How do you take your coffee? How many of you like your coffee black? For years, I couldn’t understand how people could drink coffee black, ugh.

Coffee has many health benefits that can aid in weight loss. It has caffeine, which could be used as a pre-workout. It could be an appetite suppressant, especially helpful, in my opinion, with intermittent fasting. It has a thermogenic effect as well.

This is all, if you don’t load it with sugar, milk, creamers, etc. I’m not coming down on people who use those; I was one of them for many years. I was the type of person who added a little bit a coffee with my creamer and sugar. The lighter the coffee shade the better. After realizing how the additives in my coffee could be hurting my gains, I slowly transitioned to drinking black coffee. Here’s how I did it.

First, I started measuring how much creamer and sugar I was putting in my coffee (i.e. 2 tablespoons of creamer and 2 tablespoons of sugar). Then, I would gradually reduce the amounts from there. Getting to 1 tablespoon of each soon. Next, I was able to get rid of the creamer altogether. Then, I transitioned from sugar to a sugar substitute. I used Stevia. I drank black coffee with Stevia for a little while, then I decided that I didn’t like the taste of Stevia. So I transitioned to Sugar in the Raw in the packets. By using those packets, I realized that I didn’t need quite so much sugar. So I was down to using half a packet or less of Sugar in the Raw in my coffee. Then the day came, I was able to go all black. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought, and I made another discovery. I could actually taste the differences in brands and types of coffee. I had always masked the coffee with so much creamer and sugar I actually couldn’t even taste the coffee.

Nowadays, black is my preferred way to drink coffee. If I can do it, truly anyone can do it.  Don’t get me wrong…occasionally I will add just a dash of Sugar in the Raw or enjoy the occasional specialty coffee from Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts. This is usually when I am traveling. I hope this has helped. Give black coffee a shot and be patient with yourself. I would love to hear from you on how it is going with your transition. Also, what shade are you?