I recently completed Whole 30 with some members of my family. If you're not familiar with what that is, check it out here: Whole 30

Basically it's 30 days of a fairly restrictive diet which eliminates anything inflammatory to the body. You literally just have to eat ice cubes and bacon scented air for a whole month. It's impossible! Oh simmer down, I'm just kidding around. It's not nearly that bad. However, two of the biggest inflammation culprits that you eliminate are sugar and dairy.....which is a real bummer if you're a person that only drinks coffee with cream and sugar.

While doing the Whole 30 I spoke with several others that had done, were doing, or were thinking about doing it as well. A few asked me for suggestions on getting through this little roadblock. You see, some people depend on their coffee to get through the day. The thought of giving it up, just because they can't have cream and sugar is unbearable, and maybe even impossible. 

So what did I suggest? No surprise — I told them to buy a high-quality, fresh roasted coffee, and give drinking it black a shot! And you know, a handful of people took that advice. After a few days to acclimate their taste buds (they were used to a creamy sugar bomb), they loved it! Skipping all of those extras gets you through your coffee routine quicker, it saves calories, and it's just plain better for ya.

As for me, I've been a black coffee drinker for a long time. Giving up the cream and sugar was not really a problem. I did however find it interesting that coffee took on the role of a treat.....and sometimes a pacifier. Like I said before, this diet is fairly restrictive by design. While I was missing my melted cheese on tortilla chips (a favorite snack of mine), I found that a good cup of black coffee made things right with the world.