Are you a morning coffee drinker?
If so, have you noticed that some mornings your first coffee feels like a roundhouse kick to the face from a flaming ninja? But then other mornings you can barely feel a thing?
What's with that?
Well, the good news is that it's not entirely random and there are some things you can do to increase your chances of getting a big kick every single time.
Christian Baker, a professional speaker and nutritional specialist, explains how timing and nutrition affect the way your body responds to caffeine and shares two strategies on how to make coffee more effective.
Like most good things in life, timing can make all the difference.
There's a term in barista speak called "blonding out", this is when the coffee changes from a rich brown colour to a pale blonde watery substance.
A well trained barista can anticipate this down to a fraction of a second and pull the cup away just in time. Watch carefully next time you order your favourite coffee as your barista pulls the cup away at the perfect time.
My brother and I recently completed a one day training course with Toby's Estate to gain a greater appreciation of what goes into a good cup of coffee and it was so much fun.
We learned a lot of fun facts such as how coffee was first discovered (by an ethiopian goat herder, seriously, google it).
But the biggest and most important lesson we learned that day was: TIMING. Not only does timing affect the quality of the coffee you end up drinking but timing can also affect your response to it.
When you wake up in the morning and get out of bed, from the moment you stand up your body begins producing the stress hormone cortisol.
The objective isn't to make you stressed, which is what can happen when your stress-cortisol-sleep cycle is out of what, but simply to wake you up so you can function properly and start your day.
Image source: https://experiencelife.com/article/the-cortisol-curve/
So in effect, your body is already "caffeinating" itself before you even get a chance to drink your first cup of coffee.
This self energising process tends to last around an hour or so and is your body's natural way of giving you a boost of energy to get you through the morning. That's why we've seen some recent articles published talking about the "perfect time" to drink your coffee as being around 10am - just when your cortisol spike starts to taper off.
Now, what happens if we drink coffee during this self energising process?
Because our cortisol levels are already elevated, if caffeine enters our body we tend to be less responsive to it.
Your body will de-sensitise you to the caffeine to reduce the chance of becoming over stimulated and this is particularly noticeable if you attempt to drink coffee straight after waking up several days in a row.
Because your body is building up a defence to the effects of caffeine it is likely that you will also get less of a kick out of any other coffee you have later that day.
There are 2 ways you can go about dealing with this:
a) Drink even more coffee and hammer yourself with enough caffeine until there's no way you can not feel it: This will work for a few days, but after that, not only will you be back to square 1 but you'll be even worse off than when you started.
OR
b) Wait until your morning self energising period is finished before consuming your first cup of coffee: Time after time, when people wait 1 full hour after waking up before having their first coffee they experience better energy levels, less ups and downs, less cravings and are able to get a strong kick out of every cup of coffee they consume.
Now if you're the kind of person who chugs down a mug of coffee within 5 minutes of waking up, changing your ways will be difficult for the first week.
If this is you, I recommend you wait until the weekend or until you have a day off work and then do the following:
Sleep a full 8 hours, wake up and drink a big glass of water (at least 250ml, preferably more) and then get some fresh air even if it means stepping outside in your pyjamas and then go about your morning routine while you resist the urge to drink coffee for a full one hour.
If this feels too difficult, try for 30 minutes and then work your way up to 1 hour within a week.
Trust me on this one, I know how well this works because I too was a total caffeine junkie and now I am proud to say that I am a slightly more disciplined caffeine junkie and definitely get more out of each cup.
To illustrate the point, please allow me to share my previous and current morning routines.
Does this sound familiar?
If it does, do not feel guilty as I've met many people with a routine almost identical to mine.
But don't worry, with a bit of practice you too can become a reformed junkie and master the art of timing your morning coffee.
Which brings us to...
Now of course not every day is exactly like this and I'm far from perfect but the difference in my daily energy levels has been dramatic since changing to the new, more effective routine.
Feeling lost among the coffee option on the market? Check out Four Sigmatic Lion's Mane Mushroom Coffee - organic coffee for an extra boost of energy. These handy single serve sachets of instant coffee with adaptogenic mushrooms offer stimulation without the jitters.
Another novel option is Kimera Koffee. Brew this one just like regular coffee, but in this case, you've got brain vitamins infused into the grounds. The Alpha-GPC, L-theanine, Taurine and Gingko Biloba will deliver a legendary power up!
What did you eat for breakfast this morning?
Are you a patriotic wheat bix or vegemite on toast kind of person? Or perhaps you eat muesli, granola or yoghurt?
If you answered yes to any of the above I want you to do the following for a week: throw them all out.
Now this may sound extreme but please hear me out.
When it comes to achieving stronger, more stable energy levels in the morning one factor that plays a huge role is your blood sugar levels.
Unfortunately the standard high carb aussie breakfast tends to cause a sharp rise in blood sugar levels followed by an even sharper crash an hour or two later. If you're already an Intermittent Faster and have embraced the low car lifestyle, then this isn't news to you. You're already enjoying all the benefits and given up the old adage that "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."
And when you combine your morning coffee with a big carby breakfast you encourage the crash to come even faster due to an increased rate of gastric emptying e.g. how fast the food moves through your digestive system.
Even if you eat low GI (glycemic index) carbs at breakfast such as oats or multigrain bread you can still crash thanks to the GL of your food (glycemic load e.g. the quantity of carbs you consume and also the fact that you're consuming carbs in isolation without much fat or protein).
Try this instead for just one week: consume a breakfast rich in protein and fat with a low carb content.
This leads to much more stable blood sugar levels throughout the morning for most people and can help keep the high of your morning coffee going for much longer than if it was consumed with a high carb breakfast or no breakfast at all.
Some good suggestions for a high protein and fat breakfast are:
Follow this consistently for just one week and I promise you'll notice the difference.
If you're not convinced after a week of trying this, feel free to go back to your previous breakfast, all I'm asking of you is to simply give it a go for one week and see how you feel.
Following a ketogenic diet? Give this Butter Coffee recipe a try.
Have you ever had an alcoholic drink after a long period of being sober and marvelled at how much of a light weight you have become?
The same goes for caffeine.
But who in their right mind wants to go for a full week without caffeine let alone a day?
I know I certainly don't.
So what else can you do to re-sensitise yourself so that you can feel the caffeine kick in like it used to?
Several things actually.
Becoming fatigued takes time and so does fixing it, but the good news is that if you put these strategies into action and be consistent you can fight fatigue and restore high daily energy levels much faster than it took you to become fatigued in the first place.
So give these strategies a try and be sure to let me know how you go in the comments.
Until next time
Live with energy
Christian Baker
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