5 Coffee Habit Stacks to Improve Your Health

Dr. Erin Attaway • March 4, 2024

Each year around this time people create unrealistic expectations for themselves and then suffer from low self-esteem when they don’t pull it off.  It’s a negative reinforcement loop: creating unattainable goals and then confirming your low self-worth when you fail. 

Let’s just stop doing it, okay?  

Learn to set a few reasonable expectations, and work on them every day.  Like, two or three things.  Then, in a month or so, when you’re feeling good about having made this small progress, add one more thing to your list and build that new habit. 

Small, simple steps over time lead to great success. 

These habits will change your morning routine and improve your overall energy flow. 

If you’re not a coffee drinker, feel free to skip this post. If you’re a tea drinker, it still applies. 

  1.  Drink a glass of still water while you’re waiting for the coffee to brew.  Not ice water, not bubble water, just regular still water.

  2. Commit to only drinking organic coffee.  Coffee beans are very high on the list of questionable farming practices and chemical exposures, so making this edit reduces your morning dose of poison.  

  3. Switch to half-caff.  Yes, you can do it, and what you'll notice is your energy is more stable throughout the day and you have less afternoon crash when the buzz wears off. I buy my favorite organic blend plus an organic, chemical-free, decaffeinated blend separately. I mix the two together myself.  If you start this way you can reduce your ratios each week, making a gradual decrease if you’re not up to leaping all at once.  

  4. Decrease the size of your coffee cup.  If you’re a big-gulp coffee kind of girl, go down one level to a large-sized cup. Then next week go down to a normal-sized cup. Aim for shrinking all the way down to a 1900’s sized cup and you’re back in the range of healthy.  Seriously, watch an episode of The Gilded Age or Downton Abbey and notice the size of the coffee and teacups, we are definitely in a Super Size Me range. 

  5. Limit your coffee to two cups in the morning, of the shrinking size.  This gradual shift makes a HUGE difference in how much caffeine you get each day, while still feeling satisfying. Your eyes and your body’s requirements will adjust and you’ll be surprised at how little coffee you need after all. 

Coffee uses your adrenal glands to provide the boost you’re looking for, and reducing your caffeine load allows your adrenal glands to stop working so hard and have more time for rest and repair.  In our coffee-all-day culture, we burn ourselves up at a young age and then coffee doesn't have much impact anymore. 

Focus on high quality, not high quantity.  Savor the brew and then move on.  Get your energy from other sources like good food and movement. 

Make the most of the season by following these simple guidelines

By Website Editor • October 3, 2024
The new season is a great reason to make and keep resolutions. Whether it’s eating right or cleaning out the garage, here are some tips for making and keeping resolutions.

Endometriosis and IVF: Everything You Need to Know

By Dr. Erin Attaway • March 18, 2024
It’s National Endometriosis and Adenomyosis Awareness Month, so we should take a moment to consider these conditions and how they are often overlooked. The common presentation for either condition usually includes very painful menstrual cycles, but you can still have this condition without those indicators. Many women are never diagnosed until they have difficulty conceiving. “Silent” endometriosis, or a mild form, is usually just accepted as normal menstrual pain and medicated or tolerated. What then, is endometriosis? Endometriosis is a medical condition in which the tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus grows outside of it. It can be found on other pelvic organs, such as the ovaries, fallopian tubes, or the outer surface of the uterus, and other parts of the pelvis. This condition can cause pain, heavy periods, and fertility issues.

Notes on Vitamins

By Dr. Erin Attaway • March 11, 2024
Most people are simply unaware of what a vitamin is and its physiological importance. A vitamin is the short form of the term “Vital Amine” which was coined about the discoveries of organic compounds and proteins that contained amine groups, which were deemed VITAL for metabolism and health. What we think of today as vitamins are only a fraction of what was discovered and what is intended by the term. The term "vital amine" refers to a type of organic compound known as a vitamin. Vitamins are essential nutrients that are required for the proper functioning of our bodies. "Vital amine" described the earliest discovered vitamins which were organic compounds containing an amine group.

Why the Alabama Supreme Court Embryo Ruling Affects Us All

By Dr. Erin Attaway • February 26, 2024
For those who aren’t keeping up, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled on a case regarding the accidental destruction of embryos. Despite previous courts dismissing the suit, the ASC ruled that cryopreserved embryos, (frozen embryos that may never even receive a transfer into a gestational carrier), are essentially children with the full rights of children who are walking the earth. Although many people jump to agree with this, a drastic fight for logical reasoning is playing out now, in the courts and in the media. And the risk is potentially the failure of IVF treatments as we know it.

