The mere smell of it gets me out of bed in the morning, but it’s not the first thing I drink. I am horrible at making coffee, but my husband makes it perfectly every day. I just cannot seem to get the water-to-coffee ground ratio correct, and to be honest, he’s awake at least an hour before me so he is responsible for the coffee making by default.
I start my day with a mug of warm water and the juice of half a lemon. Drinking this first thing in the morning has so many health benefits. It helps to detoxify your body, clear up your skin, and gives you a boost of vitamin C which is an amazing antioxidant. Lemon water also helps to restore the pH levels in your body which is often the culprit of digestive issues. Other benefits include a strengthened immune system as lemon contains anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. It’s also a natural diuretic, it neutralizes free radicals in the body, replaces electrolytes, and so much more.
After every drop of lemon water is gone, it’s time for the real reason I dragged myself out of bed (besides having to see my kids off to school), coffee. We usually have a bit of coffee leftover, and instead of pouring it down the drain, I pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it for the perfect afternoon pick me up, Mocha Banana Smoothie. It tastes like a fancy and expensive mocha concoction that rivals the calorie count in a Big Mac, but it’s healthy!
If you’ve heard about coffee containing acrylamide, a carcinogen found in cooked foods such as French fries, that is also a natural byproduct of the coffee roasting process, you may have considered giving up your daily cup of Joe. But, before you bid your coffee farewell, you should know that it’s loaded with antioxidants and many experts believe that the health benefits greatly outweigh the potential risk. Drink the coffee, eat the cookie, work your ass off in and outside of the gym, love hard, live clean, be grateful, and be kind. All of that sounds incredibly simple first thing in the morning with a steaming mug of coffee in your hand, so when you’re ready to throw in the towel on all of your good intentions by mid afternoon, make a mocha banana smoothie.
Mocha Banana Smoothie
3/4 cup almond milk
1/2 frozen banana (or a whole banana if you’d like it thicker)
4 frozen coffee cubes
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon cacao powder
1 tablespoon almond butter
Blend all ingredients together and enjoy!
xx,
Natalie