When I posted last night about breakfast, I had a completely different topic I wanted to blog about tonight. After the events of the day, though, I’m switching gears. Today I want to talk about my on-again/off-again love/hate affair with…
…coffee.
Coffee is my love. I love everything about coffee. The flavor, the aroma, the warmth (or chill depending on my mood), the camaraderie shared when I meet other coffee addicts. I’m sure I spent more money on Starbucks in 2018 than I did on groceries. (Okay, maybe not that much, but I’m making a point here.)
However, as I slog along on this journey called “weight loss,” I have come to realize something. When it comes to drinking water: Coffee. Is. My. Enemy. It stabs me in the back with each morning cup. And I’m not talking about cream and sugar, either (although maybe I should skip the vanilla in my latte).
If I have even one cup of coffee, no matter the time of day, it derails my water intake for the entire rest of the day.
**The entire rest of the day.**
It doesn’t matter if it’s after I get to work at 8:30, or after lunch, or if it’s 6:00 o’clock in the morning. The instant I take that first sip, I am no longer interested in water for the entire rest of the day. I’ll sit there at my desk thirsty before I’ll take a sip of water, and then it’s just a sip to get the thirsty taste out of my mouth.
I don’t know what it is.
If I have a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, all I’ll drink for the rest of the day – all I WANT for the rest of the day – is more coffee, or soda, or sweet tea.
If I wake up and start the day drinking water, I’ll drink a whole 40 oz before 10am. But as soon as I have that cup of coffee at 10:15, bam! No more water for me.
Maybe I make it to lunch, drinking my water faithfully, getting ice water if we go out to lunch somewhere, and then I’ll decide to get an Americano with a splash of half-and-half on the way back to the office. There it is. No more water.
So I tested the theory over the span of a couple weeks. I spent a whole week drinking water exclusively, no coffee, no tea, no soda, no nothing, except water. And I hit my water intake goal every single day. (For those of you just tuning in, it’s 80 or more ounces for February, jumping to 120 or more ounces starting in March.)
The next week I had a cup of coffee first thing when I woke up and barely drank 2 cups of water that day. The day after that I waited until I got to work and after staff rounds, so about 10am. Drank 4 cups before the coffee, 1 cup after. The next day I waited till after lunch. Drank 7 whole cups of water before lunch, and barely a whole cup of water after that shot of espresso.
Yesterday, skipped coffee entirely. Drank 10 cups of water. Today, drank 4 cups of water before staff rounds, had a cup of coffee, didn’t drink any more water until taking my vitamins tonight.
What is it about coffee that makes me not want water? Do others have this problem? It’s not like the coffee quenches my thirst all that well, but suddenly I just get sick to my stomach thinking about water afterward.
So, clearly, I need to cut out the coffee in my life (I’ve been wanting to do that anyway, but it’s very apparent that I need to prioritize it). There’s just one problem…
…I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON AND I WILL BITE YOU (not literally) IF YOU BOTHER ME BEFORE I’VE FULLY WOKEN UP.
What’s a girl to do????? Any suggestions for getting that morning boost that doesn’t involve that opening cup of coffee?
Originally posted on SparkPeople.com at https://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=6569718
Brokenness in the Beauty 