Self Care & Habits: Coffee, Alcohol, Eating Clean and Waking up Early

Hello! In this post, I am going to cover different self-care topics. These are all the new habits I created for myself. If you are also in the same boat as I am, I hope this article guides you through your journey and eventually motivate you to make the changes. This wasn’t started because of 2021 or new year goals, new me. It was because I admitted what was happening and realized some things I have been doing for the past years are problematic and finally decided it was time to make a change for myself. Better late than never, right?

There will be 4 topics mentioned below: coffee, alcohol, eating clean and waking up early. This is going to be a long post, but a useful one! With that said, let’s get right into this :)

Just because you are aware of it and you know it doesn’t mean you are going to do it. Knowing and actually taking action are two different things.

No More Coffee !

I stopped drinking coffee when I realized there are more downsides than upsides. I was not a daily coffee drinker where I cannot function without coffee every morning. I was more of a casual coffee drinker. Just like most of the people, I would drink coffee to wake myself up or give extra energy when my body couldn’t generate it by itself. However I realized this wasn’t true. Our bodies CAN generate the energy that we need (along with a healthy lifestyle). By drinking coffee, it’s signaling your body that ‘hey, I am going to put this liquid in her body to temporarily boost her’. So even if you are not a regular coffee drinker, your body would eventually get used to coffee, and leaving you craving for more.

I started to notice unpleasant side effects when I drank coffee. The upsides for drinking coffee were feeling happy, feeling more concentrated, having more energy, and overall it hypes you up for the day. The downsides were anxiety, digestive problems, upset stomach, acid reflux, weight gain, and bad sleep routine. Even as a casual coffee drinker, normally like 2x a week, I could feel this in my body which wasn’t fun at all.

Instead of stopping immediately, you should gradually stop it. For example, I was drinking 2–3x a week. I would cut down to 1x a week and then 1x in two weeks and eventually not a single one. This allows your body to get used to the new changes and you will not get withdrawal symptoms. Then, after about two weeks, you will stop craving for coffee. I am assuming this will take longer for people who are regular coffee drinkers. Instead of coffee, tone down with decaffeinated tea.

There are definitely some days where I am craving coffee like soy iced caramel macchiato, americano or green tea frapp and so on… however I know how my body will react to those and I wouldn’t want to go back to those days. I normally go for water because it’s the best and when I am occasionally craving coffee, I would go with matcha or decaffeinated tea.

No More Alcohol!

I never really liked alcohol. I am more into the social setting that comes with it but drinking bitter alcohol is not fun. I am sure many people would agree with this. It’s not that you actually enjoy the taste of it, you just want to get fucked up and have fun and forget about any problems.

The first time I got curious about alcohol is when I was in middle school. When something is illegal or you cannot attempt until you reach at certain age, you want to go for it, and I think that’s for everyone. So yeah, I started drinking alcohol from 14, so that’s for the past 10 years.

I wasn’t addicted however I was going through really bad cycles when I consume alcohol. I genuinely believed that with alcohol, you feel more relaxed and it helps you forget about stress…. And it did, but it didn’t make it go away. It would leave me feeling even worse the next day. Following are what happened when I drank alcohol:

• blackouts on several nights
• binge drinking every weekend (in college I think I drank like 4–5x week)
• waking up with photos/texts/calls from random people
• making embarrassing mistakes
• uncontrollable (wild nights)
• going way way past my limit
• almost getting into car accidents or death, or unconscious

It’s crazy because even though these happened, I would just be excited for another upcoming weekend. I didn’t care so it just would happen over and over again. I didn’t think it was a problem, I thought everyone was like this, some even worse. I would justify saying ‘oh but I didn’t die’ and just go on.

Because alcohol is everywhere, we slowly feel like it goes everywhere. But this is just how it became, and it doesn’t have to be that way. You will slowly realize the more you drink alcohol, the more you will crave for it, just like coffee! You think it makes you feel relaxed but what alcohol is doing is numbing your body. All the stress and problems you are feeling will NOT go away, alcohol just makes you forget those for the night. But the next day, when you are feeling like shit from drinking too much, you realize those problems are still there, and now you feel even worse.

So then you feel awful and go for another drink and that’s how you begin the bad cycle. Alcohol is like poison. You are basically putting poison in your body, voluntarily. Why would you do that?

I want to share this book that helped me tremendously to stop drinking. It’s called <Alcohol Explained by William Porter>. This book is very easy to read yet effective to change the way you think about alcohol and eventually stop drinking!

Going completely sober is all about the mindset. Most of the things are. I know it’s only been a month for me but I know I can do this. I have a very good feeling because now I fully understand what alcohol is doing to my body.

If you are on this journey, I am so proud of you! Just ignore people that call you boring, lame, loser etc. That’s wrong and if someone doesn’t respect your decision then you should cut them off. Fortunately most of my friends supported me and I am very thankful.

Eating Balanced & Clean

I feel like this topic is the most difficult out of all. I say this because we spend time everyday thinking ‘what should I eat’ and sometimes it’s just exhausting. As soon as I became conscious about weight, I remember all I want was to lose weight. Just like you, I tried all the diets, but eventually failed. The only way to safely and successfully lose weight is to eat balanced meals and exercise. This is a fact that we all know however we struggle to achieve.

My biggest issue was that I was an emotional eater. This means where you keep eating until you emotionally feel satisfied. You would reach for food because you are bored, sad, unhappy, happy, excited whatever the reason is other than you are actually hungry. This will cause your stomach to hurt, you will end up regretting and you will feel sick for days. It’s actually a bad cycle.

