Skip to content
SPEND MORE, SAVE MORE: $10 OFF $75+, $20 OFF $100+, $40 OFF $150+ Shop Now
  • Shop
  • Health Upgrades
  • Subscribe & Save
  • Recipes
  • Learn
  • Main Menu
  • Shop
  • Coffee
  • MCT Oil
  • Proteins
  • Food & Drink
  • Supplements
  • Other
  • Shop All Products
  • Main Menu
  • Health Upgrades
  • Guides
  • Supplements
  • Shop All Products
  • Main Menu
  • Subscribe & Save
  • Main Menu
  • Recipes
  • Snacks
  • Breakfasts
  • Main Dishes
  • Beverages
  • Desserts
  • Keto
  • Paleo
  • Shop All Ingredients

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Main Menu
  • Learn
  • Where to Start
  • Health Upgrades
  • Bulletproof Blog
  • Books
  • Shop All Products
  • Shop
  • Ground
  • Whole Bean
  • Single-Serve Pods
  • Starter Kits
  • Cold Brew
  • Creamers & Mix-Ins
  • View all

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Shop
  • Brain Octane Oil
  • MCT Oil
  • View all

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Shop
  • Collagen Protein
  • Collagen Protein Bars
  • Collagen Protein Plus Support
  • View all

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Shop
  • Protein Bars
  • Cold Brew
  • Fatwater
  • Chocolate Bars
  • View all

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Shop
  • Mood & Memory
  • Performance & Immunity
  • Detox & Gut Health
  • Sleep
  • View all

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Shop
  • Tech
  • Coffee Mugs & Bottles
  • Books
  • View all

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Health Upgrades
  • Immune Boost
  • Sleep Hacks
  • Brain Upgrades
  • Weight Loss & Diet
  • Anti-Aging
  • View all

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Health Upgrades
  • Mood & Memory
  • Performance & Immunity
  • Detox & Gut Health
  • Sleep
  • View all

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Recipes
  • Snacks
  • Breakfasts
  • Main Dishes
  • Beverages
  • Desserts
  • Keto
  • Paleo
  • View all

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Learn
  • About Bulletproof
  • Bulletproof for Beginners
  • Bulletproof Coffee: The Official Recipe
  • What makes Bulletproof Coffee Beans Different?
  • What are MCT Oils?
  • What is Collagen Protein?
  • Starter Kits
  • Newsletters & Guides

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Learn
  • Immune Boost
  • Sleep Hacks
  • Brain Upgrades
  • Weight Loss & Diet
  • Anti-Aging

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Learn
  • Diet
  • Recipes
  • Supplements
  • Sleep
  • Gut Health
  • View all

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
  • Learn
  • Super Human
  • Game Changers
  • Head Strong
  • The Bulletproof Diet
  • Bulletproof The Cookbook
  • View all

Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

Learn More
Bulletproof Logo
  • Shop

    Coffee

    Ground Whole Bean Single-Serve Pods Starter Kits Cold Brew Creamers & Mix-Ins View all

    MCT Oil

    Brain Octane Oil MCT Oil View all

    Proteins

    Collagen Protein Collagen Protein Bars Collagen Protein Plus Support View all

    Food & Drink

    Protein Bars Cold Brew Fatwater Chocolate Bars View all

    Supplements

    Mood & Memory Performance & Immunity Detox & Gut Health Sleep View all

    Other

    Tech Coffee Mugs & Bottles Books View all Shop All Products

    Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

    Learn More
  • Health Upgrades

    Guides

    Immune Boost Sleep Hacks Brain Upgrades Weight Loss & Diet Anti-Aging View all

    Supplements

    Mood & Memory Performance & Immunity Detox & Gut Health Sleep View all Shop All Products
    Chocolate Dipped Collagen Protein Bar

    Limited Time Offer

    CHOCOLATE DIPPED BAR

    For a limited time only get new Chocolate Dipped Bars for $19.99 ($35.98 value).

