Tip #1: Caffeine

What’s the Deal with Caffeine?

Caffeine is found in soft drinks, energy drinks, black tea, green tea and coffee. It’s also added to some prescription and over-the-counter medications. As you’ve probably heard, caffeine is a nervous system stimulant.

Caffeine is toxin that is removed by the liver. The “half-life” or the amount of time it takes your body to get rid of half of the dose of caffeine is approximately 4-5 hours. Various factors affect the amount of time it takes your body to get rid of it. Factors that can slow it down can include:

• liver toxicity
• oral contraceptives (doubles the half life)
• pregnancy (up to 15 hours half life)
• prescription drugs (up to 10x the half life or up to 56 hours)

The average person that has a single serving of caffeine lasts 24 hours.

Why Eliminate Caffeine?

For this challenge we are restricting caffeine to give your liver a chance to detoxify. You’ll also experience better rest as the caffeine – yes, even one cup a day – is still in your system when you go to sleep. Your body needs to fall into a deep sleep or Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep for physical repair. Caffeine can inhibit your ability to fall into this deep sleep, so you wake up in the morning not feeling rested and need a pick me up. So you turn to caffeine.

What to Do

If you avoid caffeine and alcohol, and then get proper sleep (in bed by 10:30pm), you should wake up feeling refreshed and not needing caffeine in order to get you through your work day.

For a caffeine-free substitute, try African red bush tea (rooibos) which has a high level of antioxidants, or an herbal tea. There are so many flavours available for herbal tea now, from traditional mint and chamomile to various fruits and spice blends –  you’re bound to find something that works for you.

Check this page out for more information on caffeine.

Cheers,
Craig, Pepe & the Precision team