The Healthiest Thing You Can Do To Start Your Morning

Seven years ago, my husband and I moved from Atlanta where we’d lived for eight years to my hometown of San Antonio. We were seven months pregnant and our house that we had purchased wasn’t ready yet so we moved in with my parents for a few weeks.

My mom had been in the habit of drinking hot lemon water every morning for years. I never really got why she did it. I just knew it was part of her morning ritual. Being pregnant, I was staying away from my beloved cup of morning coffee but was missing that routine of something warm to drink to start out my morning. One of these first mornings after we arrived, my mom was making her usual cup of hot lemon water and asked if I wanted one as well.

“Sure,” I responded. She continued to make me a cup of hot lemon water. Upon drinking it, my first response was, “Ugh. This is not great. How can you drink this every morning?” 

She responded letting me know there were a ton of health benefits to starting your day off with a cup of hot lemon water so, doing what one does that’s interested in learning more, I Googled it. From there, I read article after article about the health benefits of starting your day off with hot lemon water. I choked down my cup of lemon blah and the next morning when I woke up, I tried it again. My husband decided to get in on the action too, and with the same response I originally had, choked down his first cup too. And so began our morning ritual that continues to this day, seven years later.

We start every morning with a cup of hot lemon water. We’ve been known to go out of our way to secure our precious lemons in the mornings, so far as packing lemons to travel with us when we’re out of town. Friends and family know to stock up on lemons when we come to visit and, yes, we’ve spread the ministry of the morning hot lemon water to friends and colleagues far and wide. Some might say we’re even annoying about it…..okay, maybe we are. But honestly, starting my day off without it leaves me feeling off, like something is missing. And as simple as it seems, most people want to know exactly how we make our hot lemon water. It’s pretty simple but I’m here to share it with you in hopes that you too become a hot lemon water convert.

So first, why? What’s the magic behind this morning beverage? Here’s a few quick facts…or just stuff I pulled off the internet:

It balances the pH levels in your body.

Lemon water is a natural diuretic, which helps to get things….flowing…..in the morning.

It’s a lot of Vitamin C every day.

It’s been known to clear skin.

For me, I’m addicted mainly because of how I feel when I don’t get my morning lemon water. Really, my body feels like it didn’t get the right start to the day and I find myself craving it. With simple ingredients that are right from Mother Earth herself, there’s got to be something to that, right?

So you’re now convinced and ready to take the hot lemon water plunge. Here’s a big piece to it. Hot lemon water should be the first thing you consume in the mornings. Drink it before coffee and before eating anything. In other words, drink it on an empty stomach. Some reports even say you should wait thirty minutes between your hot lemon water and consuming anything else, but really, what busy mom has time for that? If I can wait a bit, I will, but often my coffee gets brewed immediately after the lemon water is consumed.

Ingredients

• one whole lemon
• coffee mug of water

Heat your water. We love our Keurig so we just run a cycle for hot water through our Keurig, minus the K-Cup. We typically run two cycles, one to clear out any coffee remnants and pour it out, and then run a second cycle for the hot water that we’ll use. Water can also be heated in a tea kettle or simply in a pot. Heat water to steaming and quite warm.

Next, cut your lemon in half. I like to pick the seeds out of my lemons before squeezing them but this isn’t a necessary step. Squeeze the entire lemon into the hot water. And you’re done! Well, after you drink it, that is. Yes, it’s really that simple.

If you’re just getting started, you might consider starting with just one half of the lemon. Both halves might make the lemon water too strong. For me, the more lemony (is that even word?) the better so I drop one of the lemon halves into my mug and the hot water pulls some of the lemon oil out of the rind. Yes, your first few mornings you might find yourself choking it down too. It might take you a couple of weeks to get used to the flavor. But I’m going to bet you’ll be a fan in little to no time.