Caffeine addiction ??

xenergy is an energy drink full of vitamins and zero calories... otherwise look for other things that either are or arn't diet that don't contain many calories but have enough caffeine in them to help you. Water joe is a water with caffeine too that might help. Sorry about your pounding headache

i get iced unsweetened green tea from starbucks.. since i'm going to starbucks i feel like i'm getting a treat and there are no calories, there is caffeine, and i guess green tea boosts your metabolism a little bit... so nothing bad about it. i think it's really refreshing

Sounds like you're used to quite a bit of caffeine every day. I'd suggest stepping down the caffeine intake until your withdrawal symptoms get better. Maybe start with a small cup of coffee the first day or two, then a half decaf/half regular, then nothing. If you're wanting to do it cold turkey, I'm not sure what else you can do besides take Advil and drink a lot of water and wait it out...that's what I did.

Excedrin (caffeine is one of the active ingredients), and lots of water, b/c your headache could also be due to dehydration.

Hi, hope this helps, I too, cant do with out coffee- headaches come on quickly, I went to instant coffee, Folgers and put peppermint mocha creamer by coffee mate-Instant coffee has no- calories and you can have 4 tsp of the creamer=60 calories and I use organic suger=15 per tsp. Peppermint is suppose to help with headaches , so far working for me. Good Luck

Every so often I decaffinate... it's toughest for the first week or two. Maybe instead of cutting out the caffeine all at once, gradually wean yourself off. Start with a one shot instead of double for a few days, then regular coffee (no shots), then decaf. Besure to drink lots of water and other healthy liquids. Good luck. You can make if you stick with it.

I'm pretty bad about the caff myself - one cup of coffee in the AM, one in the PM, a diet coke in the middle. i doctor the coffee with 1 tbsp half and half (yes, full-fat) and a packet of splenda. Can't manage without it.

Kudos to you for dropping the habit! Let us know how it goes!

The first time I quit (I quit once for 14 months until my new job had free pop, and again a little over 2 months ago), I read that caffeine withdrawal is on scale with heroine. There were several internet stories of death that I couldn't really track down to get names and dates.

Still, that was enough for me to wean myself off with 1 diet coke a day from my however many I wanted before quitting. Caffeine is a drug, quitting a drug cold turkey hurts. It may work for you or it may not.

One suggestion, quitting the second time hurt more than the first. If you actually do remove it try to avoid getting hooked again. That doesn't mean avoid chocolate or tea, just keep it in moderation and preferably not daily.

Lipton diet green tea citrus.... sooo yummy and 0 cals! Also, just plain ol' iced tea with equal, you can make it stronger if you need the extra boost and you can always order that when you eat out.

I drink tea now. Many varieties available. You can also get flavored teas. Learn all you need to know at teavana.com I love that place. There is a store in the mall of america. Can't wait to go there again in a couple weeks.

I cut caffeine out of my life about a month and a half ago and it's one of the best things I've ever done for myself.

I used to drink a diet soda (24oz) first thing in the morning (sometimes I'd switch it up and get a Starbucks latte), coffee around 10am, more diet soda with lunch, then sometimes more coffee in the afternoon. I was one of those people who NEED my soda first thing in the morning. And it's true, I couldn't function without it because it was a drug I was addicted to.

Quitting was hard. I didn't go cold turkey and I still got headaches for the first couple of days. I cut back to one 24oz soda a day and stayed at that level for a week or so. Then I cut back to 12oz. Then nothing. Do I miss it? Absolutely. I love soda - I'll drink diet caffeine free occasionally now and will occasionally get a decaf latte from Starbucks (because I really do like the taste of coffee). If my husband is making coffee for himself, I'll have a sip or two of it. Today at lunch I got caffeine free diet coke and added about 1/4 of Coke Zero to the cup. So I still have a little here and there, but it's not an addiction any more. I know I can live without it now. I have much more energy during the day and I sleep better at night.

For the people who are recommending Excedrin - be cautious of the amount of caffeine in it. It works on caffeine withdrawl headaches because it's simply feeding your addiction. 1 pill of Excedrin actually has more caffeine than a soda and as much as a cup of percolated coffee. Check out caffeine content of various beverages and medications here: http://pol.spurious.biz/dev_zero/caffeine.html

@dreamwellall - do you have a recommendation other than Excedrin to deal with caffeine withdrawal headaches? I LOVE Starbucks, black coffee with coffee syrup and Diet Coke, but I'm trying to limit the amount that I drink everyday. I suffer from caffeine headaches, and they can get pretty nasty, any suggestions you have would be great!

The best thing you can do for yourself is pick a day where you can have the headache and not taking anything. Not ideal, of course, but once you've dealt with the headaches, you'll be past the withdrawl.

Otherwise, my suggestion would be to do what you're doing - reduce very gradually the amount of caffeine you're consuming. By that I mean go from 24oz of soda a week to 20oz the next week to 12 the next and see if you can quit from there without the headaches. Same with coffee, although there is more caffeine in coffee, so you might need to make your cutbacks a smaller amount each week.

You're going to get headaches. Caffeine is a drug that you are withdrawing from. If you go slowly, the headaches won't be as bad and might be able to be controlled by tylenol or advil rather than excedrin.

Good luck! Trust me, if I can do it, anyone can!