Click – Coffee Protein Powder Review

I love coffee! If I could drink coffee all day long, I probably would. Luckily for me, coffee doesn’t keep me up at night (it might if I started drinking it all day long however....) My problem with coffee is that I will only drink my coffee with milk and sugar (never sweetener), so every cup is 113 calories, with very few other nutritionally –redeeming qualities.

I recently received a free sample of Click Double Espresso Protein Shake powder as part of a race kit. I’m always looking for ways to add more protein to my diet, so I was excited to try this. I’ve heard a lot of people rave about this brand, but had not yet had a chance to taste it.

Admittedly, double espresso would not have been my pick of flavours. I usually don’t like any drink with espresso in it. I might love coffee, but often find that espresso is just too much for me. Luckily the flavour of the protein powder proved to be a more subtle coffee flavour and I didn’t notice any ill effects from the extra caffeine.

My favorite part of this powder was how easy it was to make. I added it to a shaker cup, added my liquid (I used almond milk instead of just water. Sure it added an extra 45 calories, but I think it made for a creamier and better tasting drink), shook it up and it was ready to go. The directions do say that you can serve it as a hot beverage, but I’m not sure that I would like that, unless I could do it with steamed milk, but you never know. You can also blend it with ice in a blender and make more of a smoothie.

I really enjoyed the flavour, but I did find the texture a bit odd. There were “bits” of something floating in my drink that reminded me of crushed up banana that I sometimes get in other shakes that I make if I don’t blend them long enough. Since I hadn’t added a banana to this, I’m not really sure what it was. It wasn’t unpleasant, just unexpected.

I love that I got 15gs of protein – nearly 20% of my daily goal – all in one quick drink and for only 110 calories. It’s a great way to enjoy a “fancy” coffee while actually consuming something nutritious for the same amount of calories that my regular coffee would set me back. It didn’t keep me as full as other protein shakes that I have tried do. I don’t think this would qualify as a meal replacement option, but just a great way to add more protein to your day.

This review is solely my own opinions and I was not compensated or endorsed in any way by the makers of Click.

C is for....

Cookies and Cake and Chocolate and Candy and ice Cream and Chips and  CRAP.

These are all things that I have been eating way too much of and as such, I'm back to gaining weight instead of losing it.

That stops today.

Today I am starting another 6-week accountability group.  My goal for this group is to stop eating all of these C-words.  Overall we eat a very healthy, fresh food diet.  Hilary is an amazing cook who is always on the hunt for new, exciting recipes that are tasty and healthy.  I have a healthy breakfast, a well packed lunch and a great dinner.   I need to stop snacking after work and in the evenings before bed.

My other detractor of late has been having a car.  Due to various commitments, we've been keeping our weekend rental car during the week which adds 2 problems to my weight loss/health plan.  1) I'm not walking 20 minutes every morning from the bus to work.  2) It's far to convenient to skip breakfast and pick up something at the drive through.  My food choices for the last 2 weeks have not been great.

While this feels a bit like starting over, it really is just getting back on tract.  I've had 2 weeks of sloth and gluttony, so no it's time to settle back into my healthy routine.

Willpower

The next few weeks are going to be a true test of my will power. Every year our TaeKwon-Do club has its members sell chocolate bars to raise funds. We are each asked to sell 2 boxes, so 60 chocolate bars. Or in my case, 4 boxes, since Liam and I both train together. Each box contains a mixture of chocolate covered almonds, almond bars, caramel bars and individually wrapped caramels. They are some of the BEST chocolates I have ever tasted.
 

The good thing is that I work in an office with a lot of people, so it’s usually pretty quick and easy to sell off 4 boxes. Just set it up on the corner of my desk and spread the word. The people will come, Toonies in hand.

The bad thing is that I have a box of chocolates sitting on my desk for the next couple of weeks.

