I Call it “The Every Other Day Way”

I’ve recently been experimenting with reducing my coffee intake and thought I’d share my process with you. This can be applied to anything that feels like a bad/unhealthy habit, or something that you do excessively that you know it’s not good for you.

It could be things like smoking, drinking alcohol, soda, or caffeine, mindless scrolling on social media, TV watching, or being online too much of the time.

Whatever your ‘thing’ is, if you want to reduce your intake, or even quit, then try the Every Other Day Way.

In my own case it’s about coffee/caffeine, so I use that as an example. It will help you not only with reducing whatever it is that you’re doing too much, but it’s also really interesting to observe yourself in the different ‘states’.

So it’s actually a bit exciting, and interesting, to see how your mood and well-being changes in this process from day to day, and how much more aware you become of your body’s signals, and much more.

The Every Other Day Way is exactly what it says:

You go every other day without your vice or habit that you want to change. And every other day you can have your vice, or do that habitual thing that you want to shift out of or change.

With me for example, with the coffee thing; I started to feel in my peri-menopause years that my body said I need to quit, and the ways I have done it in the past has been either cold turkey, or weaning off of it over time.

Both ways can be challenging, at least for me, we’re all different, but with skipping my coffee every other day, I’ve found it to be much easier to drink less and less, and there’s much less resistance from the mind too.

Because it knows that “I can have my coffee tomorrow”, so it’s ‘okay’ to skip a day, and during that coffee-free day notice how you feel in your body and your mood and overall well-being.

And then the next day you can have and enjoy your coffee, and in this process, I have noticed that I drink less of it overall (I’m satisfied with less).

Back in the day in my menopause years (I’m 53 and post-menopause now) when I was going back and forth with it, the withdrawal symptoms were really hard, and since I have ‘always’ been a coffee-drinker, I had never been aware of what a powerful drug it is until then.

There’s both good and bad things about coffee, so each to their own, but what I also learned is that most people never experiment being off of it – so only people who have actually quit knows what I’m talking about.

Coffee-withdrawal can be really hard. HERE‘s an old article from 2016 that came to mind. How coffee affected me then and how it affects me now is different, because I’m on the other side of the most challenging hormonal changes.

Every person is different, depending on age etc. but it’s always worth just trying and experimenting with what it’s like to not drink coffee, just to see what it is like, once you’re over the worst withdrawals, which for me lasts approximately 6-7 days up to ten days, and then I’m okay, and feel fine.

But to get there, that’s not easy, at least it has never been easy for me, and now that I have done the Every Other Day experiment, I have found it to be much easier than to quit cold turkey or wean myself off of it.

So whatever it may be in your own case; whatever your ‘thing’ is – why not give this a try?

Every Other Day examples:

Decide for a time period, like for example ten days, where every other day, you don’t spend any (or less) time on social media, or you don’t watch TV, or smoke, or even take vitamins and supplements, and see how you feel and what your experience of doing that is.

Just notice the habitual urges, your mood changes (which can be both good, and challenging), and overall well-being. How you sleep, how you feel in the morning when you wake up, the level of energy you have during the day, how much more time you have now that you’re not doing the habitual thing, and so on.

An example with me with the coffee; I dream a lot more at night when I don’t drink it, and I love that, I love dreaming!

Also, something else I discovered in my peri-menopause years was that some vitamins and supplements actually cause anxiety and low mood. I also learned that most people don’t know this, so I wrote a bit about that in THIS article where I shared about those years.

The thing with vitamins and supplements is not just what my experience was, but I read that many people have noticed it too, that they can actually cause anxiety, so if that’s something you struggle with, then why not try the Every Other Day Way with them too!

See what happens, and how you feel, when you take them, versus when you don’t.

I remember I felt an immediate shift in my mood for the better within 1-3 days of not taking them, and it was very clear to me that it was the supplements and vitamins that caused the anxiety and weird mood changes.

Build new routines Every Other Day

While you’re doing this experiment, also focus on building new habits and routines in the process.

Like for example: The days you’re off of coffee, social media, smoking, drinking, taking vitamins or supplements, etc., start doing new things – also every other day.

Instead of watching TV, go for a walk that evening, or spend time in nature/outside. Or start lifting weights (I do that right now myself every other day), and I also go to the public swimming pool for a swim (I’ve been doing that the whole summer, and I love it).

Or eat only healthy foods that day; no sugary things, or processed food, if over-eating or drinking too many sodas or eating candy every day is your ‘thing’.

Same with anything else, like scrolling social media and being online too much.

The days you’re offline, you will have to find other things to do, and those things can be incredibly rewarding and wonderful! Like spending more time outside in nature, or go to a cafe and read a book. Being out in the world, instead of looking at a screen.

I also journal about my discoveries as I’m doing the Every Other Day Way experiment.

How do you feel?

To begin this experiment, decide on a time period and what you will and will not do ‘every other day’.

Ten days is a good start, and then you can evaluate and see how you want to continue moving forwards. HERE‘s another article that you might like if you’re addicted to reading horoscopes that came to mind too.

On the first day (maybe that day could be today?), write down what you plan to do, and exactly how you feel.

What is your current state of being? And then do that every day; write down what shifts you feel and experience, and what you did and didn’t do that day.

Whatever your ‘thing’ is, and the day after when you do that thing again, versus not doing it, how does it make you feel? What’s the difference in the days, and how you felt?

And how do you feel in your body, and in the morning after you have done the new habits and routines? How’s your mind and brain changing, and the way you feel?

Document the whole journey, and see what shifts every day.

In any case, it’s always good to look at your habits and the things you do on a daily basis, because even the slightest little deviation from what we do or have always done opens up our minds for change and deeper self-awareness.

And it’s not about reaching some kind of perfection, but about finding out what works for you, and what doesn’t. It’s about stirring up and disturbing the status quo, and becoming aware of things so you can make more conscious choices for yourself that feels more aligned with how you want to live your life.

And it can be just for fun too, because it’s interesting, and you’re curious to see what happens!

How I broke my addiction to prescription meds

This is a different topic, but it came to mind as I was writing this article.

Obviously, I’m not giving any medical advice, I’m just sharing what helped me become free of every prescription drug I was on when I went to rehab in my late twenties.

I was determined to quit everything and become free from all addictions and drugs I took, and what really helped me was that every time I felt an anxiety-attack coming, I asked myself if I could wait 5 minutes before taking any anxiety pills, and sometimes I could, and then I didn’t feel the need to take them anymore.

And sometimes I did feel that I needed to take it, so I did, and doing that one day at a time (while working on myself to build myself up and healing), I was able to slowly but surely quit everything, prescription drugs included (which the doctors had told me I had to be on for the rest of my life by the way).

So anything you choose to do if you do the Every Other Day Way experiment – take it one day at a time.

Doing this helps the mind relax, because it knows that tomorrow you can do or have that thing again, and it’s not an all or nothing scenario for it, so it doesn’t become overwhelmed or resistant. You are just not doing that thing today, but tomorrow you can.

And by doing it this way, you will at the same time build new habits and routines on the days you are not doing that thing. And during those days, your awareness will grow massively, because you will begin to clearly see the difference in the days.

See what you can discover about yourself with the Every Other Day Way, challenge yourself, and have fun experimenting! (And if you’d like to have an accountability partner, get in touch below and let’s see how we can work together.)

Photo by Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu on Unsplash (text added by me).

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