental drugs with mysterious side effects to get hard to measure benefits…but we won’t give up a morning buzz? Hmmm.
I am fighting my own addiction. If I have 1 cup I am fine. But when 1 cup feels so good, I have a hard time resisting cup #2. It’s actually easier to just not have any except for special occasions.
I don’t know, I think it’s mostly psychological for me. I do love the taste of coffee (hence why I drink it black) and always look forward to it in the morning. It really is the best part of the day for me. There have been some occasions when I don’t get to drink it for a couple hours after waking and I can’t say that I’ve felt “dull” or “off,” so I don’t really think I’m using it as a crutch. Maybe a little. Don’t know. I do think there’s not much to be gained in my case from reducing consumption, as I don’t really see that it’s negatively affecting me in any way. Maybe a third party would disagree. As hard as life is these days I’m fine with a little crutch. At least it’s not alcohol or drugs.
I guess to put it a different way, in the context of my own personal experience with both quite high doses and no caffeine at all (and different points in between), your post (and forgive me for this, I don’t mean to criticize, just giving my honest reaction) seems like moralizing to me.
We “won’t give up our morning buzz?” Why should we? My experience is that the morning buzz is probably not detrimental for most people in most situations, and so it just seems like pointless nagging. That probably came across too harsh, I don’t mean to be a jerk. I’ve just done the whole low/no caffeine thing and don’t feel like it added anything of note to my life but I was constantly missing my morning coffee. All negatives with no positives to me. But everyone’s experience will vary and I speak only for myself.
As I said, to take away the crutch so you can solve the real issue which is getting enough sleep and recovery. If you don’t need to solve that problem then don’t. I need to solve it.