Blog 1.Squeeze Your Lemons

Three ingredients to shake off sleep: fresh lemon, cayenne pepper, and greens.

Most days I’m long on tasks and short on time. Health and exercise are the easiest balls to drop. Except, don’t do it.

Here’s a quick thought. Health-wise, go small. Regular and disciplined daily actions are what keep us sharp and vibrant. To that end, my morning triple shot is grooved into my routine. Check it out.

Right when I get up, dark outside and blurry eyed, I mix the triple shot: fresh squeezed lemon, a shake of cayenne, and a scoop of greens powder, mixed with warm water. Gross, right? Actually, no. Strangely enough, the tart lemon and cayenne spice compliment one another, while the greens, depending on the brand, add some umami smoothness to the experience.

Lemons are a wildly underrated fruit. For starters, they contain nearly ⅓ of our daily Vitamin C requirements, which has been shown to boost our immune response. Further, they produce abundant amounts of citric acid. Once the body does its chemistry thing, citric acid helps to, among other things, absorb nutrients more efficiently and reduce toxicities in the urine, keeping unpleasant occurrences like kidney stones at bay.

Capsaicin, cayenne’s active ingredient, brings the heat. Even though the spice suggest otherwise, people have used capsaicin to calm inflammation for centuries. Some studies even indicate that it may scrape away the plaque from inside blood vessels, boosting cardiovascular output.

I can’t recall the inspiration for adding greens powder to the mix, but after tasting it, I thought—dude, this is genius. The best ones blend well and come packed with organic veggies from sea and land, free of fillers.

Let’s be honest, getting all the greens you need in a day is a tall task, which is why powdered greens are such an easy way to do it. Roughly 2 teaspoons packs in 6 servings of veggies—a nutritional wallop. And based on my rudimentary math skills, a large container could last three months. To my frugal mind–some say cheap–that’s just good value. Take your greens. Enough said.

There you have it, my morning triple shot: fresh lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and greens powder. Yet before drinking it, I always pause. The taste does leave an impression after all. ‘You doing this?’ I ask myself. Hell yes! And Done! I’m primed and ready for the day.