All Your Questions About Cannabis Answered (Tolerance Breaks, Cannabis and Productivity, Cannabis and Health, Managing Munchies, and More!)
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are based on my personal opinions and experience. The content here should not be taken as medical advice. Always consult a medical professional for any medical or cannabis questions.
Answering All Your Questions About Cannabis
I’ve been getting alot of questions about cannabis, my relationship with cannabis, how I created a healthy relationship with cannabis, tolerance breaks, and the list goes on. I’ve gathered hundreds of questions from all across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and summarized it down to a handful of key themes and topics that the cannabis community has.
I want to caveat that most of the content in this article is opinion-based unless a science backed source is explicitly provided in text. Alot of the content covered in this blog post has not been studied by researchers in depth, thus making it difficult to draw references. This article presents my personal opinion and experience with cannabis, which has been developed over many years of trial and error with the cannabis plant and learning how to incorporate cannabis into my lifestyle to serve my own physical and mental needs.
The one thing I do ask you to think about before reading this article is understanding that everybody's relationship with cannabis is so different and it's not a one size fits all. Feel free to continue the conversation and keep asking the questions in the comment section below. I think it's also important to share some definitions around cannabis so that we're all on the same page. When I first started exploring the world of cannabis, there were so so many things I didn't know and honestly it was just a lot of reading, research, reading a lot of PubMed and then learning these things and implementing it along the way. So hopefully these definitions can save you some of that research time.
Table of Contents
Understanding Definitions: Cannabis, THC, CBD, Endocannabinoid System, Tolerance Break
How I’ve Created a Healthy Relationship with Cannabis
How To Practice Mindful Cannabis Consumption
Cannabis Consumption Patterns
What Are Cannabis Tolerance Breaks and How To Take One
How To Use Cannabis For Productivity
How I Deal With Stigmas with Cannabis
How Has Cannabis Impacted My Mental Health
How Do I Manage The Munchies After Consuming Cannabis
How Do I Use Cannabis For Working Out and Sleep?
Understanding Definitions: Cannabis, THC, CBD, Endocannabinoid System, and Tolerance Break
Cannabis – Cannabis, also known as weed among other names, is a psychoactive plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used for both recreational and medical purposes for centuries.
THC – Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (also known as THC) is a cannabinoid found in decarboxylated cannabis which provides psychoactive effects when consumed. Decarboxylated cannabis is when heat of a certain temperature has been applied to the cannabis in order to convert THCA, the precursor compound that is non-psychoactive to THC. THC also binds to one’s CB1 and CB2 receptors.
CBD – cannabidiol is a cannabinoid found in decarboxylated cannabis which provides psychoactive effects when consumed. Often there is a misunderstanding on the internet that CBD is not psychoactive, but in fact it is. It is psychoactive but not necessarily intoxicating like THC. Said in regular English, CBD does not get you “high” but it can impact your mood and behavior.
Not only do humans have cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 that bind to these cannabinoids, but we also have an endocannabinoid system that naturally produces endocannabinoids, similar to THC and CBD.
ECS aka endocannabinoid system – primarily influences neuronal synaptic communication, and affects biological functions—including eating, anxiety, learning and memory, reproduction, metabolism, growth and development—via an array of actions throughout the nervous system.
T-break also known as tolerance break – when you give your body a break from cannabis in order to reset your cannabinoid receptors.
How I’ve Created a Healthy Relationship with Cannabis
Question: Do you track your usage? Take notes, keep a journal, etc?
Answer: Tracking cannabis usage is not something that I've ingrained into my everyday routine yet, but only because I don't need to. Because I have a pretty good relationship where it's pretty easy for me to take breaks throughout the week. I find that I don't necessarily need to be so stringent with myself, but I do like to block off time for consumption.
I have my calendar where I block off certain nights where I'm going to consume, or certain nights where it says, take a break and have chamomile tea instead. Some people can really benefit from journaling and keeping track of their usage, especially if they are looking at a tolerance break or if they're looking at resetting their relationship with the plant – then definitely in those situations, use a journal.
