Coffee and chocolate for breakfast? Yes, please.
Much has been made about the Bulletproof Coffee recipe, which includes coffee, MCT oil and grass-fed butter. The combination provides an optimal fat-burning environment and gives your brain a serious boost in focus and energy. I won’t get into the exact science of that today, but I mentioned it because it inspired me to create my own super shake for my breakfasts.
There are many other catalyst coffee recipes out there and this isn’t the first time that people have mixed coffee and chocolate. That’s OK. I’m not claiming to be the first but this has been something that really works well for me and I want to share the recipe and the reasons why.
You may remember some previous articles that I wrote where I touted the effects of intermittent fasting and that it was great for my physique and my overall strength. While this was true at the time, my personal nutrition has changed.
Due to the stressful nature of my career (owning and running my gym) and some deflated hormones, adrenal fatigue and amenorrhea, I decided that a less stressful eating approach was in order. The first thing I had to re-program was my breakfast.
I had gone years without eating breakfast and many mornings, I’m up and out of the house at 5:00 a.m., so I won’t be making anything elaborate. I also needed something that would pump me up for my morning training sessions at the gym with our clients and my own personal workouts.
Here is the recipe that I came up with:
1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut milk
1 scoop of grass-fed whey protein (I recommend One World Whey)
1 tablespoon of melted coconut oil
1 handful of baby spinach
1 scoop of creatine (I use Pure Blue)
3 ice cubes
I make the cup of coffee first and let it cool for 15 minutes. Then I melt the coconut oil because if you just scoop it into the blender with everything else, it blends up chunky. Add all the ingredients to a blender and mix well.
This is a delicious shake, especially with the grass-fed whey, because it’s very pure and smooth, not too sweet like most protein powders. The coffee gives you your morning kick and combining that with the medium chain fats of the coconut oil gives your brain an extra boost. The other bonus is the added healthy fats can control appetite and cravings, so this works well for a morning boost and keeps you going for several hours.
I use creatine in my shake because as I said, I train myself in the morning and I like the extra surge. I don’t cycle my creatine, so I will take it on non-training days as well. The spinach blends in easily and you don’t even taste it. That will simply give you an extra shot of greens for your day.
Here are the nutritional stats:
Calories: approximately 250
Fat: 17 grams
Protein: 25 grams
Carbohydrates: 2-3 grams
Give this recipe a try and let me know how you like it.