    Shop

    Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

    Learn More
  • Subscribe & Save
  • Recipes

    Recipes

    Snacks Breakfasts Main Dishes Beverages Desserts Keto Paleo View all Shop All Ingredients
    making a smoothie

    Featured Recipe

    BULLETPROOF COFFEE: THE OFFICIAL RECIPE
    VIEW RECIPE
    Collagen Protein Tub

    Featured Product

    UNFLAVORED COLLAGEN PROTEIN
    SHOP NOW

    Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

    Learn More
  • Learn

    Where to Start

    About Bulletproof Bulletproof for Beginners Bulletproof Coffee: The Official Recipe What makes Bulletproof Coffee Beans Different? What are MCT Oils? What is Collagen Protein? Starter Kits Newsletters & Guides

    Health Upgrades

    Immune Boost Sleep Hacks Brain Upgrades Weight Loss & Diet Anti-Aging

    Bulletproof Blog

    Diet Recipes Supplements Sleep Gut Health View all

    Books

    Super Human Game Changers Head Strong The Bulletproof Diet Bulletproof The Cookbook View all Shop All Products

    Subscribe & Save 10% + Free Shipping over $35

    Learn More
Skip To Content
Account
Cart
Skip To Content

Share

product
https://www.bulletproof.com/diet/betheproof-coffee-saved-my-life/ article-62371 #BETHEPROOF: How Coffee Literally Saved My Life https://www.bulletproof.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Molly_marco_quotes_updatedHero-300x160.jpg 1 USD InStock Diet #BETHEPROOF Bulletproof Coffee Cancer Coffee VE01-00001 BEV01-00002 BEV01-00003 CDK01-00001 BEV01-00004 BEV01-00005 CDK01-00002 CDK01-00004 CDK01-00017 CDK01-00016 CDK01-00003 CDK01-00018 CDK01-00005 CDK01-00015 CDK01-00025 KIT12-00006 KIT12-00016 KIT12-00047 KIT12-00048 KIT12-00046 KIT12-00050 KIT12-00051 KIT12-00052 KIT12-00054 KIT12-00055 KIT12-00057 KIT12-00053 KIT12-00056 BEV01-00012 CDK01-00032 BEV01-00013 BEV01-00011 CDK01-00036 CDK01-00035 CDK01-00039 CDK01-00041 CDK01-00040 KIT12-00097 KIT12-00098 KIT12-00099 KIT12-00101 KIT12-00102 KIT12-00103 CDK01-00026 CDK01-00050 CDK01-00027 Keto Paleo article

#BETHEPROOF: How Coffee Literally Saved My Life

By: Molly Marco
February 22, 2021

#BETHEPROOF: How Coffee Literally Saved My Life

I’m a coffee addict. It’s just a simple truth. I have an awe-inspiring story about coffee, too. Coffee saved my life.

I’ll get to that part, but it’s important to understand that I simply love coffee. The art of it. The taste. The caffeine. The habit that becomes a hobby. I still don’t notice the “hints of fairy dust mixed with ginger and peppercorn” tasting notes that coffee bean bags like to boast. But I can decipher a fruity roast from a darker roast, for what it’s worth.

In fact, about eight years ago I even started using a hashtag to go along with my goofy social media barista blend selfies: #SultryPosesWithCoffee. Sometimes I’d get a few friends to play along. And since the COVID battle-down in 2020, I restarted the hashtag with a vengeance. At the very least, it’s an easy excuse to put on some lipstick and sometimes even brush my hair.

The butter-in-my-coffee girl

An assortment of Bulletproof products

There is a fantastic and bizarre turn to my story, which is probably what makes my take a bit more interesting. Over the last decade or so, I transitioned from drinking sweet, mocha frappes to hardcore coffee snob.

It started with an increased interest in fitness and diet (vegan/paleo/keto/normal over and back again) in my early 30s. As I began to embrace the paleo diet (thanks, Twitter!), Bulletproof Coffee was my next step. I liked it immediately and was a champion of the art before it was particularly known, back when friends and family thought I was that girl.

Wait… Did you just say that you put BUTTER in your COFFEE?

