Ep 41 | Let's Talk Coffee!

Coffee can set you up for success or make your day much harder than it has to be. In this episode, we talk about the pros and cons of coffee and how to make sure your Cup of Jo is boosting your energy instead of draining it.

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I love to hear from you. You can always reach me at amelia@lifeboost.today.

What You Need To Know About Dietary Fats

Music: “Play Thing” by Ketsa
From Free Music Archive

Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, mental health, or professional advice. I am a certified health and life coach, not a licensed medical or mental health professional. Please consult with a healthcare provider before making any changes to your physical or mental health routines. If you are experiencing a crisis, seek help from a qualified professional or contact emergency services.

Connect with me on your favorite social media channel: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn! 

To learn more about my approach and the programs and free resources available to support you, visit my website: www.lifeboost.today

I love to hear from you. You can always reach me at amelia@lifeboost.today.

Transcript

0:03

Hey life booster. This is Dr. Amelia health coach and veterinarian here to help you ditch yo-yo dieting people pleasing and perfectionism by breaking the norm and living a life that energizes you from within. Let's talk about coffee. I am sitting here with my morning cup of coffee and I love coffee. So I think that's a fun topic. It also is an important one because what you are putting in your morning cup of Joe is going to have a huge impact on the way that you feel for the rest of the day. And coffee is one of those things that can either really be setting you up for success and can have a huge impact on the way that you feel in the morning, or it could really be contributing to signs that are making your life a lot harder than it has to be. So let's see which it is because there are little swaps that you could make that will have a big difference. So in my cup of coffee, I add a scoop of lion's mean, and. Acacia powder. So what those are lion's mane is a type of mushroom and it's really good for cognitive function. And so that's why I add it to my coffee because I am really, really big into supporting brain health. With both of my jobs, it's really important that my brain is functioning properly, that I can problem solve and that I'm very creative. And so I do a lot with my diet and with supplements to make sure that my brain is working really well. This is also important to me because there was a time as a veterinarian when I was experiencing huge brain fog. Like, especially in the afternoon after I had lunch, I would just have the most difficult time concentrating. It almost felt like I was. Removed kind of I felt like my brain was in slow motion. I felt like I was almost like a spectator, like removed from myself. I dunno, that may sound really weird, but it was a really frustrating, confusing feeling of just like extreme spaciness. And like, I could still do my job, but it required a lot of effort and think fully that has completely resolved. And so if you are experiencing something like that, no, like it, it even took me a little while to. Recognize, like probably other people don't have this kind of spaciness after eating lunch. And, um, and that was when I really started working at getting to the root cause of why I was just always tired. Even though I was eating pretty healthy, why I was having that brain fog, um, those stomach issues and so much of that can stem from gut health. And so that leads into the other thing that I am adding into my coffee, uh, Keisha powder. So that's a C a C I a in case you're wondering, and that is a prebiotic. I strongly recommend that everybody take a prebiotic much more than a probiotic. If you're going to spend your money on one or the other, I would say a prebiotic is the way to go because a prebiotic is food for the good gut microbes that you want. Instead of a probiotic that's adding in microbes. The prebiotics are feeding when nourishing the good balance that you want with a probiotic. You have that population of microbes while you're taking the probiotic, but once you stop taking it, then it goes away and some in probiotics can absolutely. Beneficial. It is important to know what your goal is, and to really look for strains that are supportive of, of your goal and to the. Observe, if that's helping, you know, trying it for a couple of months and seeing if you are noticing or feeling a difference compared to a prebiotic that is you're setting up your own microbes and your own micro flora to be. It balanced in the way that you want so that you have a nice, healthy, resilient gut. It also is fiber. So we are living in a society where constipation is really common and some of the most common signs of constipation would be bloating and gas. Especially if you have like, just this feeling of fullness a lot. If you wake up bloated, then it's really something to think of. If you're constipated, even if you're going to the bathroom every day, if you're not having like a full evacuation, complete emptiness, then you still could be constipated. And it's just, it's impossible to feel your best and energized if you're dealing with that. So I highly recommend a prebiotic. There are other types of prebiotics as well. We could potentially talk about another time. Another easy one to find is fiber that's wheat dextrin. You can easily find that at a drug store. It is technically not supposed to have gluten in it, but if you do have, certainly if you have Celiac's disease, I would say, do not have that. But if you are. Even if you think that you have a gluten intolerance or sensitivity, I recommend doing a different one to start and Acacia powder or something you can easily find on Amazon. You can get a big bag of it. And I start just with like a teaspoon of that, and you can slowly increase it as your body tolerates it and see how you feel. So think about your morning, a cup of coffee. What are you putting in it? If you are putting in sugar, that is something to really be thinking about because you could be. Revving up your sugar cravings for the rest of the day, went through your morning cup of coffee. What could be happening as if you are waking up and having your coffee that has sugar and. You're not having a really balanced breakfast beforehand to help to balance that out. You could be causing suddenly this spike in your blood sugar, and then it's going to crash. And so then instead of this coffee, that's supposed to be giving you energy for your day. You could be starting your day with something that is going to. Be making you hungry really soon. It's going to actually cause a sugar or an energy crash, and then that's going to make you feel like you need another cup of coffee really quick. That's really something to be thinking about. I now drink black coffee. It's not something that I started out doing at all. I used to always sweeten it. And there was something that just very naturally and gradually happened that as I was starting to be aware of all of the added sugar that was in my diet, and I started to decrease that suddenly I didn't really like the taste of. Sweetener in my coffee. And I started to appreciate so much more the actual taste of coffee. And that's a really interesting thing that happens. Your taste buds