Introducing a High-Fat, Low-Carb Diet

By Dr. Erin Attaway • February 4, 2024
In 1978 the US government issued a new visual image of how Americans should eat, The Food Pyramid. A challenge to how most Americans were currently eating, the new food pyramid emphasized eating 6-10 servings of grain-based carbohydrate foods daily. The new pyramid reduced salt and dietary fats to minimal levels and put them at the very top. Americans were told to stop consuming fat and instead fill their day with bread, cereals, popcorn, pasta, and all kinds of highly refined carbohydrate products. This is the beginning of the obesity epidemic we see today. Not only that, but neurological disorders, brain diseases, hypertension, autoimmune illness, hormonal imbalance, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and most other epidemics we see today have skyrocketed since this incident.

10 Questions to Ask During Your First Fertility Appointment

By Dr. Erin Attaway • January 22, 2024
When going to sit down with a fertility specialist for the first time, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and forget to ask the questions you’ve been wanting to. Here’s a quick list to help you prepare. Make notes that apply to you and your partner and take it with you to help guide the discussion. Feeling heard and understood from the origin of the relationship helps build trust and respect, which prove to be vital to also feeling cared for by your physician and clinic. Informed patients are good at self-advocating, so plan to speak up when you have the opportunity.

5 Sentences You Need Hear in 2024

By Dr. Erin Attaway • January 13, 2024
Time is your most precious asset. Spend it wisely. If your biggest complaint is not enough time, then you probably need to recalibrate your time management. Not to fit more in and master multi-tasking, but rather to eliminate the time-wasting elements. Scroll less. Watch less television. Declutter your house to eliminate time spent on organization and storage. Stop shopping for items you don’t need anyway. Stop researching. Go make a snowman instead. Your mind is your strongest muscle, train it well….

Which Type of Anti-Inflammatory Diet is Right for You?

By Dr. Erin Attaway • January 8, 2024
Sometimes fertility clinics will recommend that you follow a diet that is intended to reduce inflammation in the body, but unless they give you specifics you can go down a rabbit hole trying to decide which one will produce the desired result but also suit your needs.  If your doctor recommends you try this approach, ask a few more questions to understand their wishes.  Be sure to understand the intended goals and desired effect, which leads to improved decision-making and an increased chance of sticking to the plan.   You might only have 30 or so days to prepare for the next cycle or procedure, so rapid intervention might be the goal.  You might have three months and a doctor who wants you to focus on getting five to eight servings of fresh fruit and vegetables each day.  To achieve the desired outcome you should aim to clarify as much detail as you can and make a master list of goals.   If a certain amount of weight loss is desired, make a note of it. Find other ways to monitor a reduction of inflammatory symptoms such as changes in your physical body like joint pain, skin rash or headaches.  Fill out a toxicity or inflammation questionnaire before you begin and keep your store.  Take the test again after each month of dietary changes and track your progress.  Here’s a quick exploration of the most common diets for reducing inflammation.  

Which Type of Anti-Inflammatory Diet is Right for You?

By Dr. Erin Attaway • January 8, 2024
Sometimes fertility clinics will recommend that you follow a diet that is intended to reduce inflammation in the body, but unless they give you specifics you can go down a rabbit hole trying to decide which one will produce the desired result but also suit your needs.  If your doctor recommends you try this approach, ask a few more questions to understand their wishes.  Be sure to understand the intended goals and desired effect, which leads to improved decision-making and an increased chance of sticking to the plan.   You might only have 30 or so days to prepare for the next cycle or procedure, so rapid intervention might be the goal.  You might have three months and a doctor who wants you to focus on getting five to eight servings of fresh fruit and vegetables each day.  To achieve the desired outcome you should aim to clarify as much detail as you can and make a master list of goals.   If a certain amount of weight loss is desired, make a note of it. Find other ways to monitor a reduction of inflammatory symptoms such as changes in your physical body like joint pain, skin rash or headaches.  Fill out a toxicity or inflammation questionnaire before you begin and keep your store.  Take the test again after each month of dietary changes and track your progress.  Here’s a quick exploration of the most common diets for reducing inflammation.  

New Year, Same Me, New Habits 

By Dr. Erin Attaway • January 1, 2024
Am I the only person who love-hates the “New year, new you” schtick? I love the promise of it, the romance of summing up where I am in life and then creating a new landing page for the next year. I love taking time to reflect on where I’ve come from and be proud of what I’ve accomplished. I love creating new goals. But I hate the fact that it creates a false narrative that it all must begin RIGHT NOW. The suggestion that our timeline is arbitrary to the calendar year. And I hate that most endeavors take longer than the time we ourselves to achieve them and we quit before ever really getting anywhere. I don’t like thinking of myself as the new me, like a pair of new shoes and we just toss the old ones. Starting over with a clean slate feels good but our old self informs our new self, so shouldn’t we carry it along? Instead of new you, maybe focus on same you with new habits. Habits are what we are all trying to change, really. We want to eat healthier, be kinder, read more books or take over the internet. Whatever it is you want to change it requires shifting your habits to get there.
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