Confession: I'm addicted

If you've ever personally met me, you probably know that I have an addiction to Diet Coke. And peanut butter. And coffee. And anything salted caramel flavored. And naps. 

But I digress. Today's discussion is just about the Diet Coke. For as long as I can remember, I have LOVED that carbonated aspartame-y flavor. It has served well as part of my afternoon routine -- a Diet Coke after lunch to get me to the end of the school day. Sweet, delicious, glorious Diet Coke! 

See! Glorious! 

So when Lent rolled around this year, I wanted to give up something that would actually make me feel a sacrifice. In years past, I've done the same (a few years ago, I gave up peanut butter and then BINGE ATE an ENTIRE BAG of peanut butter M&M's on Easter. Mistake.), but I knew Diet Coke would be a toughy this year, especially since I've been lacking on sleep due to all the planning going on lately. 

And so I gave it up. March 5 to April 20 Diet Coke free. I could practically hear the sound of my afternoon exhaustion wiping me out the first week. My students may have noticed a new brand of grumpy passing through my system. 

I wish I could say it got easier after the first week. Friends, it did not. In fact, it didn't really feel easy until, oh, this past Monday when I knew that my sweet reward was only a few short days away. 

Did I feel the sacrifice? Oh yes. Did I end up replacing my afternoon Diet Coke with other things, like afternoon coffee? Oh yes. But overall, it was a good experience for me. 

As an aside, at my last bridal gown fitting, the seamstress and store owner both asked me if I'd lost weight (the dress seemed larger than it had at my previous fitting). I assured both of them that, no, I am the same weight now as when I bought the dress and the same weight I was when we started the fitting process. But they swear I seemed slimmer. The only change I've really made is cutting out the Diet Coke (if anything, I've probably been eating more calories lately (example: cake every day this past week)), so perhaps there is truth to the notion that diet soda can be bloating. Food for thought. 

We had the good fortune of having my bestie Teresa spend the first part of the weekend with us, and she had mentioned that she was trying to watch less TV so that she had time to do more reading. It made me think about how I'm always complaining that there is SO much to do and yet so little time to do it. And then I remembered how much TV watching I've been doing lately. It's about... a lot. So, for the next few weeks, I'm hoping to tune out a bit more so that I can be more productive at home, with wedding planning, and with catching up on some zzzzz's. Heck, I might even be able to find the time to read the GIANT stack of magazines piling up near the coffee table that I haven't had time to slug through yet. 

Maybe there's something to be said for letting go of the addictions after all.