The first box was set up on my desk this morning and I’ve already sold 7 bars. The box won’t last long, and will be replaced by the next one (which is already 3 bars light, since Liam emptied his wallet as soon as we got home with them last night).

I really want to stick with my 21-day plan and get my eating back on track, which does not include eating chocolate of any type, let alone a box of almonds that has 440 calories. So until these chocolates are all sold, I will be working on my willpower

“It's not that some people have willpower and some don't... It's that some people are ready to change and others are not.” ― James Gordon

No Thank You

The smell of a vanilla cappuccino wafts down the row to mingle with the scent of toast and peanut butter. A plate of homemade cookies sits on the desk to my left. 3 rows over is the bowl of expensive dark chocolates, placed out for people to help themselves to. At lunch time a delivery person walks by with 15 piping-hot pizzas, leaving a trail of aroma in his wake. Someone does a mid-afternoon run to the store, coming back with mini chocolate Easter eggs and a box of Halloween sized chip bags to share. At least once a week someone forgets their lunch so they run and grab take out, bringing it back to eat at their desk.

These are the office food pitfalls that I navigate every day. I arrive with my healthy, pre-packed, pre-measured lunch, making sure that I don’t have any change on me so that I can’t augment my meal with an extra snack from the vending machine. My co-workers know that I am trying to eat right and lose weight, and in fact, more than half of them are doing the same thing. Mostly they don’t offer me whatever item is currently being passed around, but every now and then I have to deal with what I refer to as “the pushers”. You know the type…. “Aww come on, just one won’t hurt you, have a cookie/chocolate/timbit/snack.” And they seem genuinely insulted when I decline, as if our level of friendship is directly related to me accepting or refusing their fares.

Too many times of late I have fallen into the trap of accepting just one, having a wee taste or sampling something new. I know that individually none of these will derail my progress, but I don’t always have the willpower to stop at just one. So for my own success I have had to take the stance of saying “No Thank You” to all of it. One day I may be at a place that I won’t have to refuse, but I’m not there today.

Do you have “pushers” in your life? How do you handle them?

21 days

After gaining weight for the last 3 weeks, it’s time to knuckle down and get serious again. Luckily that coincides with a 21 day challenge I’ve signed up for. I was recently introduce to “Shakeology”. Not one to believe in fad diets, supplements or other snake oil ideas, I was pretty skeptical. An online friend who is a Team Beach Body coach, hooked me up with a couple of free samples to try. It was surprisingly tasty and my research has me believing that it really is made of all natural, good for you things. Since I like shakes, I figured I would give it a try.

The 21 day challenge also came with food containers to help with portion control and some work out videos. Since I’m old pro at calorie counting and portion control, I don’t think I’ll be using the containers as intended, but they do make good containers to take my lunch to work in. I was initially resistant to the work out videos as well, but I tried on last Thursday to see what it was like. I only made it through 20 of the 30 minute workout before I thought I was going to throw up, and it took 3 days before my thighs recovered enough that I could get in and out of a chair on my own. The part that I like the most about the video was that even though it was led by a skinny, chipper, I-workout-10-times-a-day woman, they had a regular sized woman also featured doing modified versions of the exercises for those of us who can’t keep up with the skinny, chipper leader. I found I was following a little bit of both of them – more so the modified versions as time wore on and I got more and more tired.

My goal for these 21 days is to drink one of their shakes every morning (I bought the chocolate version, and wow, is it great tasting!), keep my calories under 1900 a day and to work out at least 30 minutes a day – either at TKD or one of their videos. 3 weeks is a small enough time frame to not be overwhelming. We have no plans or celebrations in the next 3 weeks, and won’t be renting cars either, so that will keep me out of the fast food drive thrus.

Yesterday I weighed in, got Hilary to help me take my measurements and some "before" pictures (which  won't be sharing!)   I'm really hoping that this is the kickstart that I need to get myself back on track!

