Latte love...

I am in love. I have been in love for a long time and over the last nine months I have fallen more in love with lattes as I have fallen more in love with someone that used to make coffee for a living. Our days off together are spent hanging at coffee shops, after I smash Simon at the gym, and if the kids are with us we have our coffees take away at the park.

Outpost :: Our Coffee Shop :: Our Barista & Friend David

My love affair started with a small full cream cappuccino with two sugars. That was over 10 years ago. Since then I cut the sugar, swapped from a cappuccino to a latte, swapped the full cream milk to skim, gone from a small latte to a large latte and then six months ago, with Simon's encouragement, from a large latte to a small double shot latte. I then began having two a day. I am Simon's coffee apprentice!

Latte :: Love

I have recently asked an expert to help me achieve my fitness and health goals. I have decided that I have gone as far as I can on my own and I need the guidance, mentoring and encouragement from someone that understands where I want to be physically and mentally.

Chris Dufey is my awesome trainer. Three weeks with Chris and there are changes. Changes not just noticed by me, but by others as well which for me is something that is awesome and motivating. Chris sent me my new meal plan after our first meeting. This meal plan included one cup of black coffee a day and two green teas. Black coffee? No more lattes?

It got me thinking about the benefits of drinking coffee. I hear about these benefits a lot. That coffee contains anti-oxidants and caffeine which are both said to have health and anti aging benefits. Antioxidants, for example, help your body repair damage to cells caused by free radicals. The damage caused by these free radicals occurs when they react with important cellular components such as DNA, or the cell membrane. Caffeine has been shown to help improve a range of symptoms and may even be important in fighting of Parkinson’s Disease and other age related brain disease. Coffee is loaded with both antioxidants and caffeine, and each has different potential benefits for improving health and reducing the risk of chronic illnesses. Green tea is also packed full of anti-oxidants and caffeine hence why I now have two cups per day on my new eating plan.

Wednesday I bought myself some instant coffee. I decided to try to ditch the lattes. I thought if I am just going to drink black coffee why bother getting it from my coffee shop. Just have instant. It will be easier and cheaper. Instant coffee is not the same, especially with no milk. A comment from a colleague has made me look further into whether instant coffee is a better option than brewed coffee. If I am now having coffee for health benefits I need to make sure I am putting the right coffee into my body. I have found that the caffeine content of instant coffee is generally less than that of brewed coffee and a lot of the health benefits are lost as most of the essential oils can't survive the dry freezing process. The oils are where many of the health benefits (as well as flavor) come from so back to the coffee shop I go! Yay! Taj will be happy we can hang at Outpost this Sunday morning, he loves their treats!

Now the next question :: To milk or not to milk? My coffees are meant to be black but the more I learn about calcium the more I think I need to keep the milk.

Then the next question :: Full cream, skim or soy? The questions I ask myself are endless but I will save the milk issue for another day.