I need help with coffee ...
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pebble4321 wrote: »I think this needs a bit of a mindshift - I don't know how many calories you would be using for each of those fancy flavoured coffees, but I would stop thinking of it as a drink and starting thinking of it as a treat or dessert rather than a caffeine boost to get you through the day.
That's what I was thinking. OP isn't describing coffee, in my opinion, she's describing a liquid desert that happens to have caffeine.
Kids these days.
ITA! I was guilty of using all sorts of flavored creamers, plus a couple spoons of sugar in my coffee. When I realized that a couple of cups that way was nearly as much sugar as a can of pop, I made some changes. No more "creamer", now I use either half and half or heavy cream, and I cut back on the sugar until I was able to eliminate it altogether. The secret is to get good quality coffee, grind your own beans, and use a good coffee maker (French presses are good, I have a Bunn automatic drip that I like... the coffee maker really does make a difference). If you drink good coffee, and actually *like* coffee, you don't need to put a bunch of crap in it. You can get caffeine with a couple of No Doz pills and a glass of water. Then have a milkshake. Which is what a lot if this sounds like.
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Has anyone suggested Starbucks Skinny lattes?! Super overpriced, but I got hooked on skinny vanilla lattes during my anorexia phase because Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen loved them and I wanted to be them, or something. They're low calorie and a good on-the-go coffee order. They have a skinny peppermint mocha that's divine, too.2
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pebble4321 wrote: »I think this needs a bit of a mindshift - I don't know how many calories you would be using for each of those fancy flavoured coffees, but I would stop thinking of it as a drink and starting thinking of it as a treat or dessert rather than a caffeine boost to get you through the day.
That's what I was thinking. OP isn't describing coffee, in my opinion, she's describing a liquid desert that happens to have caffeine.
Kids these days.
How do you figure? A latte is half milk/half coffee and hers happens to be flavored with a shot of caramel syrup. Lattes are not just treats, they're still coffee, just a different ratio than some people drink it.
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Coffee is my kryptonite as well. It's taken a long time, but I've got myself down to 1 cup a day. I use k-cups so they vary in flavor but my go-to is Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce (12-16 oz) with 2 tbsp. of International Delight Cold Stone Sweet Cream. Altogether it's 80 calories and you can put that over ice as well! The creamer isn't bad on sugar either.
1 Cinnamon Dolce K-cup = 10 calories
2 Tbsp Sweet Cream Creamer = 70 calories
No need for sugar or any additional sweetener. If that's a problem for you, work your way down. I'm a cold turkey kind of girl, so I didn't 'love' my coffee for a while. Now, if I put additional sweetner in it, I can't even drink one sip. Yuck!
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Oh my goodness, I feel you. I LOVE lattes. I think you've had some excellent suggestions so far, but I thought I'd add my own experiences so far.
I used to drink my coffee with tons of milk, creamer, sugar, I'd just dump everything in. Love my sweet lattes, too. I kind of slowly started making little changes, though. I started ordering my iced lattes without any sugar and grew to love the taste of that. When I made coffee at home, I'd use less creamer and a little more milk. Then I started using no creamer. Then I used lower fat milk (less calories). Then I used less sugar. So on and so forth, and now I drink my coffee with only a little splash of milk- that's it.
I made changes little by little and slowly changed my tastes. Someone gave me a coffee about a month ago and it was suddenly way too sweet for me! It was crazy to think that I no longer liked really sweet coffee.
I still love my lattes, but I definitely think of them more as a dessert or treat than the daily caffeine source I have to have.1 -
I like Hot coffee personally, but I have a Keurig and I get Caramel Drizzle coffee pods online and use Unsweetened almond milk. I love it. I know its not sweet, but once you stop using sugar you do taste the actual Coffee and its great, if you get good coffee.2
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I eventually decided that the calories in creamer weren't for me and I'm not a fan of artificial sweetener (taste) so I just switched to black. It was a shock at first but I buy the Folger's Caramel Drizzle or Vanilla Biscotti and its like having a sweetened drink (almost.)1
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Many coffee shops have skinny options for their flavored lattes. They use sugar free syrup, and 2% milk.
