Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Every morning, after sweating for 40 minutes in bootcamp, I stop by Starbucks on my way home. Usually the line is fairly short, and I order myself a tall Pike brew and a grande iced coffee for B. The baristas know my order and pour my coffee before I reach the counter, and while the cup for iced coffee joins the line of other specialty drinks I pull a packet of stevia out of my purse and mix it into my coffee.

Yesterday, with the unveiling of all the holiday drinks and paraphernalia, the line was nearly out the door. I took a seat at the coffee bar and sipped my stevia enhanced Pike while watching the baristas churn out an assembly line of holiday drinks while I waited for B’s iced coffee. What I saw left me both shocked and dismayed…

The sheer amount of sugary goop that I saw being drizzled and pumped into cups was unbelievable!

Caramel syrup, chocolate sauce, gingerbread syrup, peppermint syrup, whipped cream, chocolate shavings, toffee pieces…there was more refined sugar going into “coffee” cups than you’d find at an ice cream parlour! And each and every person that came to claim their “coffee” (really their cup of sugar) easily had 40+ pounds to lose. And yet there they were, numbly starting their day off with a giant shot of process, refined and unnecessary sugar.

Many of my fellow Starbucks-goers also treated themselves to baked goods from the pastry display – easily adding another few hundred calories and another generous serving of refined sugar (not to mention a bomb of grains and gluten). I collected B’s iced coffee and headed back home, my mind swimming.

How many of these well-meaning folks realize how their morning habit is setting them up for a lifetime of weight gain and obesity? I wanted to burst back into Starbucks with a megaphone to stop everyone in their tracks and to talk some sense into them. Here’s what I would have said…

1. Starting your day with refined sugar creates an ongoing cycle of awful food choices, spiked blood sugar and primes your body to store fat all day long.
2. You’ll feel SO MUCH BETTER when you cut refined sugar out of your diet – especially cutting it out of your morning routine. Your energy will steady and soar. Your headaches will go away. Your weight will drop. Even your outlook on life will brighten.
3. Creating HEALTHY MORNING HABITS is just as easy as your current unhealthy morning habits. Once you set the rule that you WON’T take in refined sugar in the morning you’ll reap all of the benefits of a low sugar diet and soon will not even miss it.
   

No, I didn’t turn back and pull a megaphone out of my back pocket