Wake Up, roll over, push the coffee button on, back to bed, wake up ten minutes later to the beautiful smell of coffee hitting my nose. I could feel my senses turning on, my body waking up, just at the smell of the sweet beverage.

With my eyes still only half open I poured myself a cup (very large one) and sat back. I would take time to think about what was to come during the day and do my devotionals. But first – coffee.

What seems to have become a cliche phrase, was something so intricately a part of my life.

This was my morning routine for years, and for so long I saw nothing wrong with it. I thought it was normal to flood my body with 200+ milligrams of caffeine. It was my morning elixir. And mid-morning elixir. And Afternoon elixir. And post dinner elixir. Okay, I was addicted.

Some days I would have upwards of eight cups of coffee. I became immune to the caffeine effects and always ran on a steady caffeine high.

bible ft coffee

Ironically, I’ve always had issues with various stomach conditions. Three years ago, I developed intense stomach problems. I experienced the first of many stomach ulcers, had digestive problems to the max, and sometimes would go days throwing up anything I came in contact with.

I started to eliminate a lot of things from my diet and found some trigger foods that were harming my digestive track. This included all coffee, except for one cup I would allow myself in the morning. I started to feel a little bit better, but then started having intense stomach pains every morning.

It was one of the saddest things I ever did, but I finally eliminated that final cup of coffee from my diet – and surprise, surprise, I started to feel a bit better.

A full year later, I am still working to heal my stomach. I am still super sensitive to certain foods like gluten but, eliminating coffee has helped speed up the healing process a ton. I am even off of Prilosec – an intense stomach medication that fights acidity.

what once was coffee..

I quickly turned from a ‘but first, coffee,’ girl to a ‘but first, tea,’ girl.

When I went through my coffee detox, I quickly realized the adverse effects that caffeine can have on a female’s body. When I started feeling better, I thought, there must be a reason for this, and I launched into research mode.

If you pay attention to the medical world as I do, then you have probably seen countless studies done on coffee and either the benefits or disadvantages that come with the comforting drink.

I’m not a scientist, but I quickly realized that high amounts of caffeine, or coffee specifically, can do detrimental damage it can do to a female’s hormonal system.

As I always emphasize with everything, everyone’s bodies are different. That’s why personalized holistic medicine is so important. If coffee doesn’t affect you poorly, then there’s nothing to change! But if you do find yourself having stomach pain, or hormonal imbalance, nixing coffee could be a good experiment.

lakeside snacks

6 Adverse Effects That Can Transpire Because Of Coffee:

  • Acid reflux/damages gut lining
  • Increases blood sugar levels
  • Can cause inflammation
  • Cause sugar and carb cravings
  • Stresses your adrenal glands, which can then trigger jawline acne in females
  • Interrupts T4 to T3 conversion, which can cause thyroid problems

I gave up coffee I realized I was seeing every single one of those negative effects in my life. I spent years trying to heal my adrenal glands after a severe bought with adrenal fatigue, but was struggling to do so. Turns out the high amounts of caffeine were interrupting my hormones, which was affecting my adrenal glands.

10 Positive Effects I Have Seen Since Nixing Coffee: 

  • Clearer skin
  • No addiction/reliance on anything (woo!)
  • My blood pressure has decreased
  • Less anxious
  • Easier to sleep at night
  • Fewer mood swings (yes caffeine puts you on a high, thus comes a low)
  • My teeth have gotten brighter (saw my dentist today and he said so)
  • Helping the environment (less to go cups of coffee = less trash)
  • No more jitters!!!!!
  • Wasted less time waiting in line

Even if you are experiencing just one of the effects I mentioned, you might want to think about switching from coffee to a different alternative. I mainly stick to tea, matcha being my caffeinated lifesaver, but there are many different options for you to explore.

evening matcha for the win

As with everything in life, drinking coffee for me is a balancing act. Ever since I completed my year without coffee (except in desperate moments) I have started to drink small amounts again. Every once in a while I’ll grab a cup when meeting up with a friend, or if I’m on the run and there is no matcha to be found – I’ll get an iced coffee.

Life for me is all about balance. I don’t restrict myself from never drinking coffee, or never eating sugar, but merely staying away from things that irritate my body – keywords here – most of the time.

Sometimes I decide that I want a big hot cup of coffee. Sometimes I decide to have some chocolate cake! It happens, and that’s okay. Where you run into trouble is when you consistently eat foods that irritate or bother your body.

coffee and abby

Just like everything else in life, getting to a point where you know your body takes time. Just remember that if you are trying to figure out your own allergies or deficiencies.

xx Lindsay

P.S. Love coffee? Check out my newest review of my favorite cafe: Bluestone Lane. Here is my: “Bluestone Lane Review.”