What?! No Coffee?

Let me start this morning’s post by saying that I am very angry.  Not just angry, but irritable, tired, cranky, grumpy, and every other mood you can name in the category of being generally mad at the world.  And this is all because I have given up coffee.  Okay, okay…so I can’t say that I have given up completely.  Today is only the second day without my morning “cuppa joe”.  But let me tell you, it is painful.

So, this all started on Monday when I had my first health/wellness coaching session with the sponsors of the Workplace Wellness Channel here on Wellness.com (if you need a refresher on my relationship with them, see my first post, “Hello World”).  While many of the details of the conversation will be kept private (you all don’t really need to know how out of shape and unhealthy I am), I will touch on our conversation about coffee because it has the potential to be life-changing for me.

During my conversation with the health coach, while I was taking a sip of my mocha latte, almost as if on cue, he asks me, “So how do you take your morning cup of coffee?”  I paused for a second, almost choking on my chocolaty, velvety sip.  We then began to discuss the health implications of my daily habit.

We got online and looked up the nutrition facts for my drink and I was astounded.  Now, I normally get a 20 oz. mocha latte every day, but I am going to list the nutrition facts for the 16 oz., since that is probably the size that the majority of you get.  In a 16 oz. mocha latte at my favorite coffee shop, there are 380 Calories, 4.5 grams of Saturated Fat, 500 mg of Sodium, and 67 grams of Carbohydrates.  I was then told that this 16 oz. beverage gives me nearly a quarter of my daily values for the given categories listed.  And the 20 oz. that I usually get is giving me well over one quarter of my daily values.

I really couldn’t believe it.  I never would have guessed that a delicious cup of coffee could have that level of Calories, Sodium, and Carbohydrates.  We then talked about the amount of money that I spent over the course of a year getting that cup of coffee every day.  We rounded up to $5 per day when you take into account tipping the barista, and I will let you do the math on what that multiplies out to.  The health coach made a good point when he said, “Now imagine if you spent that money on improving your health.  You would be healthier, feel better, and you wouldn’t feel the need for that morning cup of coffee anymore.”

It made a lot of sense.  So much sense that here I am on day 2 with no coffee.  I figure that I will take it one day at a time.  Let’s see how long I can last.

P.S. – Just visit the website for your favorite coffee shop to see the nutrition facts for your drink of choice.

P.P.S. – Feel free to leave a comment or ask questions.  I will try to write back or touch on the subject in my regular posts.