Source: Cannabinista
Question: How do you determine if using everyday is not considered an addiction?
Answer: Some people can develop an addiction to cannabis. Being addicted would be if I didn't have access to cannabis or I wasn't able to consume, then I would get an intense urge to consume, or I would produce a behavior that could potentially have negative consequences. As long as you are not hurting yourself or someone with your consumption or negatively impacting your life, I would not consider that an addiction.
It's important to be honest with yourself. Look yourself in the mirror, look yourself in the eye and say. Hey, would I feel a certain way? Would I act a certain way if I wasn't able to consume? And I think that would be a good indicator of whether you have a more addictive relationship with the cannabis plant.
Question: Was there a point where you were consuming everyday? If so, what made you stop?
Answer: There was probably a few times where I was consuming more than I would like or I found myself gravitating for cannabis even though I didn't know why. Maybe I was just doing it out of habit.
I found that there was a certain week where I was consuming more than I wanted to, it was actually because I was very stressed. Maybe I wanted to feel a bit more enlightenment and happiness because I wasn't feeling so great about certain things that were happening in my life at that time. So again, I think that was a fine line because I don't want to associate being happy with cannabis consumption, right? It should be something that supplements your life, but not necessarily something that you go to in order to be happy. What really made me stop consuming so frequently was just having that blunt conversation with myself incorporating breaks.
Question: How do you know when your relationship with the plant has gotten unhealthy?
Answer: It's hard to just give a one size fits all answer. When it's time to reflect on your relationship with cannabis because it might be going the wrong way is when you find that you're depending on cannabis in order to feel a certain way.
When all you think about is cannabis and consuming. When you find yourself unable to not consume and take tolerance breaks. Those are some instances where I'd probably ask myself about my relationship with the plant isn't so great right now, and maybe there's some type of dependency here. Another potential indicator may also be if increasing the dose within the same night multiple times for no reason.
How To Practice Mindful Cannabis Consumption
Question: How do you regulate your cannabis consumption? Just sheer willpower?
Answer: I use a calendar to block off time for consumption and breaks. I find that once it's in my calendar, it's kind of like already a done deal. I like to also schedule those longer tolerance breaks every three months into my calendar in advance.
The other thing I do to regulate my consumption is I pause every time before I consume, and check in with myself. Simply just asking myself whether I actually need to consume tonight or could I just have chamomile tea instead? If I’m feeling stressed, maybe I should just go for a walk instead and get some relief that way. Or maybe I just need to call up a friend and talk to them about how I'm feeling, really upset about something. That's a great way to be intentional on nights that I do need to consume. This is an example of the dialogue that I'd have with myself. “Oh, I just had a crazy workout today. My muscles are super sore. I'm going to have a
That's also acceptable because you're setting an intention. You're being intentional with why you want to use who you want to use with, what your dose is and all of that.
Question: How often do you consume?
Answer: I consume around four to five times a week, maybe three to four. It really depends on the season, the time of the year, if I'm menstruating, if I'm stressed, if I'm relaxed, if I have a lot of things going on. There's so many different factors.
And when I do consume, it's typically just once in the evening, before or after dinner, depends on the day. I rarely consume during the daytime unless I'm on vacation in a country where cannabis is legalized. I do enjoy waking and baking on vacation.
Sometimes I will consume in the morning if I'm feeling very anxious or nervous about the day ahead of me. I'll add a bit of CBD to my coffee and I find that kind of helps. not only just bring down some of the jitters from the coffee, but helps me kind of ease into my morning a little bit more smoothly.
Cannabis Consumption Patterns
Question: What are the safest ways of consuming?
Answer: This is a very touchy topic because everyone has a different opinion of it and I don't think there's enough conclusive evidence to say that this is the healthiest way to consume cannabis.
