Well, after two days in a row of half-caff and one americano in the morning, one small coffee late afternoon has accomplished;
Not waking in the am with a headache because of withdrawals kicking in
Better sleep
A noticeable reduction in physical symptoms of 'fight or flight' response
reduced anxiety
An apparent return of indicators of positive hormonal response
I am continuing the taper today but just going to hold the line at where I am. Had one half caff on waking. One Americano a few hours later. Around 5pm will have a small normal coffee so that by 5am I still have levels of caffeine in me that prevent the headache.
Tomorrow I am shooting for reducing another step to just the one americano late morning - eliminating the half-caff on waking, and the late afternoon dose to avoid the am headache.
Then I plan to step it down to the half caff and then hoping I can get to an every-other day or just a normal coffee daily for a bit..... then off it entirely for a detox. My goal is to let my body process ALL the backlogged caffeine and give it some time to return to a 'normal' balance.
I'm hoping then I can re-introduce coffee as an occasional or even few-times-a-week enjoyment versus a daily dependence. But, so far even the reduction is demonstrating subjectively that for me anyway, the levels of caffeine I've kept pumping through my body over the years have thrown it into a state of unhealthy stress and hormonal imbalance.