As someone who went from sweet lattes to Americanos I would suggest you try to wean yourself off of them. I quit cold turkey, and went almost 6 months with no coffee at all. It was rough at first. Then I went to drip with sugar free creamer. My tolerance for sweetness is really low now. I have an Americano with half a shot of sugar free syrup, or one with half and half with Stevia, or with sugar free creamer. Depends on where I am. If I have extra calories I get a regular latte with no syrup.1 -
Mochas. I LOVED mochas. Hot. Cold. Didn't care. Loved them. I'd have them every day. Twice if I had the money.
This is a life-long quest for health, not an instant fix. I found it easier to ease into something like giving up your favorite coffee drink.
That was 10 years ago. It's taken that long for me to now survive on 1 (big) black coffee every day. I get mochas maybe once every 3 months now. Never cut back to the point of depriving myself, I just considered alternatives, tried them and found they were acceptable more and more frequently, and gradually cut back on the 350+ drinks. Here's how the progression went.
Full whip, full sugar mochas - 380 cal
Full sugar mocha no whip - 300 cal
Sugar free mochas, no whip - 250 cal
Latte with skim and sucralose - 150 cal
Coffee with splash of skim and sucralose - 30 cal
Coffee with sucralose - <10 cal
Really expensive coffee, black - <10 cal
^^ten years. None of these steps on their own felt like much of a deprivation, because they were incremental. Maybe you can work your way to sugar-free flavored cream to add to good coffee. Those are tasty, and if you read the label, they may save you some calories without sacrificing much flavor. I mean, the full flavor version will ALWAYS be better, but if you can do a trade-in for days here or there, you're ahead of the game.1 -
Also you can buy these little immersion blenders that will froth up your milk or half and half, to make it more like the texture you would get in the shop.3
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This has been such a struggle for me! If you live near a Trader Joe's, their cold brew coffee concentrate is delicious (specifically the cold brew version in the blue jug). It's so good that I drink it black now over ice, but it's also delicious with Torani sugar free salted caramel syrup and a splash of half and half or milk / soy milk. I weigh out my half and half with a food scale to make sure I don't use too much but you don't need a lot with the coffee concentrate if you only mix it with a little water. I like a lot of the Torani sugar free syrups - Belgian Cookie is one of the best. I do get sick of them though after awhile so now I usually just drink this iced coffee black.2
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Oh and you can order that identical drink at Starbucks since they have cold brew iced coffee and they use Torani sugar free syrups as well.1
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Unsweetened skinny latte. Yum!1
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Here is my recipe for iced coffee.
72 ounces of black coffee...or one pot. Choose a nice flavored variety. (18 calories)
1 can of sweetened condensed milk. (1300 calories)
Brew coffee, transfer while hot to pitcher, add entire can of milk, stir until dissolved. Place in fridge until chilled.
This makes twelve 198 gram servings or a bit over 6 fluid ounces each. 109 calories per serving. If you brew the coffee good and strong you can blend it with ice easily enough. The milk makes it sweet and creamy.2 -
I put vanilla extract and imitation caramel extract in my coffee with 2 TBSP 2% milk and my sweetener of choice. A few drops of extract will do you and it only contains a calorie or two. Each cup for me is 20 calories. I use a concentrated liquid sucralose sweetener (sucradrops). You can try out all the different flavor extracts. Gives much more flavor than any syrup I've tried.0
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I think you will find that you get used to it the longer you go without it. I indulge in one purchased coffee drink a week, but I always get a small one. In fact I'm due for a Dutch Bros carmelizer ASAP
Keep paring it down, and eventually it won't feel like you're missing out daily. That, and coffee is an acquired taste afterall. Pick ingredients you can have every day and then get to getting used to it. I now can take coffee nearly black, not quite but closer than at the start. My sister started off drinking only sweetened Starbucks lattes and now is actually a huge snot face about how cool she is for drinking black coffee lol. You adapt 0 -
I eventually decided that the calories in creamer weren't for me and I'm not a fan of artificial sweetener (taste) so I just switched to black. It was a shock at first but I buy the Folger's Caramel Drizzle or Vanilla Biscotti and its like having a sweetened drink (almost.)
I have just switched to black coffee for the same reasons.... I was "ignoring" my coffee milk as it was "just a splash" and skimmed- then realised I was buying a gallon every 10days or so! Thats 100 calories a day!
Since giving up milk in my coffee - my weight is heading downwards....rather quickly!
This is just another small change in a series of smal changes...... but has certainly tipped the scales!! (in more ways than one)0 -
I found that vanilla Pure Protein (11 oz in a bottle) tastes good in coffee. Works better with hot coffee rather than iced, in terms of dissolving right.0
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