Snacking

One of the areas that I finding that I struggle with the most on this journey is snacking in the evening. I can do great all day long. Mainly because my lunch is pre-packed and I don’t take any money with me to the office. So there is simply no opportunity to snack or deviate from my plan for the day. (saying no to office treats is a whole other post)

Once I get home however, all bets are off. It feels like a constant battle is being waged in my mind.

“Ooh, look chips!”
  “Wait, you don’t need chips”

“I’m bored…. I wonder what’s in the cupboard?”   
    “You’re bored, not hungry, go get a glass of water.”

Sometimes I’m successful at talking myself out of the snack. Sometimes the “good” dialogue can’t be heard over the crunching, because I’ve already stuffed something in my mouth before I even realize what I’m doing. Most people will say, “just don’t keep snacks and junk food in the house.” And that is a great suggestion, and we don’t have a lot of snacks around. But I don’t live alone and I need to overcome my issues without imposing my needs on everyone else. For me though it doesn’t even have to be “bad” or junk food. I’m just as happy to snack on healthy, good for me food. It’s just that even good for you food still adds unnecessary calories. And since I’m working on losing weight, not gaining more, I need to keep my calorie intake under control.

So I continue to try to stay busy in the evening and enjoy my dinner at a not too early, not too late time that helps to ward off hunger. If I do catch myself with food in my mouth, I try to stop and not overdo it. And mostly, I try not to beat myself up too much when I do end up snacking, knowing that tomorrow is another day.

How do you avoid snacking?

Bananas

I don’t often crave a specific food. I will sometimes crave sweet, salty or crunchy, but those cravings can be satisfied by many different foods. The one food that I do crave however is bananas. Somehow my body just seems to know when I need bananas. Years ago when I had a major surgery, the only thing I wanted when I got home and was coming out of my drug enduced stupor was a banana.

 

 

Bananas are a great food that can be used in so many ways. On their own, cut up on cereal, as part of a smoothie or on a sundae. Hilary even makes a chicken curry dish that includes hot, cooked bananas! One of my favorite deserts is bananas Foster – bananas cooked in butter, brown sugar and rum. They are also easy to travel with, offering a quick and easy go-to snack, especially if you have one of these!

 



Bananas pack a lot of punch for a snack size serving. The calories are not excessively high – around 100 calories/per banana, but are enough to give you an energy boost and work well as a post-workout food.   They are also a great source of potassium. The Chiquita Banana website states “the potassium in bananas stimulates your muscles, nerves and brain cells, and as a bonus, can also help reduce blood pressure and risk of stroke".   They also contain 15% of your daily Vitamin C requirement, making it a well rounded fruit.

Do you ever crave a specific food? 

Miso

In my Christmas stocking this year I got some lovely cup of soup style Miso Soups. Just add water and you have a lovely mug of warm, comforting goodness, complete with squares of tofu and bits of seaweed. I’ve always loved miso soup, so having it to take to work seemed like an awesome idea. And it is!

One packet of Miso soup has only 35 calories. It’s certainly not a complete meal on its own, but it makes for a great mid afternoon snack, or an add-on to a lunch of cheese and crackers. Miso also has many health benefits. One study associates it with lowering the risk of breast cancer¹. Other studies link it to weight loss². Nutritionally it is packed with vitamins from the B family, especially B12 (on that I often suffer from a lack of), antioxidants and it is a complete protein³.

What exactly is Miso?

Miso is a paste made from fermented soybeans. While that doesn’t sound very appetizing , it has the texture of butter with a satly/nutty flavor⁴. It can be used in a variety of recipes, though the most commonly used for Miso soup.

Sources:

1)WebMd
2) LiveStrong
3) Care2.com
4) Natural News

Do you eat Miso?  What is your favorite recipe?

What's in your cart?

Being prepared and having the right foods on hand is key to eating well.  If you don't have everything you need to get through the week, it's too easy to fall back on eating out, grabbing quick snacks and suddenly you have undone all your hard work from the week before.