There hasn't really been conclusive evidence that cannabis smoke leads to lung cancer. There are some studies saying that it can possibly impact your lungs. The one fact that I am confident in saying is that there are certain medical users that actually require inhalation of cannabis in order to get the relief they need.
There are some people in this world that are lacking an enzyme called CYPC29. And this enzyme has the ability to break down cannabinoids in our liver. When you ingest edibles, they get processed through our liver first before hitting up the blood brain barrier. Some people don't have an enzyme that can actually break down and absorb the 11-hydroxy-THC. 11-hydroxy-THC is basically what THC is converted to in the liver. It is a different compound that is generally known to be more potent, and that's why people sometimes say edibles hit harder, last longer, and so forth.
The safest way to consume is technically not consuming. Other than that, it would be putting topicals on your body? Topicals are just on the outer surface layer of your skin, the epidermal layer. It's not actually going to absorb into your bloodstream and give you that high feeling unless you put a lot alot and it's transdermal patches. With topicals, you're not Inhaling anything into your lungs, but it's not going to offer the same effect as smoking cannabis or taking ingestibles.
You can also use cannabis oils under the tongue, which is called the sublingual method. It hits your bloodstream faster There are certain receptors underneath your tongue that allow for the quicker onset of cannabis oils versus ingestibles. The only thing is that cannabis oil under the tongue tastes like ass. It has that dank weed taste, and it's really hard to mask. Cannabis edibles and cannabis beverages are also a risk-reduced way to consume without smoking the plant.However, cannabis edibles can sometimes take a long time for people to feel the effects.
Question: What kind of cannabis do you consume for different tasks? (ie. productivity vs nighttime)
Answer: In instances where I consume cannabis during the daytime, I ensure that I remain productive by opting for low THC higher CBD and if possible, I like to incorporate CBG.
This is a minor cannabinoid that I find to be more uplifting and stimulating – reminds me of caffeine and I find that it's really great for daytime use. It helps me stay focused, it gives me creativity, gives me energy, gets me motivated, helps me get into my workflow. For nighttime, I like to look at formulations that are higher in THC, balanced out with CBD, and has a little bit of CBN. CBN is another minor cannabinoid and stands for cannabinol. There has been studies that have shown cannabinol for helping people with sleep, helping people with relaxing.
Question: How do you regulate intake in order to make sure you don’t take too much or too little?
Answer: You just got to practice and know yourself and trial and error. When I first started consuming cannabis, I was consuming way too high of a dose for myself. And that's not what I wanted. I wanted enough cannabis to make me feel relaxed and be able to sleep while also waking up feeling refreshed. Over the years, I've found the perfect dosage that has worked for me.
I also like to consume it early enough in my evening, so I can experience the full duration of the effects of cannabis, and that by the time I'm going to bed, it's more or less fading out. off so that it doesn't actually impact my sleep where it makes me feel groggy the next day.
On top of that, it's important to stay hydrated as well before, during, and after your cannabis experience because I find that also has a lot to do with feeling that grogginess the day after. If
THC percentage only to a certain extent, really it's about the terpene profile because terpenes are the compounds that provide cannabis flower with their distinct smell but also with the associated effects. Terpenes such as linalool is commonly associated with an evening strain similar to the effects of lavender, whereas a strain that has a lot of pinene would be more associated with daytime consumption.
Source: Pexels
There's hundreds of different terpenes, so I can't go through it all, but that's the general idea. I think it just comes back to trial and error. Everybody's body is different. Everyone's tolerance is different. Everyone's preferred feeling and experience is different. It's really just about knowing your body and what works for you.
Question: Are there any days that you decide to consume more than once per day?
Answer: There are certain days where I decide to consume more than once. Typically, it's on vacation. I'm enjoying myself. I'm relaxing. I'm gonna do what I want to do. On a regular day. It's usually once per day, if I'm being totally, totally honest. Maybe twice if the first time I consumed I didn't feel the effects and I wanted to increase the dose. Or I'm trying a new product and it's for work related.But generally, I just keep it to one time a day and that's always after the end of the workday.