In fact, it was my morning breakfast and “energy juice.” It got me to my late afternoon lunch break without succumbing to hungry snack attacks!

A turn of events

Molly Marco in a hospital

But when I was 35, I started to have major fatigue issues. I still worked out all the time—walking, weightlifting, CrossFit, running—but I was getting forgetful and tired.

On one particular day in July 2016, I woke up, had a coffee, ran a mile to my gym, did my strength training workout (barbells forever!), finished with my cool-down and walk home… Then, I was off to work. When I took a walk on my lunch break, I stopped at my then-favorite downtown Detroit coffee shop to chat with the baristas while enjoying a cappuccino splurge.

But, suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt nauseous and dizzy. I never felt this way and it spooked me. So, I put my head down.

The next thing I knew, I slowly awakened from an unconscious state. EMS was asking me questions. Someone’s T-shirt was resting under my head as a pillow. The coffee shop customers and baristas continued their work around me as if nothing was amiss. It was all very bizarre to me.

My initial feeling was one of mortification. I assumed it was too much caffeine on an otherwise empty stomach that caused my embarrassing public faint. I wanted to get up and go right back to work immediately. I had no idea how much time had passed and it was likely I’d easily taken a very extended lunch break. The EMS recommended I call my officemates because they wanted to take me to the emergency room. They believed, due to witness observations, that I’d either had a stroke or a seizure, in addition to a concussion.

I laughed. I was young, otherwise healthy, and generally fine. There was no way on God’s green earth I had a stroke or a seizure. I was fine! If LOL was a feeling? It would have been mine…

Tests, tests and more tests

It was a five-minute ambulance ride to the nearest hospital. I had a lot of tests that I don’t remember well. CT scans, tests and more tests as I drifted in and out of awareness. My boyfriend stayed with me most of that day. At one point, a small doctor asked me to kick, so I kicked—I kicked her right to the floor! (Thank you, strength training…)

The key moment was when a very somber ER doctor came to me and told me I had to stay at the hospital because one of the tests showed a brain tumor in my left temporal lobe. They ordered an MRI that night to see if I needed emergency surgery. Turns out, it appeared to be a slow-mover and I went home later the following day, but needed to schedule surgery soon.

More Diet Tips From Bulletproof

  • Dirty Keto vs. Clean Keto: Everything You Need to Know
  • Types of Fasting Diets and How to Choose the Right One
  • How to Choose the Best Keto Creamer
  • What are Macros, and Should You Count Them?

Coffee, bless you

Bulletproof coffee beans in a grinder

Remember when I said coffee saved my life? IT DID. If I had not had a very public seizure, I never would have known anything was wrong. In retrospect, now that I know, there were lots of signs (the faints were not faints, they were seizures; there were behavior changes and memory and speaking issues)—but they were subtle, slow-moving signs. No headaches, no pain, nothing the average person would ever read as “brain tumor.”

So, a few months later, after a neuropsych evaluation and a WADA test (Google it—it’s terrifying and cool), I had my craniotomy. They opened my skull and took out as much of the tumor as they safely could. (You see, my tumor has tendrils—there is no complete resection, not really. To remove it “all” would be removing key components of my personhood). I recovered quickly and the results of the tumor biopsy were to follow in the next 10-14 days.

That’s when the world shook. I got the call. My diagnosis. My naïve assumption from the start was that I had a benign brain tumor. That they would remove it and I would be fine. That naivete made going through the process of healing post-surgery, well, easy.

But, I’ll never forget that call. The kindest, gentlest voice was my new doctor—a neuro-oncologist—and he had the difficult job of telling me that I did, in fact, have cancer. A Grade III Anaplastic Astrocytoma. Brain cancer. Me. Cancer. I was so flustered I asked him if I could call him back. He told me I was free to come in and he would explain my diagnosis and next steps. I said yes to the meeting and hung up the phone.

Then, I stood on my front porch and screamed.

Yup, I screamed.