On Saturday Hilary plans out our meals for the upcoming week, we discuss what I want to take for lunches and have for breakfast each day, we make a list and head to the grocery store.   We buy very few "convenience" foods, preferring fresh items that we prepare ourselves.  Except waffles - one of the few foods Liam will eat (and nope, he won't eat Hilary's amazing homemade waffles.  Oh well, more for me)

If you aren't used to planning, shopping, preparing and cooking I can understand how it can seem overwhelming to eat healthy, homemade foods.  I'm doubly blessed that Hilary is not only an amazing cook, she is also a domestic goddess that has all of this planning, shopping and preparing stuff down to a fine art.  Mostly I'm just along for the ride (I usually don't even get to push the cart; sometimes she lets me cross things off the list, but I think that is just to keep me busy and cut down on my opportunities for impulse purchases)

I read somewhere recently that you should only shop for items around the outer aisles of the grocery store.  That keeps you away from the canned and packaged goods and steers you to the fresh produce, cheese, meat and seafood counters.  The majority of our shopping seems to be done in the fruit and vegetable section, so I think we have this "rule" down pat.

What is in your shopping cart each week?

Counting Calories

To count calories or not?

Counting calories doesn't actually make you lose weight.  If I ate a box of Oreos every day but diligently wrote it down, I'm still going to gain weight.

For me though, tracking my calories lets me have better control over what I'm consuming.  Before I started counting calories I had no idea how much I was actually eating each day.  Counting calories also forces you to weigh/measure your food in order to get an accurate calorie count.  When I look back at my food tracking from when I started this journey, it's really quite frightening the number of calories I was eating.

Over time I have learned better portion control thanks to tracking my calories.  I use MyFitnessPal and it also allows me to see other nutrient counts for food, so if I'm aiming for a low carb week, it helps me to plan it out.  I can also put in my food for the day each morning (or even the night before) and then plan if I'm going to be eating out or doing anything special for dinner.

The nice thing about counting calories, is that it's fairly easy.  All packaged foods in Canada have the calorie count by serving printed on the label.   I find this easier than other plans where you have to do math to figure out the "points" value of each food.  And sites like MFP have a great database for fresh foods, or even allow you to enter your own recipes so that you can track things that only you make and don't have an easy nutritional listing to find.

Overall I found counting calories to be a good way to keep my eating in check and to be aware of what and how much I'm eating.

Do you count calories?  If you use MyFitnessPal, feel free to add me in.  You can find me as echaos.

Eggs

Photo Credit: Sin City Farm Girl

One area that I struggle with is ensuring that I get enough protein each day while still keeping my calories in check. One food that is great for this is eggs. I’m not a huge fan of eggs, but I am trying to incorporate them more and more into my diet. You can eat eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner; they travel well when hard boiled and there are almost unlimited ways to prepare them.

Photo Credit: Sin City Farm Girl

While fresh eggs are always better, I have found that  the convenience of using egg whites from a carton to make a quick omelet before work really increases the likely hood of me eating breakfast. And having a protein rich breakfast helps to make me feel full for longer, cutting down on my mid-morning snacking.

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Some Eggy Facts:

One large egg has

• 6.3g of protein – that is 7% of my daily requirement
• 70 calories - 50 from the yolk and 20 from the whites
• Almost no carbs – 0.4g

Courtesy The Egg Nutrition Center

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Eggs and Weight Loss

In a recent study, researchers found that people who ate two eggs and toast for breakfast lost 65% more weight, had an 83% greater reduction in waist circumference and had higher energy levels than people who ate a bagel and yogurt for breakfast.*
*Dhurandhar, N.V. Egg breakfast enhances weight loss. Presented at Experimental Biology 2007. [Research supported by the Egg Nutrition Centre and American Egg Board.] 

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Recipe

A new recipe that we have added to our dinner repertoire is not only yummy and nutritious, but quick to prepare.  

