The Truth about Coffee {An Intuitive Perspective}

The thing about intuitive eating is the less toxins that you take into your body the more sensitive your body becomes.  The more sensitive you are the more in tune you become to what your body needs physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Our body can only go so long under high stress and toxins, if you don’t listen to your body you will get sick eventually which is no fun!

Last year…I had a lot of resistance to ditching my coffee habit.  But taking some time away from it really opened my eyes and I truly feel so much better.  My body was telling me to slow down, but I didn’t want to listen because I was addicted to everything about coffee. {usually when we resist change that means we should change it}

I have been a BIG coffee junkie for YEARS (being only 26 that is saying something ha). But slowly over time I have been drinking less and less the “healthier” and less toxic my body becomes. My body has started to say “No” to coffee and the more I listen the more I can tell how harmful it has been to my body. Today I literally thought “My liver hurts when I drink bad coffee”.  I should add that my adrenals hurt too…

So when my liver/adrenal glands are rejecting coffee….I take that as a sign to instead hydrate my body like crazy, drink green tea, and lots of lemon water.  You can also add Himalayan salt to your water which nourishes the adrenal glands. (side note)

Why is coffee hard on the liver/adrenals?

1. Coffee is full of toxins and mold. Our liver has to process this and get it out of the body. Coffee causes the hormones to go imbalanced if you drink it on an empty stomach. You go up and down on the roller coaster of energy and your body is like “whoa – and doesn’t like to be all over the place.” Any hormone imbalances are processed through the liver by cleaning up excess levels of hormones.
2. Coffee is a stimulate that excites the body to make adrenaline. Adrenaline is a hormone that you feel when you do something really exciting or thrilling. Adrenaline is what makes coffee so addicting.  We love feeling alert and awake. {especially if you are a work addict}  You can get stuff done better and faster. But you are forcing your body to constantly be in the excited/focused state instead of letting it be exactly how it is in its present state.
3. Coffee slows digestion and is a diuretic. Coffee can be very hard on your stomach lining because it is so acidic. It also causes your body to be dehydrated since it is a diuretic. Make sure that you drink extra water for every cup of coffee.

Coffee has a lot of benefits too! Since it increases your brain power and helps you to focus – it can be a great tool to maximize your performance.

There are a lot of ways that you can optimize your coffee drinking. One is bulletproof coffee.  I just ordered my first box…so I will let you know how it goes. 🙂 Or even like this recipe…with no coffee, but still great morning drink to wake up your body!  Mixing in healthy fat, quality protein, and other super foods is a good way to drink coffee and not run into the “coffee for breakfast” dilemma. {and no processed cream does not count!}

The point of this article that coffee isn’t necessarily good or bad, but it’s important to be able to listen to your body’s cues so you can avoid coffee when it isn’t the best choice of you.  As well as understand…that some days coffee might make you feel awesome and other days you might feel like complete crap from less than 1 cup of coffee.

From my experience, there are 2 main reasons to cut back on coffee…1. Improve your digestion. – coffee slows down digestion and if you have any digestion problems I would suggest cutting down your coffee consumption.  (Plus using coffee only to make yourself poop isn’t healthy either lol) 2. Any Hormonal Related problems – This could be a long list, but specifically PCOS, acne, adrenal fatigue, blood sugar issues, etc. – If you do drink coffee – I suggest only 1 cup paired with protein/fat.  Drinking only black coffee for breakfast is a big no-no as it causes your hormones to stay out of whack all day long.  (This could be another  blog post so I’ll stop here – if you have more specific questions contact me chelsea@chelseajolene.com)

For now – I want you to reflect on your coffee habit. Do you drink coffee all day long? Do you need it to function? Do you feel lightheaded or dizzy? Do you feel exhausted and tired all the time? How do different types of coffee make you feel? How does your stomach feel?

I also suggest looking into the kind of coffee you are drinking and notice what different brands taste like and how they affect how you feel.  The way the coffee is brewed can change how you feel too.  I once had a REALLY bad cup of coffee. It made me shake so badly I thought I must have took an awful drug! I just felt like complete crap and I didn’t do anything different than I normally do..  It was a NEW kind of coffee that didn’t look very high quality…it was so weird flavor one like chocolate cake or something ridiculous. haha But that coffee was pretty bad and never again! Likely that coffee was packed full of bad ingredients and mold to a whole another level which made me react in such a bad way.

If you regularly drink coffee, I suggest trying to  take a break from coffee for a while…and when you come back to it – track how you feel.

The power of knowing how what you put into your body makes you feel is astounding!! Take the time to listen to your body so you can work together with it in harmony.

What do you think about coffee? Does it work for you? What is your favorite way to drink it? Leave me a comment below!

Want to learn more about listening into your body’s intuitional cues so you can thrive? Follow me on Periscope @chelseajolenero – this week I am talking all about adrenal fatigue! You can watch today’s replay here. {and all my other replays}

Your Nutritional Detective, {cool name huh}

Sending my love!