Day 31 - I Should Drink WHAT Instead Of Coffee???

 On my quest to give up all other beverages but water for a short period, I quickly discovered what caffeine deprivation was (Hint = WITHDRAWAL) and also learned how much it sucked to experience it.

I quickly figured out that I needed SOMETHING to boost my energy without soda or coffee, or anything else fun that had caffeine in it, such as chocolate!  At the same time, I noticed that I missed my HABIT of having a cup of coffee, and the effects of the coffee, more than I missed the taste itself.  That was a big discovery for me.  As I've been reading this book about habits (more on that in another post) I've learned to pay more attention to my own habits.  Further investigation showed me that what I really crave is the feeling of warmth as I'm drinking (plus I really do like the boost in energy). 

I had heard before that it was healthy to have warm water with lemon in it, first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach, but I didn't know why OR if it even tasted good enough to enjoy drinking it, but when you are left with no other option, as my mom always told me, "Beggars can't be choosers!"

It turns out that just the warmth of the water has some benefits, such as allowing better hydration, digestion, and giving your body an easier time fighting a virus, but warm water by itself is AWFUL, so I pulled out the bag of lemons and sliced one bad boy open!

I only drank it with just lemon, which is a bit sour (could have used some sugar, but CRAP that's bad for me!) so I drank it anyway.  I don't know if it's the properties in the lemon, or just my body going off the placebo effect because of the HABIT of drinking a warm liquid in the morning, but I couldn't believe that it actually woke me up and I FELT like I had a cup of coffee!  With no calories!  WHY DOESN'T EVERYONE DO THIS???  Oh yeah, it didn't taste quite as nice... 

Well, I gave it a few more shots, and it grew on me each time.  And as it turns out, the lemons ARE really healthy to add in - there are a whole TON of benefits that lemon juice can do for the body! 

Even BETTER - you can naturally enhance the flavor to make it not only taste better, but add more  health benefits too!

Look up the awesome things that honey and cinnamon can do for your body - there's a bunch! 

Here's a good recipe to try! 

- 1 cup of warm water (try running a mug through your Keurig without a K-cup - innovative, huh?!? - haha)
- Juice from 1/2 a lemon (no, you can't use the bottle of lemon juice, it has to be fresh!)
- One tablespoon of honey (local is best for your immune system!)
- A dash or two of cinnamon

Try it out and tell me what you think!   :)




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction

Image
My name is Stacey, and I am a real life cookie monster.  I have loved desserts my entire life, and actually, as a baby, my first word (besides mama and dada) was...  true story....  "COOKIE!"  I grew up on straight apple juice, high octane Kool-Aid, and fresh homemade baked goods almost daily.   Add to that genetics which show me a glimpse into my future where I will always have a struggle with weight, two babies who have permanently changed my body upon their exits, and a whole ton of bad habits and only a glimmer of willpower, and...  here I am.  I am 34 years old, and I am tired.  I'm tired of the struggle to put myself first, my healthy self, my potential self.  The self that I have put first is the self that gets tired working full time and "deserves" the pizza and dessert, the self that LOVES sweets, the self that doesn't like to see food wasted (you know, the "finish-all-the-food-on-your-plate" generation) so I eat all the lefto...
Read more

Day 76 - I Have A Fever... And The Only Cure Is More Girl Scout Cookies

Image
These last two weeks, our house has been a petri dish of nasty germs.  Living in a house where my husband and I are both teachers in different school systems, my son is in an elementary school, and my daughter goes to a daycare, means that we come home with four different sets of "gross" on a daily basis, so when one of us goes down, the others are likely to follow.  But this time has been different, because we've all been catching DIFFERENT things, which blows my mind.  Just when you think life is crazy, add something in like sickness and it shows you just how good you had it before when you were already complaining.  Keeping in that mindset of "someone else always has it worse than you do" I'm also reminded that "health is not valued until sickness comes."  To weeks ago, my got the flu.  As soon as he was on the mend, we had an ER visit for my daughter, which ended up in the conclusion that she had "some virus" which STILL didn...
Read more

Day 50 - Shake It Up To Shake Things Up

Image
If you've been following me along this journey (50 days so far!) I've mentioned Shakeology to you a few times, and I told you I'd explain more on a later post, and that post is HERE!  Now, before I get started, I do want to go ahead and tell you right away, that I AM a Team Beachbody Coach and I DO SELL this stuff.  Don't stop reading!  This is no ad. Don't like this sort of stuff?  To each his own! Never gonna buy it?  Cool with me! Have a friend who's a coach, so IF you bought it, you'd buy it from him/her?  Awesome! This blog has been a journey through MY failures and successes - and I'm just sharing my story. So, one of my best, best friends is a Beachbody Coach, and she convinced me to try this stuff.  And I was COMPLETELY skeptical.  I've had it all - Slim Fast shakes back in college (hello, chalky texture!), Carnation instant breakfast (shook a whole bottle of that stuff into a brand new laptop and ruined it - there's some memo...
Read more