Check out the recipe:  Eggs Baked in Avocado

 

Fast Day Dinner

On fasting days I aim to eat a 300 calorie meal for dinner.  Hilary has done an amazing job at finding a variety of meals that are not only low-low cal, but tasty and filling.  Follow me on Tuesdays and Thursdays as I share our meal plans.

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Menu:

• Spicy Shrimp
• Broccoli Slaw with honey, olive oil and apple cider vinegar
• Thin Tortilla

I had 2 wraps for a total of 298 calories.

Rooibos tea

Hilary and I started drinking Rooibos tea several years ago.  We enjoy a version that is flavoured with vanilla almost every night before bed.  Within 20 minutes of finishing a hot cup, I can barely keep my eyes open.  It's the best sleep aide I've ever tried.  Even our son Liam will often ask for a cup of "sleepy" tea at night.  Since a good night's sleep is so important to health and fitness, I ensure that I enjoy a nice hot cup every night to help send me off to dreamland.

Rooibos tea originates from South Africa.  It's naturally sweet and contains no caffeine.  It's also been found to have many health benefits ranging from:

• calming stomach cramps, even colicky babies
• alleviating allergy symptoms
• preventing the development of fatty liver disease
• potential in treating diabetes
• and even preventing cancer

What is the best way to prepare a cup Rooibos tea?

To make a really good cup of rooibos, use freshly boiled water. This ensures you get the best infusion or extraction from the dried leaves. You need to allow time for the leaves to infuse and open, releasing their fragrance and flavour. If using loose-leaf tea, the rule of thumb is one to two teaspoons per cup for two to four minutes, depending on the strength you like. If you prefer tea bags, work on one per cup. A longer extraction time will result in stronger tea. Once it is poured, enjoy immediately.

The South African Rooibos Council suggests that you drink upwards of 6 cups of Rooibos tea a day to get the maximum health benefits. Since we mainly use it as a sleep aid, I was skeptical about drinking it throughout the day.  I didn't need to be falling asleep at my desk every tea time!  However, while the tea's calming effect can be felt no matter what time you drink it, it does not cause drowsiness during the day.  There is currently no research to explain why this is so, and the sleep aid nature of Rooibos is mostly anecdotal.  But as someone who drinks it every day, I truly believe in it's seemingly magical abilities.

All photos and facts courtesy of The South African Rooibos Council

Will power

....I have none.

Today was a horrible day for food choices.  Faced with temptation 3 different times, I caved EACH time.  And each time I felt like crap because I was eating crap that I haven't had in a while.  You would think after the first or maybe even the second time that I would have learned.  Nope... hours later I did it again.

I can make fabulous choices when planning, I can say No Thank you to people offering me snacks and treats at the office.  But if I have access to junk food, I simply cave.  

This is going to be my goal for the next while.  To take control of my will power.  To not cave to simple desires that I know are not good for me.

Weigh In February 17th

Starting Weight - 217 on January 1st, 2013
Current Weight - 204.8

Weight lost this week -  3.1 lbs

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photo credit: Buzzle.com

I am loving the low-Carb approach to things!  I not only lost 3 pounds this week, I did it without ever feeling hungry or deprived.

I averaged 1815 calories each day which is slightly on the high side for what my goal should be.  The average would have been lower, but we splurged on a fancy dinner for Valentine's Day.  I also averaged 93 g net carbs a day (109 g carbs minus 16 g fiber) .  Considering my average before trying this approach was closer to 280 g net carbs a day, I think I've done well.  I don't think I could get as low as 30 g of carbs, which some diets suggest.  Given my weight loss results for the week, I really don't see the need to go that extreme at this point.