What Are Cannabis Tolerance Breaks And How Do I Take One?
Question: Does regular cannabis intake affect your tolerance?
Answer: With anything that you consume, it can affect your tolerance over time. When we think about other substances such as alcohol, certain pharmaceuticals, certain alternative medicines, generally when you consume something for a long period of time consistently, your body will develop a tolerance based on the dosage that you consume every day because it is expecting this thing to enter your body.
Our bodies are very smart, and over time, our bodies will change, learn and adapt to this new substance that is going into your body.
Question: How long should a tolerance break be?
Answer: Again, this is one of those questions where there's no one size fits all answer. Cannabinoids stay in your system anywhere from 30 to 90 days. But this can vastly differ between different individuals and based on how much they have been consuming. So again, it's just a range. In terms of how long I like to take my tolerance break, I try to take breaks throughout the week, and I like to schedule one bigger break every three months, which can range from 2 weeks to a month or longer.
Question: How do you deal with tolerance breaks? Can I take a t-break without going cold turkey? How do I mitigate withdrawal?
Answer: There's a couple of tips and tricks that can probably help you during your tolerance break, but if I'm being honest, I feel like at the end of the day, you just gotta do it. The first tip I have for easing into tolerance breaks is to decrease your tolerance by, let's say, 5-10 percent every day leading up into your break.
This gradual decline is going to be easier on your body, but also on you mentally, in terms of dwindling down your consumption leading up into the official date that you want to start your tolerance break. Once your tolerance break starts, you would take that break for however long you want it to, whether it's one week to test out first, two weeks, 30 days, 60, 90 days and so forth. You can read about my 45 day tolerance break experience here. And then you can consume again after that tolerance break is done.
Going cold turkey sometimes works for people, sometimes doesn't. So again, you gotta play with it and do what works best for you. A lot of people complain that they have withdrawals during their tolerance breaks or they say that it's very hard to stick to their tolerance break and they want to give in. I think this is more of a reason to continue and keep on going because that is an indicator, to me at least, as a friend, As someone hearing your story, that maybe there's been a bit of dependency on your relationship with the plant and this is the perfect time to reset that dependency. I don't know what withdrawal symptoms you have, nor am I a doctor to provide any advice of that matter, but if it was really difficult for me to stay consistent during my tolerance break, I would do these things:
Set an intention, before you start this tolerance break, like literally sit yourself down and be like between this time and this time, I'm putting it in my calendar that I'm doing this tolerance break. No ifs, ands, or buts. You could do negative reinforcement or positive reinforcement, depending on what works for you.
Journaling is another great tool to incorporate during your tolerance break. Keeping track of, how you’re feeling, documenting your emotions, and it's a great way to reflect back on your days. But also just the act of journaling can be helpful when you're feeling down. That you want to consume and it's a good reminder to be like, hey, you got it. You don't need to consume today. You're doing great.
Lastly, I would also look at alternative methods to get the relief that you need. So for example, if you are someone that uses cannabis to help with falling asleep, here's a lot of different other natural ways to get the relief that you need. Consulting with your doctor, your naturopath, or whoever to get those alternative practices would be helpful. Another thing that I found to be helpful for some people is just putting sticky notes all over your bathroom mirror.
How To Use Cannabis For Productivity
Question: How do you manage your productivity at work with cannabis?
Answer: I avoid consuming cannabis during my work day or after my list of things that I need to get done for the day have been achieved and I feel like I'm in a good place.
Question: How do you not procrastinate, how do you get things done, how do you keep track of time?
Answer: Time blocking has been one of the key ways for me to manage my time, my calendar, and my output. Like I said with how I time block cannabis consumption, I also time block projects and tasks and things that I need to do throughout the day.
In the morning, I will have me-time. That is solely just to do with me as a person, has nothing to do with work. Then we get into kind of the morning of the day. This is when my juices and my brain are flowing. So this is typically when I will get some very strategic work done. In the later afternoon, that's when I'll time block additional work or projects that I'm working on.
