Eating healthier doesn’t have to be stressful and you don’t have to make a lot of changes all at once. Changing too much, too quickly, can feel overwhelming and it can be a darn good excuse not to ever want to start at all! But what if you begin with some small changes that aren’t so painful? Just think about making the best choice you can, wherever you are.
Let’s look at your morning cup of coffee. Let’s say you hit Starbucks on your way to work in the morning. I can hear you now...”Don’t mess with my Starbucks!” Just hear me out. Maybe you’re the one who loves, loves, loves, a daily Carmel Macchiato (contains 33, count em’, grams of sugar). How about a White Chocolate Mocha? (59 grams of sugar). Maybe you’re trying to be good, so you order green tea for the beneficial antioxidants. Tazo Green Tea Frappuccino, (63 grams of sugar). Holy moly!
Don’t look at the calories...look at the grams of sugar! And remember...four grams of sugar equals one teaspoon of sugar. So, your Tazo Green Tea with 63 grams of sugar contains just under 16 teaspoons of sugar!!! Yikes--a little coffee with your morning sugar?!
But you love and depend on your coffee in the morning...so now what? Try ordering your coffee black or with steamed half and half, milk, coconut milk, or almond milk (the coconut and almond milk at Starbucks contains sugar so use it sparingly). Or order an espresso or latte but make sure it’s unsweetened. You can sweeten it as much as you want with a little stevia (carry it with you) and sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg on the top if you’d like. If you want something cold, try an iced coffee.
For those of you who haven’t tried stevia, it comes from a plant that is native to Paraguay. It doesn’t raise blood sugar or contain harmful chemicals and it's much sweeter tasting than sugar, so start with a very small amount, taste, and then add more if you’d like it sweeter.
“Well, wait a minute, you’re thinking...I thought you said we weren’t going to make this stressful. You’re trying to take away something I love!” Don’t think about never again being able to have a Carmel Macchiato... but instead of drinking five of them a week, try treating yourself to one on the weekends...or one on Monday morning (that’ll help get you out of bed)! Eventually you’ll become more aware of how the sugar makes you feel. Try to eat, or in this case drink, healthfully the majority of the time...and treat yourself now and then.
If you drink your coffee at the office, do you ever use those cute little non-dairy creamers? Those little creamers typically contain high fructose corn syrup (worse for you than sugar), partially hydrogenated oil (nasty trans fats), and other synthetic ingredients. Not so cute after all, huh? It’s a much better choice to have organic half and half or milk, or unsweetened almond, coconut, or cashew milk.
Give it a try, and let me know what you think!
