Hot damn! And top of the morning to ya!
Before you brush your teeth, before you prop your eyelids open with toothpicks, and before you push the button on your automatic coffee maker, do this one thing: drink a hot morning tonic.
Why? Every morning is a new opportunity to lay the groundwork for your digestive system. If done properly, it can affect the way you feel and maybe even think for the rest of the day. In other posts, we talked about the importance of stoking your “digestive fire”. Drinking a hot, nourishing tonic in the morning is not unlike taking a nice warm shower first thing in the morning. It cleanses your Liver, stimulates your digestive metabolism, enhances circulation, and can break up mucus in your body and cleanse your lymph nodes (especially if you add apple cider vinegar to your tonic).
During our 14-day spring smoothie experiment, we strongly advise everyone to start each day with one of these hot morning tonics. The following recipes are just suggestions. Any combination of hot water, lemon, apple cider vinegar and/or warming spices/herbs such as cayenne & parsley are going to help lay a solid foundation that can affect your digestion for the rest of the day.
Lemon-honey fiesta
6-8oz hot water
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1-2 tsp of honey or maple syrup
Dash of cayenne pepper
Pinch of natural sea salt (optional)
Hot apple zinger
6-8oz hot water
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1-2 tsp honey or maple syrup
Hot water with lemon (needs neither an introduction nor an explanation)
Fire Bomb
A 1-2 TBS shot of Fire Cider followed by 6-8oz of hot water. This is not for the feint of heart, but we honestly can’t get enough of this stuff. You will likely make a Fire Cider face, and we would love to see what that looks like.
Fire Cider is made up of raw, certified organic apple cider vinegar, raw wildflower honey, organic oranges, organic lemons, organic onions, organic ginger, organic horseradish, organic garlic, organic turmeric, and organic habanero pepper. Cha cha cha!
You can buy Fire Cider online, or locally at Love Whole Foods for $12 / 8oz. But remember, there’s no need to go out and buy these fancy products. Your morning tonic will likely manifest with what you currently have in your pantry.
Drink a hot morning tonic every day this week. We dare you. See what happens. Tell us about it.
