00:00Hey guys, I'm Lucy Fink.
00:01This is five days of no coffee.
00:07I love coffee.
00:09I myself started drinking it at about age 15.
00:12I drink about two to four cups of coffee every day, but I don't think that I drink it only
00:16for energy.
00:17I genuinely enjoy coffee.
00:19Coffee is such a huge part of social culture around the world.
00:24I mean, think about it.
00:25When you go to meet up with a friend that you haven't seen in a while, where do you go?
00:29To get a cup of coffee.
00:30There are so many proven benefits of coffee, but there are also some drawbacks.
00:36It can be dehydrating, it can disrupt sleep patterns, caffeine increases your stress hormone,
00:41and also coffee tends to lead to unplanned trips to the bathroom.
00:47Side note.
00:47So I'm going off of it this week, and we'll see how my body responds.
00:54I have a garbage can here.
00:55I didn't just pour that on the floor.
00:57Gotcha.
00:59I have a really bad headache, and I've had it all friggin' day.
01:04It was almost as if the moment I started thinking this morning, my head started hurting.
01:12Happy Monday.
01:14Good night.
01:14Good night.
01:16Hi.
01:17The sun hurts.
01:1824 hours with no coffee.
01:21I didn't think I needed coffee, but let me tell you, I was wrong.
01:26Yesterday's headache was just the tip of the iceberg, today's is even worse.
01:31Yesterday I felt really disorganized.
01:34I had a couple of morning meetings that I just could not pull myself together in.
01:38Papers were flying around my desk.
01:40People would come over to talk to me, and I continuously forgot what I was about to say.
01:44Blame it on the fact that it was Monday.
01:46Or blame it on the lack of coffee.
01:48Who knows?
01:49But instead of just giving in and assuming I must be addicted to coffee, I decided to
01:54do some research about foods that naturally will energize my body and make me feel more
01:58alert and awake.
01:59So here's what I got.
02:01Some fresh fruit for natural sugar, trail mix, dark chocolate, and in the fridge I have coconut
02:07water and, get this, raw sauerkraut.
02:10Let's do this.
02:11Ouch.
02:14I made a mistake this morning.
02:16The point of this five days was to give up coffee, which naturally led to me giving up
02:21caffeine considering coffee is my biggest source of caffeine.
02:25So I thought I was being so good and I poured myself a cup of tea instead of coffee.
02:29You know, I had another cup and another cup.
02:32Later in the day, my co-producer asked me, what are you drinking?
02:36And I said, tea.
02:38She looked at me and asked, can I see the label for that?
02:41As it turns out, and I'm so ashamed, I was drinking caffeinated black tea.
02:46Since one cup of black tea has half of the caffeine content of a cup of coffee, and I
02:51had three cups of tea.
02:54I have, today, had one and a half cups of coffee's worth of caffeine.
03:00Needless to say, my headaches are gone.
03:03If nothing else, this grand mistake of mine has taught me that the headaches and the irritability
03:08were from a lack of caffeine.
03:10Even still, without the headaches, and even with all the food I've been eating to keep
03:15my energy levels up, I still want coffee.
03:18Today, I ran out in the rain, and I went to a coffee shop, and I just sat there and
03:25inhaled
03:26the fumes.
03:27Do you see how crazy this week is making?
03:32My five days of no coffee challenge has turned into a big buzzing topic around the R29 office.
03:39Everyone's got a coffee story.
03:41This person drinks coffee for two weeks and then goes off of it so that they don't get
03:45addicted.
03:45This other person drank so much coffee that she became allergic to it.
03:49That is a true story.
03:51My focus this week was to really dive deep and understand my personal relationship with
03:55that dark, steaming roast.
03:57As we saw on Monday and Tuesday, I'm kind of addicted to caffeine.
04:01To be honest, even though the caffeine got rid of my headaches, caffeine alone doesn't cut
04:05it.
04:06That feeling for me of holding a cup of coffee and just inhaling and breathing deeply, taking
04:14that first sip, it's a mind, body, and soul experience.
04:19So, I'm not sure that I'm addicted, as one would say, but I might be in love.
04:33Interesting.
04:38Happy Friday, guys.
04:39Wow, what a week!
04:41Am I right?
04:42Let's break down how the week went, shall we?
04:44Cons.
04:45Massive headaches, irritability, and the inability to form sentences.
04:51Pros.
04:52I was able to get to sleep a little bit easier than I am normally, and potentially made fewer
04:57trips to the bathroom.
04:59So where does that leave me?
05:01Clearly, some addictive personality traits that I didn't even know I had came shining through
05:06this week.
05:07So I really learned a lot about myself and my addiction.
05:11Nothing in my life can really replace a cup of coffee.
