Healthy Pregnancy: This Decision Will Fix Your Struggle With Coffee
Nobody does moderation well.
Because everything becomes an exception when you don’t go all-in.
“Come on, I can’t eat that cake without drinking coffee.”
“Oh, it is our special day, I would disappoint my partner if I said no to it.”
“ I have not had coffee for 10 days! I’ve got to treat myself sometime.”
When we do let’s say even 99 percent instead of 100 in quitting anything, we will find ourselves spending time after time wrestle with our brain whether we should do it or not this particular time.
Do you have the energy to add one more irritating thing during your pregnancy?
The fix to this misery is to intentionally remove the decision process of “should we have coffee or not” completely out of the question.
This is over. We are done with coffee. There are crazy amounts of cafes and coffee beverages in the world but we don’t have to think about it anymore. The decision is already made, and it saved ourselves from other decisions altogether.
No one actually knows how much caffeine is safe for your infant.
We all know that caffeine can be dangerous during pregnancy because your baby’s developing metabolism does not have the capability to metabolize.
But how much is safe?
There is a discrepancy between researches and the amount of caffeine that a pregnant woman is able to intake. While there are writers who support two-to-four cups a day as the safe limit, there is research showing that even decaf coffee could harm your baby.
Furthermore, caffeine can be found in places you would not usually think of. It can be found in food and candy such as chewing gums, chocolate. A lot of drinks and beverages such as teas, energy drinks, and soda contain more caffeine than you can imagine. Even some over the counter medications that treat colds, menstrual cramps, the flu, and weight loss may contain caffeine.
We don’t want our brain to be high alert all the time
We don’t want to constantly feel guilty that we might have taken one more cup too much today
Yes, the best course of action for you during pregnancy is to ditch your caffeine intake altogether.
In fact, getting off caffeine altogether gives you the energy that is also more sustainable, as you avoid the big rush/big crash cycle.
Just like sugar, your body will more likely to crave it again after getting a quick rush of energy into the blood. The rush and crash cycle comes in every single time when you decide this time is an exception.
Try those 4 ways to reduce your coffee reliance:
1. Eat 6 small meals per day instead of 3 big meals.
More small meals throughout the day help us to avoid the low blood sugar crash. Make sure you are getting a decent amount of protein in all your meals.
2. Add magnesium to your diet to increase your energy levels.
If our magnesium levels are low, the heart has to work harder which leads to fatigue. Try include magnesium supplements and add almonds, hazelnuts or cashews and fish to your daily diet.
3. Try other aromatic hot beverages
Many hot beverages give us the warm fuzzy feeling coffee gives us, try a turmeric latte, hot mulled apple cider, and mint and lemon tea.
4. Get to the root cause of your cravings by journaling.
Our hormone changes during pregnancy make us more often to feel hungry emotionally. Instead of using stimulants to suppress them, be aware of those negative emotions we are experiencing, address them, and find other activities that make us feel great.
Will you rather make this one decision to end the struggle with coffee?
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We wrote an article dedicated to fixing that emotional hunger, you might find this helpful if you constantly experience cravings.
