A brief reflection on my coffee habit, and how coffee responds to hydration and magnesium levels.

“Morning” equals “coffee” for most people on Planet Earth. For good reason. It wakes you up, cranks up the get-shit-done muscle, and makes Monday – Friday WAY more bearable.

All though extremely beneficial for my productivity, I’ve struggled for a while with daily coffee consumption, and seem to reach a breaking point every couple of weeks.

That breaking point is characterized by a cracked-out, highly-reactive, stiff, and moody approach to life. I can usually transform coffee back into a productive habit by eliminating the coffee for a couple of days, and then jumping back into a cup-a-day for a couple of weeks. Then the cycle repeats.

There are two things that come to mind when thinking about my coffee experiences:

1. Am I dehydrating myself? And the break from caffeine helps me replenish?
2. Am I depleting my magnesium? And the break from caffeine helps me replenish?

I’m not sure, but I’ve introduced a few habits that will let me test this out… and hopefully help combat this coffee cycle as I’d prefer to handle one cup per day, every day, rather than deal with 2 days off per 14 days.

1. I drink 2-3 10oz glasses of ice cold water with lemon in the morning.
2. I drink 2-3 10oz glasses of ice cold water before bed.
3. I do jumping jacks, pushups and a bit of yoga each morning after hydrating.
4. I take 2-3 epsom salt soaks per week, either full-body or just my feet.

• I’ve heard people recommend lukewarm water in the morning, but my body seems to love the cold water. This might be a cycle I’ll work myself in and out of season-to-season or week-to-week.
• The movement helps with the hydration and pumps fresh blood to all parts of the body.
• The epsom salt baths help restore magnesium.
• I piss ~ 3 extra times per day when drinking coffee, so the extra glasses of water seem to be necessary based on some simple fluid replacement math.

I’ve been testing this approach out for a few days and it seems to be working well. My reaction to coffee is more predictable and I can rely on the coffee to support a productive work morning.

Experimenting with coffee or caffeine? I’d love to hear about it.