What I told myself to overcome emotional eating is this: Stuffing food in your body is just going to make you feel sick and that my body can function without eating big portions.

Everyones body is different so there are no right answers here, however, emotional eating is a very unhealthy habit. If you start off by eating balanced meals and stay productive, then you won’t struggle this. However what I would do was to eat unhealthy and then workout longer hours hoping I would lose weight. Or I would starve and then workout, lose weight, and eventually gain all the weight back + even more after couple of months.

Like I mentioned in the beginning of this post, just because you know what eating balanced and clean is doesn’t mean you are going to do it. We complain about how busy our schedules are or we don’t have time to eat healthy, but I realized that is all an excuse. Some misconceptions are we think healthy food isn’t as yummy as food we “normally” eat, eating clean is just all veggies in a bowl, or eating healthy food is expensive. These are all NOT true. In fact, eating balanced and clean meals are actually super easy and quick. It goes back to how committed you are, your mindset, and how eager you want to achieve this where you can eventually make it as a habit.

I got really tired of my unhealthy eating habit. Biggest side effects were stomach problems, skin troubles, weight gain and grumpy mood swings. I’m heading to 30 now where my body isn’t as same as when I was younger. Your metabolism slows down the older you get and you need to start watching the food you are eating or you will regret it when you get older like 50s.

I realized when I am stressed, I go for junk food. Chocolate, candy, ice cream, and chips… I wasn’t like this 5 years ago, but I think I started to develop this habit along with laziness which I absolutely hate. And we all know, the more you eat junk, the more you crave junk, and these ones have incredible amount of calories, sugar and carbs.

So what now?

You need a realistic plan. We are not going to starve ourselves or rely solely on exercise. Instead we are going to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, and two snacks in between. I honestly believed that eating three meals a day will just make you gain weight. Obviously it’s not. Second, you should never go over 3–4 hours between meals. This is so important. Because if you go longer than that, you will start to feel hangry, moody, headaches, nausea, and end up devouring the food like a monster. You will find yourself eating too fast, unable to control the portion, and end up eating too much.

Breakfast 8–9am : PB & J + banana

Lunch 12pm : Veggie omelet with cilantro and strawberries

Snack 3–4pm : Nuts and yogurt

Dinner 6–7pm : Homemade shrimp pasta

Snack 9pm : Fruits

Everyone is different but I start my morning around 7–7:30am so this would be my eating schedule. If I am feeling hungry earlier, I will eat and if I am not feeling hungry then I will not eat. But always pay attention to portion control. The fruits and veggies section needs to be 2/3 and the meal section needs to be 1/3.

Surprisingly, if you eat good like this, you don’t really crave much junk food. I’ve been doing this for about a month now, which I am super proud of myself, and my cravings are just kind of gone! I still eat ice cream or candy or chips here and there, but not as much as I used to. I pay attention to portions. Not only I don’t feel much bloated, my body feels lighter and I have more energy!

Waking Up Early

This is not for everyone however everyone can achieve it. Some are more evening (owls) and some are early risers. But aside of those genetics, as long as you commit to it, you can make it happen. I think waking up early is a great way to start your morning. You can be more productive as long as you have a morning routine and actually get out of bed. The reason I started waking up early was because I needed more time for myself in a day. It helps you focus and clears your mind when you wake up in the morning and set time aside just for yourself.

I was listening to Justin Keller’s podcast, <Fight for Brillance>, couple of weeks ago and on one of the episodes, ‘turning mornings into your competitive advantage’, he shares the benefits of a morning person and guides you to become one. Previously I’ve always wanted to become a morning person but I wasn’t serious about it. I could relate so much to what he was saying, I finally decided to put my thoughts into action. I got tired of feeling like I don’t have enough time for myself in a day and realized I should start waking up early in the morning to achieve those. I highly recommend you to check out this episode or any other episodes under his podcast. I enjoy his podcasts because the way he talks is as if he is a friend, mentor or therapist to you, and there are a lot to learn.

I want to share this book, My morning routine: how successful people start everyday inspired by Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander. This book will give you insight on how entrepreneurs spend their mornings. Everyone is different and you don’t have to follow theirs, it’s just interesting to look inside how others spend their mornings. For example, here’s mine:

• walk my cat/play with my cat
• read a book
• eat breakfast
• journaling
• listen to podcast
• clean the house
• plan my week

Some days I might not able to do all of these. That is okay. Some things could take longer than others. That’s fine. If you feel like finishing a book while eating breakfast, that works! You find what works for you and what makes you happy. This morning time is for you and yourself. Please make sure you have routine in the morning to stick to. Because if you don’t have a plan, you might end up scrolling through social media or spend that time meaninglessly which defeats the purpose. You are investing this morning time for yourself, so why not make it as a regular habit?

I want to share some aspects you should keep in mind:

• Because you are waking up early, you want to sleep at least 7–8 hours. That means you have to sometimes have to say no to going out to party. Social life was a big part of me so this was a drastic change on my lifestyle. However I am happy the way it is now since I know my priorities and what makes me feel good.
• If you are currently waking up at 10am, don’t try to start waking up at 6am. That is not going to work, you will just feel groggy in the morning. The best way is to take baby steps. What I did was 30 minutes a week. I would try to wake up at 9am instead of 9:30am for two weeks, and then 8:30am instead of 9am. I am currently at 7:30am and I think I am going to keep it at this time for now.

~~~ Thank you for reading! ~~~

Resources I shared:

• Book: Alcohol Explained by William Porter
• Podcast: Fight For Brilliance by Justin Keller
• Book: My morning routine: how successful people start everyday inspired by Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander
• App: Days Since (to track your habits)