I like to schedule meetings during this time. I schedule time for fun, leisure, eating dinner, and sometimes if I need to work in the evening, I will also time block that. Time blocking has been one of the greatest tools for me, and it's free. I also use simple tools like a daily to-do list, a weekly tracker of things I need to get done, and I really just try to focus on three or four things per day that I really need to execute on.
Turning off the notifications on my phone when I'm in work mode. And basically, I limit it down to certain apps that I want to get notifications from, and these are only the work apps that I have.
How To Deal with Cannabis Stigmas
Question: Any help on stigma? Not being seen as a stoner internal guilt can be real cause of society.
Answer: Cannabis stigmas suck.Cannabis stereotypes suck. The media has literally portrayed cannabis consumers as these, I'm just going to say it, dumb, idiotic, lazy people who just eat munchies and junk food all day every day. For me personally, I'm really trying to redefine the word stoner.
If you're a successful individual, you're living your best life, you have a great relationship with your friends, family, you're taking care of your health, you're taking care of your mindset, being the best person you can be, and people are still hating on you for consuming cannabis, then those are the people that I would probably disassociate yourself with.
Cannabis users are successful. I know so many successful business owners that are cannabis users. I see people who are amazing moms, dads, public servants, teachers, amazing artists, scientists who are also cannabis users. It has nothing to do with who they are as a person and their character. This narrative is starting to change. With legalization and cannabis becoming more acceptable, I think eventually we'll get there. It just takes a lot of time.
Question: How to explain to my partner that I’m not a drug addict and the plant actually helps me?
Answer: I would just sit your partner down and just have an honest conversation. Be calm about it as best as you can. Try to be Logical and less emotional about it when you're approaching the situation. Prepare yourself with some facts or some research and science that you can share. Maybe your partner might bring up something that you actually didn't consider, right? Maybe they're saying things like,”I don't like the smell of the cannabis smoke”. Maybe you could then explore a compromise where you look at consuming outdoors or turning on the air purifier, or opting for ingestibles. There has to be some type of compromise. I wish you the best of luck because it's important to have your partner supportive of your decisions
Question: How do you not feel guilty from using on a regular basis? Feel like there’s a huge stigma.
Answer: I think it's probably a conversation that you need to have with yourself. I don't think you should feel guilty about using cannabis if it's benefiting you in a positive way and you have a great relationship with the plant and it's not hurting other people. On the flip side, = if you are not being responsible with your use or you're excessively consuming, then maybe that is a true type of guilt that you might need to look at. The cannabis plant is misunderstood and I think that is why some of us are because it's frowned upon to consume cannabis.
It really just comes down to knowing yourself and knowing your reasons for consuming and being true to yourself. Also knowing that it's okay to get relief from cannabis. It's okay to feel good after using cannabis.
Cannabis & Mental Health
Question: I smoke cannabis everyday and I wonder how it affects your mental health?
Answer: Again, I'm not a doctor, so I cannot say how cannabis affects your mental health. I will say how cannabis affects my mental health. For me personally, when used mindfully, responsibly, and with the correct dosage and intention, cannabis has made a positive impact on my mental health because it's able to help me relieve my anxiety, help me with my stress and be more present, and be more empathetic with others.
Question: I always want to smoke whenever I feel stressed, relieved, bored. What are some tips to manage emotions without cannabis?
Answer: It's not one specific thing that has helped me but it's honestly a combination of things and doing them all together for a long period of time. The first one that comes to mind is meditation. There's a meditation pod at my gym and it's the best thing ever. I'm someone who has trouble just listening to a meditation podcast and meditating. I find it really boring and it's hard to sit still. But this meditation pod is paired with binaural beats, so it really gets me into that meditative state.
Number two is journaling. Every morning I journal, even if I don't really have anything to say, I will write out what I’m grateful for and what I want to manifest into my life. Journaling has been a great outlet for me to get some thoughts off my chest. Years down the road when you go back to old journal entries and you realize that thing that was bothering you at that moment is so irrelevant now and it's crazy to see your personal growth.
