How Mel Robbins 5 Second Rule Helped Me Ditch Energy Drinks For Good

The 5 Second Rule is simple. If you have the instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill it. The moment you feel an instinct or a desire to act on a goal or a commitment, use the Rule.

And So I did.

I first found Mel Robbins about 4 years ago. I found her 5-second rule video that aired on Goal cast. I was intrigued and decided to see more about what this woman had to say. I implemented a lot of her suggestions and techniques throughout my life and have been happy with the results. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t still carry around some bad habits.

One of those habits being a daily energy drink for close to 5 years. No, I’m sadly not exaggerating. Energy drink every single day for 5 years. Energy drinks are fortified beverages with added dietary supplements. They differ from soft and sports drinks in the ways that they contain higher levels of caffeine in addition to sugar and other dietary supplements.

That’s 240 mg a day for my particular energy drink of choice which is also 27 g of sugar. That equals out to 7,200 mg of caffeine per month and 810grams of sugar in a month.

The daily recommended intake of sugar is less than 24g a day for women and 36g a day for men. Meaning that 1 energy drink alone accounted for nearly all my sugar intake in a day.

I had heard the term “Don’t drink your calories before “ however never really attributed my daily habit to the same thing.

It was though. I paid for it health-wise ultimately, between mild weight gain I noticed they also affected my anxiety, my sleep cycles, my stomach, my teeth, and more.

I quickly realized that not only were the energy drinks not helping me get through my days but that I was sluggish on the days that I had them vs the day I went without one.

After finding out via an annual health check that I was low in Vitamin D and was overall feeling generally gross and sluggish, I started looking into changing my diet for the better and being able to add in vitamins I wasn’t getting enough of through food. Being low in Vitamin D is fairly normal on the west coast especially in states like Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and others that don’t get as much sun as other states.

Through my journey of finding a healthier diet, I attended and graduated two courses through Coursera.org offered by Stanford taught and supervised by Maya Adams, M.D I decided to make some changes for both my health but also my families.

I am a firm believer in leading by example though. So while it was easy to say we are going to do this, then this and this differently implementing it was so much harder.

I decided to do what some of the professionals suggested and start with small changes that add up over time.

I found homemade salad dressings vs store-bought, have ditched boxed & frozen foods and the kids love making homemade pizza vs ordering out. However, even with those small changes and the copious amounts of water I was drinking I still found myself feeling like utter garbage.

I decided it was time to ditch energy drinks. Not just go down from one every day to one every few days but all together.

This was so much easier said than done. Then I remembered the first time I saw Mel Robbins on Goalcast.

I realized that I knew that the energy drinks weren’t making that much of a difference. I knew that my brain was having some sort of dopamine reward due to how much I had convinced myself they helped me through the days and because of Mel Robbins I also knew that I could beat my brain and its desire for a sugar-laden carbonated fake haven that I had constructed in my head.

So the next day when I went grocery shopping. I walked down the aisle with the energy drinks fully prepared to grab one but stopped, looked at them, and thought about how I felt this morning and at that moment. I felt fine, not too tired, a little cold, and was just thinking about my upcoming dentist appointment that I was dreading. The stuff I had to do that day, and how much my back in my kidney area had been hurting the last couple of weeks, and how I had been slacking immensely on my water intake. I decided to continue my shopping venture without buying the energy drinks and left with a half dozen kiwis instead.

Did you know that a kiwi is full of nutrients like vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin E, Folate, potassium and are a good source of fiber. Also, 2 kiwis are under 100 calories at about 80 calories for both it provides a whopping 430 milligrams of potassium. These make for a great snack but also a nutritious alternative to other sweets or foods that might be heavy in your diet.

For myself, I give kiwis a ton of credit for keeping me feeling light and energized through the day. Kiwis are my favorite small change. I eat 2 every morning and keep them on hand for snacks. My kids also like them which is a huge plus.

Of course, I didn’t just quit drinking energy drinks because of a couple of kiwis and one day of resistance.

There were days of cravings. However every time I had one I was able to use that 5-second rule that Mel Robbins was such a genius for. I was able to “ sulk “ In my craving if you will. Talk my self down in those 5 seconds.

Yes my brain wanted it, yes I’d enjoy it for the 20 minutes or two hours I was sipping on it, but a few hours later I was going to run to the bathroom every few minutes, having worsened anxiety and my stomach would be hurting. So I’d ask myself do I want those few minutes or hours of dopamine because I was feeding my energy drink addiction or did I want to set an example for my kids, conquer a goal I set for myself and be healthier? I chose the second one.

I want to be healthier for so many reasons and day by day week by a week it’s been worth it. My back and kidney areas don’t hurt every single morning upon waking up and one day after about two weeks without an energy drink I was curious why and decided to look into it. PubMed led me down a rabbit hole I didn’t know existed but is full of scientific facts, stories of real-life events, and data. If you aren’t already familiar. PubMed delivers a publicly available search interface for MEDLINE as well as other NLM resources, making it the premier source for biomedical literature and one of the most widely accessible resources in the world. There are medical studies and journals and so much more available for everyday people just like me and you.

These studies show a vast amount of different health issues that can occur or have occurred from regular/long term energy drink ingestion or overusing energy drinks.

One example is they can induce a biochemical and ultrastructural alteration in your heart muscles, you can injure or damage your kidneys and or induce renal failure. Energy drinks as mentioned prior are dripping in caffeine so if you were to drink enough you can also dehydrate yourself and increase your risk of kidney stone development. Something that surprisingly athletes are at even higher risk for as they carry high protein diets. Alongside this handful of health issues, it can also upset the balance of acid in your stomach by relaxing the esophagus which can cause heartburn and irritate your stomachs lining and gut. In severe cases, this can lead to heartburn and stomach ulcers.

In addition to that, an article published on the Harvard T.H Chan website reiterates these negative health consequences that energy drink can bring by saying

“Emerging evidence has linked energy drink consumption with negative health consequences in youth like risk-seeking behaviors, poor mental health, adverse cardiovascular effects, and metabolic, renal, or dental problems. “

Overall I can’t express how thankful I am for the 5-second rule, the ability to finally be free from this habit and be feeling so much better compared to how I was before. My skin has improved as have other areas of my health and I could imagine going back. In the end, water is a great replacement and in addition to that I do still drink green tea and some stash varieties of tea however the caffeine and sugar content is significantly lower and does not contain high amounts of sugar, vitamins, and herbs that aren’t necessary for every person. I truly believe energy drinks pose a health risk to vulnerable categories as most are labeled such. Children, teens, pregnant women, or people with medical conditions should especially avoid energy drinks however I think it is oftentimes overlooked the damage that long term usage can bring someone who doesn’t fit into those categories and might not realize how much potential damage they could cause and how much their little habit has grown into a big one.

So that’s it that’s how Mel Robbins helped me ditch energy drinks for good, further my education, and encouraged me to stop screwing myself over and be the best version of myself possible while chasing my dreams.

Sources

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6280269/

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/energy-drinks/

https://healthplans.providence.org/fittogether/find-your-fit/healthy-eating/making-good-choices/energy-drinks-the-truth-may-rock-your-assumptions/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCbiuP2CAqk

https://academic.oup.com/ndt/article/17/3/528/1807735

https://www.jrnjournal.org/article/S1051-2276(07)00259-2/fulltext

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24986632/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4320741/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3038341/

https://www.coursera.org/learn/food-and-health