Addicted to coffee

I hear ya! I'm a heavy coffee drinker and my coffee, with milk and sugar, comes to 69 calories each. I have cut back some. I traded one of my morning coffees for a green tea which clocks in at only 34 cals.
My only saving grace is I will not drink coffee once it hits a certain temperature and I hate reheating it due to the added milk, so I rarely drink a full cup at a time.
I'm currently drinking 7 or so a day. Down from 12-15. When I really want one now, I drink a little water first, at least half a cup, then decide if I still want one.

Coffee!!! It's been years since I shifted to enjoying it black, so I don't remember why or how I did it. I still enjoy lattes when I go out. Have you tried coconut, almond or lower fat milks? I've even enjoyed frothing it with a teaspoon of coconut oil from time to time.

If I didn't suck down a cup first thing every morning, I would drown in the shower or cut my throat shaving! I set it up the night before, to brew just before the alarm, so it's ready; in fact the smell usually wakes me about 2 to 3 minutes before the alarm. So...yeah, I'm addicted. Having said that, I limit my intake to one 12 oz. mug on the couch with GF in the morning. I usually take a second mug on the commute, to sip while I drive, but rarely drink more than half of it.

I confess that I am a coffee snob. First, I don't buy any coffee out except in an occasional 'emergency', I will drink Starbucks' bold offering; I always ask for a medium or large because I won't use their idiotic terminology. I prefer a darker roast, and I am addicted to Whole Foods' "Pleasant Morning Buzz", what they call a Viennese roast (whatever...). I brew it in a Melitta auto-drip machine and it smacks me awake, and kicks me out of the chair when I stand up. One nice thing is that it's full-bodied but smooth, so I can drink it with half & half, which is my usual M.O., but I can also take it black when I run out of half & half. (BTW, half & half is my ONE regular Paleo cheat.)

My advice to you is to stop with the pods, already, and find a bean and roast that you truly enjoy...smell is a good first indication. Brew it yourself and use real cream or half & half, and real sugar. Measure what you use when you fix it to your taste, so you have a baseline. Try cutting back the sweetness gradually, a half- or quarter-teaspoon at a time. Another thing that might help is to add vanilla bean or cinnamon to the brew basket (a tiny bit goes a long way; go easy!). These lend a natural sweetness that will help you cut back the sugar.

As far as the actual caffeine addiction goes, I have in the past successfully eliminated caffeine from my diet altogether by mixing in decaf in gradually increasing amounts until I was drinking only decaf, then began reducing the amount I drank. This avoids the intense headaches associated with a cold turkey withdrawal (which I have also done and do NOT recommend!).

Hope any of this helps. Good luck to you!

60 is the new 40!

i went cold turkey on coffee when I started mfp (which i drank 3 24 oz coffees with french vanilla creamer and 2 packs of sugar a day) but now i switched to green tea and lots of water. Yes i did have a wicked caffeine headache the first few days by not having coffee in my system but i do find myself with more energy then before. I do not find myself crashing when the coffee and sugar wears off so I am glad I did. no longer a coffee addict.