The third thing I do is exercise and eat well. Those are almost two different things, but I'll just lump them together. Exercising has been the key for me to relieve stress and really maintain a regulated mood. When I sweat, I feel so much better. Like any type of movement, even if it's just going for like a 10 minute, 15 minute power walk. When I lift weights, when I do hot yoga, when I do boxing, all that stuff makes me feel great. Gets the endorphins rushing. I love it. And then pairing that with eating healthy and eating mindfully, when I'm consistently eating healthy, nourishing my body with key nutrients and minerals, I feel amazing.
The fourth thing is talking to your support systems. Having a support system is the key to maintaining regulated emotions.Whenever I'm feeling stressed or bothered by something, I'm the type of person that likes to tell someone, and my best friend is a therapist. She is such a great support system for me, she always is there for me, understands how I'm feeling, and I always feel almost always better after talking to her, even if there is no solution to my problem. Just getting it off my chest and laughing about it, getting angry about it, ranting about it with my friend, just helps a lot.
How To Manage The Munchies
Question: Do you get food cravings? What are some tips you have for the munchies?
Answer: The munchies are real and they hit hard sometimes, I'm not gonna lie. I've had my fair share of getting the munchies and indulging in disgusting food, and then feeling absolutely, like, trash the next day. Over the years, I've learned a way to really manage the munchies. And I use the word manage because I think it's okay to enjoy food and snacks when you have the munchies. But it's all about balance and making sure that you're not overeating, you're not constantly every night eating unhealthy food.
Number one – staying hydrated when you got the munchies before, during, after. Oftentimes our body is actually dehydrated and it thinks that we're hungry, but we're actually not. We're actually just dehydrated. So I always like to add electrolytes into my water. I drink about three to four of these liters a day.
Another thing that I started doing to manage the munchies is consuming cannabis before my main meal so that my main meal is my munchies. I like to consume cannabis before dinner. By the time that my dinner is ready. When i'm eating my dinner i'm getting that satisfaction of eating satisfying the ghrelin hormones that get activated with my actual meal. If you do need to give into your munchies, opt for healthy alternatives.
And lastly, there are some strains out there that actually suppress your hunger hormones. And then there are some other strains that are very strong in bringing out the ghrelin hormones and they get you really munchy. Looking into what those potential strains are and whether you have access to them may be something that you can try. I also have a whole blog post about tips for managing the munchies.
How Do I Use Cannabis For Working Out and Sleep?
Question: Does your quality of sleep differ when not using cannabis?
Answer: There are some studies about how cannabis hinders your ability to access REM sleep. REM sleep is also associated with when you dream and oftentimes when people consume cannabis, they report that they don't sleep, have dreams or they don't remember that they have dreams.
There needs to be a little bit more research here. I definitely think it's something to look out for especially for me because I use cannabis at nighttime for sleep purposes and I do notice that I don't dream when I have cannabis. Yes, I do want to get REM sleep and I think that's important, but I do find that when I get REM sleep, I personally feel more exhausted the next da. And I think that's because my dreams get so intense because I feel like i've been dreaming the whole night before that when I wake up, I feel exhausted. I'm definitely acknowledging that cannabis potentially has a negative impact on REM sleep, but I want to see more studies on this as there is no conclusive evidence about how much REM sleep adults need.
Question: Do you consume cannabis before working out?
Answer: I like to use cannabis post workout. Whether it's topically muscle cream based or whether it's through edibles. Just helping my body relax and get the rest that it deserves. The few times that I've consumed cannabis prior to working out was with running long distance. The first time I ran 5k I actually had a CBD gummy beforehand with a little bit of THC and I just kept running, running, running, and it was enjoyable.
A lot of people have also reported consuming before working out helps them get that mind muscle connection. But then also some people have reported that if they don't go to workout right away after using the plant, they feel too relaxed.