It was very interesting to not feel hungry or have any other negative effects from reducing carbs in my diet.  I was worried that I would hangry or head-achy all week, but I wasn't.  I had a good sized breakfast before leaving for work, small snacks throughout the day and a great dinner every night.  I also drank lots of green tea and water all day long, which I'm sure helped me to feel more full.  I did eat a lot more meat than I usually do.  Hilary indulged me by cooking pork chops, chicken, salmon and steak for me.  A meat with 1 or 2 veggies on the side makes for a very satisfying meal.  I also ate eggs, twice!  Hilary made a fabulous spinach frittata, one of the few ways the I enjoy eggs and on Saturday after TaeKwon-Do I even made myself an omelet.

We've decided to try another week of low carb eating.  It was not that difficult (or more expensive) to put together lunches for me to take to work, and Hilary doesn't mind the meat/veg approach to dinner.  The one thing that I am going to try to change up this week is my breakfast.  Instead of having oatmeal/quinoa with greek yogurt, which has 40 g of carbs in it, I'm going to try cooking myself some eggs (and maybe even bacon) for before I leave for work.  A 2 egg omelet has 1/2 the calories of the quinoa dish and only 1 g of carbs.  Win-Win.  Of course, cooking at 6:00 AM might be a challenge!


I owe a big thanks to my SIL for her fabulous suggestion!  If I can keep things up I may actually reach that elusive goal of 199 lbs.

What are you giving up?

Growing up as a Catholic, I was always asked by all the adults in my life, "What are you going to give up for Lent?"  Since I've always struggled with my weight, I always tried to give up things like cookies or ice cream.  I don't think I was ever successful.

I no longer consider myself Catholic and I haven't thought about giving up something for Lent in years.  Over at Tribesports though I have been doing a lot of healthy eating challenges, so when one came up asking us to challenge ourselves to give up something for Lent, I figured I would give it a go.  

I've decided to give up potato (and other vegetable, since I much prefer parsnip) chips for the next 40 days.

My other food challenges currently include no candy for 2 weeks, a low carb diet for 1 week, drinking green tea every day and no coffee shop coffee for 2 weeks.  And outside of Tribesport challenges I have also cut myself down to 1 cup of coffee a day (with half the sugar in it that I used to use), no pop and no alcohol.

The surprising thing of all this?  I don't crave any of the things I've given up.  I don't feel hungry or unsatisfied during the day.  I don't feel deprived at all.  And I'm seeing the results in my weight already.  Win-Win!

So what are you giving up?

Weigh-In February 10

Starting Weight - 217 on January 1st, 2013
Current Weight - 207.9

Weight lost this week -  3.1 lbs

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And things are back on track!   Not only did I lose the 2 pounds I gained last week, but I lost an additional pound on top of that.

I'm still struggling to keep my calories at or near my goal.  For this coming week I'm going to try a new approach. Instead of focusing solely on calories, I'm going to focus more on carbohydrates.  Since your body uses carbs first to fuel itself, the theory is that if you put less carbs in your body will use what it already has stored, therefore you lose more weight.

On an average day right now I consume about 230 g of carbs. The fancy name for this diet approach is Ketogenic Diet.  Some people say that you should drop your carb intake down to 30-50 g per day.  I really don't think I can go that extreme to start with.  Hilary and I have been playing with menu options and daily food planning.  I'm going to aim to get my carbs down to 100 g this week.  I think cutting them in half to start is good.  After all, the quinoa/oatmeal breakfast that I currently eat has 42 g of carbs alone.

I don't want to be so extreme that I'm starving (and therefore cranky) all the time.  I need to ensure that I have enough snacks and food to get me throughout the day.  And since I'm not a huge meat eater (there aren't any carbs in meat) I'm not likely to take a cooked chicken breast for my mid-morning snack.

We'll keep researching meal and snack ideas before we head out to the grocery store this afternoon.  I'm hoping to see good results from this experiment, with any really bad side effects.

No Candy Challenge

I had a great talk with my SIL today.  She's one of my biggest supporters and can offer great advice on things that I might not see or realize on my own.  She knows that I struggle with a sweet tooth.  She suggested that instead of trying to cut out all sugar or make any drastic changes to what I eat, that I start off with simply not eating any candy for 2 weeks and to see how that goes.