That was probably the worst day of my life. I then had max radiation and a year of chemo—and that wasn’t nearly as tough as the diagnosis. But, overall, I am lucky.

Holding out hope

A collage of photos of a woman exercising

Today, I am not in remission or NED (No Evidence of Disease). Those aren’t really words that go with my type of brain cancer. I am stable. And, stable is good. My cancer type is a lower-grade version of Glioblastoma (GBM), the type of cancer Beau Biden and John McCain had. I have the same type of cells, mine are just a junior version—slower moving. Mine is likely to make an encore performance, or two or three. If I’m lucky, it will just come back as Anaplastic Astrocytoma again. If it powers up, it will come back as GBM.

But, to make a long story short, I’ve decided to give both keto and paleo protocols a go. At best, maybe this is a helper. Maybe it fades the flair from future MRIs. Maybe it will buy me time. Maybe I’ll be able to cut down on or get rid of my seizure meds entirely. With the help of my hospital and medical team (and regular bloodwork and pokes), I’m factoring in a diet that aligns with my fitness goals, and can help me undo the not-so-positive gains I endured from steroids during treatment.

Related: The Keto Diet for Beginners: Your Complete Guide

More opportunity, more #SultryPosesWithCoffee

A woman posing in selfies with coffee

Now, back to my beloved coffee… There’s no chance I’m ending #SultryPosesWithCoffee any time soon. If anything, I’ll up my game. I’ll be doing some while intermittent fasting with black coffee (Bulletproof beans!). Or, maybe my favorite buttery Bulletproof coffee! (Prepare yourself for #SultryPosesWithBulletproofCoffee!)

What I’ve learned is that life is full of unique opportunities. We can’t always control outcomes. We can’t control the things that happen to us. However, I’ve come to find out that we can control how we embrace those challenges.

We aren’t Bulletproof because we have the fanciest gear, mutant stoicism and perfectly healthy lives. But, we do learn exactly how to #BETHEPROOF because we embrace life as it is, in the present. To live life so fully that, by the end, we have nothing left—absolutely no wasted moments in time.

Want to read more about how Bulletproof products help everyday people #BETHEPROOF? Follow @bulletproof on social media and keep up with our blog for more inspiring stories from Bulletproof consumers just like you.

Join over 1 million fans

Sign-up for the Bulletproof mailing list and receive the latest news and updates!

The guest author of this blog was compensated for endorsement. 

Statements made on this website have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Information provided by this website or this company is not a substitute for direct, individual medical treatment or advice. It is the responsibility of you and your healthcare providers to make all decisions regarding your health. Bulletproof recommends that you consult with your healthcare providers regarding the diagnosis and treatment of any disease or condition. Products sold on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

TAGS

#BETHEPROOFBulletproof CoffeeCancerCoffeeKetoPaleo

Related Bulletproof Diet Tips

Bacon cheeseburgers on grill

Dirty Keto vs. Clean Keto: Everything You Need to Know

Clock next to plate of food

Types of Fasting Diets and How to Choose the Right One

A mug of Bulletproof Coffee made with Bulletproof Original Creamer

How to Choose the Best Keto Creamer

Bottle of Bulletproof MCT Oil surrounded by vegetables

What are Macros, and Should You Count Them?

STAY BULLETPROOF: SUBSCRIBE TODAY

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

SHOP

  • Coffee
  • MCT Oils
  • Proteins
  • Food & Drink
  • Supplements
  • Other
  • All Products

Learn

  • Bulletproof for Beginners
  • Recipes
  • Newsletters & Guides
  • Bulletproof Blog
  • Books

CUSTOMER CARE

  • Contact Us
  • Shipping Policy
  • Return Policy

COMPANY

  • About Us
  • Press
  • Careers
  • Customer Reviews

PARTNERS

  • Store Locator
  • Wholesale
  • Affiliate Program
  • Coach Training
  • Students

†Statements made on this website have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Information provided by this website or this company is not a substitute for individual medical advice. | ©Bulletproof 360, Inc. 2013–2021

  • Privacy Policy |
  • Terms |
  • Reseller Policy