So, apparently it is National Caffeine Awareness Month, and as much as I’d like to say there is no such thing as TOO MUCH coffee, I happen to know personally this is not true. 😉
As a certified and registered nutrition consultant – and a former nutrition consultant – I should practice what I used to preach… But, even in motherhood, we all know that is often easier said than done. Interestingly enough, it is also National Nutrition Month! You can see one of my posts on nutrition here. One thing I learned early in my studies is that you have to drink 1 ½ cups of water to offset every 1 cup of coffee. This just makes you not go negative on the hydration scale. We all are also supposed to drink half our body weight in ounces every day. If you way 150 pounds, you should be drinking 75 ounces of water to stay properly hydrated. Our bodies are made up of almost ¾ water, so it’s really important to keep our water intake up!
When I was in my very early 20s, I was working full-time during the day at an office and then serving at a restaurant in the evenings. I was not doing a good job of eating properly, and I was not drinking nearly enough water. I had been taking caffeine pills to keep myself going, but after several weeks and about seven pills in one day, I collapsed against the wall in the kitchen of the restaurant and scared everyone, including myself. I stayed away from energy drinks and caffeine pills ever since then.
However, I moved onto coffee more and more as I went through my 20s and into my 30s. I usually was pretty good about the coffee-to-water ratio, but the year before was a crazy one. By the time we got to Fall, I was drinking a lot of iced coffee and iced lattes and maybe a couple sips of water every day. By mid-November, I felt so dizzy and nauseous and was scared I was going to pass out several times a day. I went to three different doctors, and all three of them told me I was just dehydrated! I cut myself off from coffee for almost a month and drank a ton of water. I slowly eased my coffee back in at the beginning of last year and have been much more mindful of staying hydrated while enjoying it and the lovely benefits it gives me of feeling more awake and happy than without it. 😊
If you are an avid coffee (or any type of caffeine) lover, here are some tips to enjoy it with “awareness”:
- For every cup of caffeinated beverage you drink, make sure to have 1 ½ times that amount of water sitting by you at the same time (and actually drink it!)
- Calculate what half your body weight in ounces is and game plan a way to drink that number of ounces throughout your day
- Give yourself a limit of how much to drink, or how long to drink caffeine, during the day and then just hydrate the rest of the day and evening after that
- Know that you can build up a tolerance to caffeine, so take a “caffeine fast” at certain times and let your body have a reset
I know that I enjoy my coffee and espresso too much, and I’m sure many of you other mamas do as well, so join me in being more aware and taking care of our health so we can function consistently and be there for all those we love that depend on us so much.