truly change. And it's very quick, like in my jumpstart program during the body of vacation, when you take a break from adage, Very quickly people who have had really major sweet tooths for their entire life. They start finding especially when the reintroduce things like, for example, they'll go out for dinner and order something that has a marinade, like a steak and there. I think that that had sugar, like it tasted really sweet where previously you definitely wouldn't have noticed that. And so things like fruit will taste, very sweet, where they didn't previous. So it's something that even if right now you're like, I could never dream of having coffee without sweetener, because you don't really like the taste of coffee. It could be that right now, your taste buds have just been inundated with so much sweeteners and so much sugar that's all that it really appreciates. But when you tone that dial down suddenly you're really appreciating lots of other flavors and that makes food much more exciting. So you're not just needing that hit of sweet. So that can be something just starting to pay attention to the added sugar that is in a food that you are eating, even starting out with your savory food. You know, check out your cells, uh, your tomato sauce, your crackers, your meats. You're going to be shocked. How many of those have added sugar in them, even though you don't think of them as something that sweet at all. So that's, you're already that baseline, like everything you're eating is sweetened. And so that makes it so that you need a lot of sweetener to get that actual satisfaction of sweetness. As you're just making swaps for things so that at least your savory food isn't having that added sugar, you are going to not be needing as much sweetness. So that's a way of slowly decreasing the amount of sweetener in your coffee. You can also add just a little bit of cinnamon to your coffee that can add just a little bit of sweetness and flavor without adding actual sweetener. I also recommend cold brew. So, if you feel like coffee is really better than cold brew tends to be a little bit smoother. There are some brands that do tend to taste a little bit sweet, even without any sweetener. And so that can be a great way to start decreasing your sugar. If you do have to add a sweetener, also looking what kind of creamer are you putting into your cough? Even if you're putting a little bit of skim milk, that's something to really be looking at. Especially if you do experience things like bloating. If you do experience an energy crash, if you're putting skim milk and a little sugar into your coffee, even the lactose in the milk, The natural sugars all of that could also be causing a blood sugar spike. And so that's where if you have to be adding sweetener, thinking about like a full fat milk or adding something like coconut milk that could help you to feel a little bit more satisfied. So just something to really think of. Especially, if you do love Starbucks and you tend to start your morning with a latte or one of those fancy drinks really check in with the amount of added sugar that is in that and all of the chemicals or ingredients, if you are adding an alternative milk, really not all alternative milks are created equal. And I often see, oh, milk as a common one. Oh, milk is another one that. That often has a lot of added sugar to it, all almond milks. A lot of the times have added sugar to, I encourage you to check if you are using the unsweetened one or if it is the one that has a lot of sugar, because those aren't even going to have the protein that milk has to help to balance it out and to help to. A big blood sugar spike. And so then gear once again, just getting a dose of sugar and that is going to be really fueling your sugar cravings. That's going to cause a decrease in your energy quickly so that you feel like you keep needing more and more coffee, and it's going to make you hungry really quickly. Now, there are two other things that I want to talk about with coffee. Now coffee can have so many benefits in general. Like if you are having a special ed black coffee, it can be a great way to give you a little bit of a cognitive boost. It can help you to focus a little bit more to have good energy. It can be good for gut health. It can be great for a little mood boost as well. However, it can also. Because the opposite. And so this is again where it's really about tuning in to how coffee is making you feel and whether that's working for you. And also of course, the amount of coffee. There's a big difference between one cup of coffee in the morning. Or if you are needing like wanting like an Ivy of coffee throughout the day, if you are constantly relying on coffee, that's a sign of really needing to focus on Y as your energy. So low that you're having to rely on that artificial source of energy. So with how coffee is making you feel coffee. Coffee may give you an energy boost and make you feel really on it. For some people, it really can make you feel jittery and anxious and stressed. So if you tend to feel really stressed all of the time, that's something to pay attention to. If your coffee could be contributing to that, if it is one thing that I recommend is experimenting with an alternative. Source of caffeine, for example, green tea or macho, which is basically green tea, but the it's a whole green tea leaves that have then been pulverized. So it is hired coffee and. The thing that green tea has is ealthy and EAN. And so that helps to balance out the effects of caffeine. So that ear not as jittery, ealthy Indian has a calming effect. And so if you tend to be really stressed, that can be a really good way to have like a calm energy versus that jittery, anxious. Especially, if you tend to rely on coffee and throughout the day, and you tend to be stressed all the time, then even starting out with having your morning cup of coffee and then trying to have the green tea later in the day would be something to experiment with in terms of gut health cough. Can be helpful. It can be good for your microbes. It can also be helpful for having a bowel movement in the morning, or it could be causing some GI signs, you know, is it too much for you? Is that causing diarrhea or cramping, you know, really tuning into How coffee is making you feel throughout the day. And whether that is setting you up for success, especially. Once again, the amount to, you know, one cup of coffee can be very nourishing if you are having multiple cups of coffee. And that is really, you know, affecting the way that you're feeling physically and mentally, then really getting to the root of why you don't have energy and what you can do to be feeling energized from within. And instead of having to rely on that external source is going to help you to experience life in a much more enjoyable. So take a little time today. Think about what you have been putting in your coffee. Think about if it is setting you up for success, or if maybe it could use a little make-over and pay attention today to how your coffee makes you feel. Is it giving you that really great boost? Is it helping you to feel extra on it and giving you a little extra edge or is your coffee contributing to your sugar cravings, feeling hungry, not having good energy. What if your coffee is actually draining your energy? That would be devastating. So take a look, let me know what you find. Cheers to your inevitable health, happiness, and success.