So a few weeks ago, my doctor told me "No more carbonated beverages". (I only drank the diet kind anyway... but I cut them out all the same.) Two weeks later, I'm soda free, but I find that I'm compleeetely DEAD in the morning without my caffiene! I hate drinking my calories away and have been using diet hot chocolate just to have something warm (which helps wake me up too..)

Anyway, since CC boards are such a helpful resource, I thought I'd ask you all what sort of drink/food wakes you up in the morning! I work a full time job and I'm so used to the caffiene that I just drag all day when I don't have anything...

Thanks guys :D

(ah, and I'm not a coffee drinker, for the record - just can't take the taste! heh)

 

What about tea? I am a coffee drinker but I like either Irish Breafast tea and now I'm drinking Morning Thunder (Celestial Seasonings). Lots of caffeine.

Celestial Seasonings actually has a tea called Fast Lane and I love it when I don't have time to make my coffee. Add some honey or milk and you get a nice jolt.

Try green tea and really really cold water. That should do ya just fine.

How about a low carb Carnation Instant Breakfast.

I agree with tea as well, there are so many varieties to experiement with, Mint tea is awesome hot or cold so is Chai tea!

Side note: Any Seinfeld fanatics out there, that got a chuckle out of Morning Thunder?

unless there is something i dont know about, i believe all options have been covered: coffee, tea, or carbonated energy drinks. you cant have carbonation, and you hate coffee. tea is your only other option.

i know alot of people get freaked out by this but "No Doz" is a caffine pill brand that has about a cup of coffee's worth of caffine per pill. if you just take one with plenty of water you'll be good to go!

but i also second all the tea suggestions. i love my caffine though, so i always double-brew my morning tea.

sometimes when i'm really low on energy, i buy 5-hour energy shots. they're like an energy drink, but different at the same time. for me; it lasts longer than 5 hours. the good thing about these is that it has no carbs, only 4 calories and is only 60 ml and keeps you energized all day without the crash.

:)

I have recently quite coffee in the mornings and I have, your not gonna like the sound of this, eat fruit (one banana usually) first thing in the morning and a big glass of water. I consider it to be my pre-breakfast wake-up to help me stop feeling straved and draggy. Not only does it totally wake me up, it sets the right nutritional pace for the day without chasing the caffine-dragon all day with more coffee and more food (to keep down the edgy feeling coffee gives my stomach.)

Bottom line: Fruit in general has saved me from that draggy feeling during different times of the day. And has kept me from eating candy, buying cofee, eating chocolate (well...not as much anyway!).

FRUIT IS THE ANSWER!

OJ.

I agree with mcwalker. I don't have time to stop by Starbucks anymore so in the morning, I eat an apple and I'm good to go. Also, a GOOD recommendation is Yogurt. It's got carbs for energy as well as protein, which you need anyway. It won't leave you feeling overly stuffed and the energy lasts for a few hours.  

NEEDING caffeine in the morning is bull.  Just drink water, maybe green tea, and eat fruit.  You'll live. :)

I agree, if you're that dead in the morning where you need caffeine to wake you up you're likely not getting enough sleep. 

Otherwise give yourself time to break the habit and let your body break it's conditioning.

I think I'll probably go with the tea or fruit options :) And i'm certain that you're all right about the sleep thing. I definitely don't get enough. I wake up at 6:30am, go to work, get back around 5:30pm, have a snack and change, go work out around 6:30pm, get back around 8:30pm, eat dinner, shower (by now its about 9:30pm) and get online to talk to my boyfriend (who is in another city for the summer) until about 11:30pm - sometimes later. I need to try to get more sleep... I make up for it on the weekends, but yeah, it really does make me drag during the week - and I know its not good for weightloss either.

I'm from the southern USA, so I don't think I've ever even tried tea without copious amounts of sugar :P Maybe that's why I'd ruled it out without really thinking about it. I'll run to my local supermarket and see what I can find! Keeping a stash of bananas at my desk might be a good idea too! :)

Madetoshine - you can call it bull all you like :P My body is used to having it, and the fact is, I don't operate quite the same without it. I'm sure I will live, but I was hoping to do so with a little more energy and needed a few alternatives suggested ;) That's why I started this post at all! :D Thanks all the same.

I have seen No Doz and the energy shots around up at school (especially around finals), but I always kind of had to question what that would do to my body chemistry. I guess I'm a little afraid of crashing, lol. Maybe that's what my body has been experiencing recently.. :P