What's in your cup?

My love for coffee runs deep. I love waking up a brewing a fresh cup and letting the aroma fill the house, seriously THE BEST! While home brewed is awesome, I also love me some Starbucks... I mean pumpkin spice lattes are basically heaven in a cup! After starting this journey to my bikini competition I was given a MAJOR wake up call, nutrition facts are real (DUH Lindy)! I mean obviously I knew about nutrition facts but I never really paid attention to them... especially in my coffee!

Luckily Starbucks is one of those awesome places that actually have their nutrition facts posted. They list the calories on the board next to the drink and also have really great pamplets in store or you can go to their site for the- nutrition breakdown.  Looking this over was very eye opening! It is scary to think how bad one little coffee drink can be for you!

Lets just take a look at the oh so famous Pumpkin Spice Latte (Grande) 

Nutrition Facts Per Serving (16 fl oz)

Calories 330	Calories from Fat 70
	% Daily Value*
Total Fat 7g	11%
Saturated Fat 4.5g	22%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 30mg	10%
Sodium 220mg	9%
Total Carbohydrate 52g	17%
Dietary Fiber 0g	0%
Sugars 50g
Protein 14g
Vitamin A 20% Vitamin C 0% Calcium 50% Iron 2%
Caffeine 150mg**

Needless to say I am no longer drinking these delicious drinks (at least not during training) but really it made me take a step back, seeing how many grams of carbs and sugars were in a 16oz drink. For those of you who don't know what 50 grams looks like, it is a little more then 1/4 of a cup of pure sugar! AH!

Now I'm not saying never drink Starbucks again because I still do, I have just modified what I order! They have this great section on the pamphlet that allows you to "make it yours" that way you can see the nutritional facts in everything you add to your coffee! 

MY ORDER

Almost daily I enjoy a Venti iced unsweetened black tea, because it is refreshing but also gives me that little shot of caffeine to get me through that mid-afternoon slump. As for coffee I love the Pikes peak! I am not to the point of drinking it black, so I stick with a splash of skim milk and either a couple pumps sugar-free vanilla OR one packet of Splenda. After my show I do intend to have at least one PSL but NOW knowing what I do, this will be my cheat treat!