I used to be the kind of person that would say, "Don't talk to me. My personality is in the cup." Meaning my coffee cup and many times, I was not able to really move and do things til the second cup. Only when I was pregnant with my children did I give up coffee completely and switched to decaf.
As I was in my 3rd and 4th month with my Beachbody Challenge group, several of the people in the group said how they felt less cravings for coffee. Hmm, strange, I thought. I love my coffee. It's my morning ritual, my little special something for me. Why would I give up coffee? As I was working through my sugar addiction, I was looking to decrease my calories and my coffee the way I made it was easily 300+ calories. As I adjusted the ingredients with less sugar, switching from sweetened almond milk to unsweetened almond milk, I thought, can I do this? Can I really give it up? My creature comfort that helped me survive motherhood in the morning? Alright, Shakeology, let's see if you can live up to the claims that people make about you. I am a sceptic by nature as a science teacher, so many times I need evidence to believe with cold hard data.
As I was investigating clean eating, I found a menu plan from one of my upline coaches. And right there on page 1, it said , "NO CAFFEINE of any kind." Yeah, right, like that is going to last. But it was only a week and I said, well, I am on Shakeology and this is one of the BIG CLAIMS TO FAME about it. So I said, Why not? I had just become a coach and I really wanted to be able to say that I was a great resource for nutrition. "Clean eating" is the new trendy word that basically means eat nothing processed, which in this case included coffee. Let's see if the magic of Shakeology will power me through this week.
So I put my big girl pants on and dove in to a clean eating challenge. At first it was weird, not having my warm mug in my hand in the morning. So I made peppermint tea (caffeine free) just so I could get over the hump of the mug. I had my Shakeology probably around 10am that morning as my midmorning snack. I will admit that I had a headache later that day but I was terribly proud of myself and popping a couple ibuprofen worked. Then I got up on Tuesday, and did it again. No headache this time. Waited to have my Shakeology a little later in the afternoon to see if that would help in case a headache returned but it did not. Wednesday came and this time I did not even have the peppermint tea. Just a glass of water with a little Himalayan sea salt in it. I had my Shakeology with lunch and felt great. And then it dawned on me that my addiction to the coffee was totally mental and as I become more familiar with the ingredients of Shakeology, like the Maca root, I was amazed that this was going to be my solution to kicking my caffeine addiction. It was true. These ingredients really gave me the energy I used to think I got from coffee or should I say, caffeine.
Do I drink coffee today? I have on occasion. Especially nights when the baby wakes me up 2-3 times with teething or a diaper change, but for the most part, no, I don't NEED COFFEE the way I used to. It's a nice treat, kinda like a Saturday morning breakfast would be. What was once a huge part of my diet was able to quietly disappear in the night. How do I feel today? My personality is not in the cup, it's in the shaker.
Proud of you!
ReplyDelete