So starting tomorrow (since yes, I had already eaten a piece of candy before I spoke with her this afternoon) I will challenge myself to not eat any candy (including chocolate) for the next 2 weeks.  I've also challenged folks over at Tribesports to do the same.  You are welcome to come and join us, just follow this link.

I know that I won't go out and buy myself candy, but I have very little will power if it's around.  In just the last week I finished off both my Turkish Delight and all the wine gums that I got for Christmas.  Lot's of people at the office keep candy dishes on their desk and I quickly lose track of how many times I scoop one up as I walk by.  So this will definitely be a challenge for me.  I'm feeling up to the task though!

Need some extra protein?

I find that I don't get enough protein in my diet, so I've been looking for ways to add it in.  Quinoa seemed like the perfect solution. We've been enjoying quinoa for a little over a year now.  Quinoa is a grain that is high in protein, easy to digest and really very tasty.  You can eat it hot or cold, add it soups or stews or even buy quinoa flour to add to baked goods.

 For the past couple of weeks, I've been eating it for breakfast.  Cooked up with a bit of oatmeal and flax seed and served with Greek yogurt, it's a hot, quick nutritious breakfast that starts your day off with 14 g of protein.

Last weekend I put together a very quick quinoa - vegetable soup.  It only took 30 minutes from beginning to end and was delicious.

I also have a quick go to quinoa dinner with shrimp that also only takes 30 minutes to make, so it's easy to do after work.

Hilary and Liam bought me a quinoa cookbook for Christmas and I'm very excited to try out new recipes and ways to add quinoa (and protein) to my diet.

Coffee... how I love thee!

Or alternately titled "Why do I do this to myself?"

I started seriously drinking coffee when I was 14 years old.  I had my first job working as a nursing assistant in a retirement home.  I worked 2-3 evenings a week till 9:30.  The dining room always had 2-3 pots of coffee brewed, just ready for the taking. Within months I was up to drinking at least a pot of coffee a shift.  Amazingly caffeine has never interfered with my sleep.  Quite the opposite actually.  It seems that the soothing heat of a hot cup of coffee late at night will lull me to sleep instead of keeping me up.  That being said, it certainly wasn't much help when I was cramming for exams.

I started drinking coffee with milk and sugar, but in my early twenties I switched to black.  But then I developed hypo-glycemia and had many fainting spells from low blood sugar.  I also smoked at the time.  After too many instances of feeling woozy (or passing out completely) I finally made the connection that if I smoked while drinking black coffee I would pass out.  Who knows what was so special about that combination, but adding milk and sugar back into my coffee solved the problem (and no, at the time the idea of quitting smoking never even entered into the realm of possibilities).

I continued on with my love affair of coffee, drinking several a day.  Until I decided to get serious about losing weight.  When I looked at my overall diet, the quickest hit for cutting out calories was to cut back on my coffee intake.  A medium double double from Tim Horton's is 230 calories.  That is currently 17% of my daily intake.  It seemed like a no brainer.

Cutting out coffees on the go was easy.  Cutting back on my morning coffees at home took a bit more work, but eventually I got down to just one a day.  I'm not willing to give it up completely.  And so for the past 9 months or so, I've enjoyed a single cup of coffee before work.  But every now and then, if I have a bit more time in the morning, I figure that I will splurge and have that second cup.  We don't use cream at home, and the cups are smaller then they are at Timmie's, so from a calorie point of view, it's not that bad.

The problem though?  My body seems to have gotten used to a single cup of coffee and the second one now has me doubled over in pain, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.  And yet do I learn?  Of course not.  It's not until I'm sipping the last drop and the pain in my upper rib cage starts that I have a D'oh! moment. The pain lasts for about 30 minutes and nothing seems to help it move along any faster.  I'm such a slow learner that I think I need to put a post it note in the cupboard by the sugar bowl that reads:

Why does the lure of good food always win out over common sense?