It’s Five Things Wednesday, so let’s get started with this list of five things I thought I’d miss when I gave them up, but don’t miss at all:
1.) Diet Coke. I’ve been drinking Diet Coke (just for the taste of it) since the early 90’s. I’ve put away enough Diet Coke to, in the immortal words of Lynyrd Skynyrd, turn a battleship around. As regular readers know, I gave it up before I committed to my current weight-loss/healthy living goals, and haven’t had a DC since Christmas Eve (2010). For months I couldn’t pass a cooler in a convenience store without desperately wanting to reach out and grab a cool, refreshing, contour-bottled Diet Coke. And then one day I looked at a cooler and realized I had no interest in drinking a Diet Coke. For those of you contemplating walking away from aspartame-sweetened sodas, it may be helpful to know it took me about four months for the craving to go away. Your mileage may vary. I’m happy to have it behind me – there’s way too much stuff on that ingredient list that I can’t pronounce, and that can’t be good. Side benefit: I save an average of about a buck-and-a-half a day by leaving that stuff alone.
2.) Elevators. Since I started taking the stairs I’m amazed (and saddened) at how much time I used to waste in those tiny mechanical boxes, waiting for something to happen after I pushed the button. I still use them sometimes (for instance, if the sprightly daughters are with me, stairs take a really loooong time, and I don’t take the stairs more than about three stories), and when I do I can’t believe how frustrating they are. Most of ’em are kinda nasty as well.
3.) “Good” Parking Spots. The parking spots right next to the door (whatever door that is) are crowded, difficult to turn into and often without shade. And I don’t waste time waiting for somebody to vacate a spot. Viva shady parking spots!
4.) Double Quarter-Pounders with Cheese. I’m a little surprised McDonald’s stock price hasn’t tanked since I gave up fast food back in December. I used to eat A LOT of these burgers. Sometimes with fries (I still maintain that McD’s fries, direct from the fryer, with the proper amount of salt added at the proper time, are the very best fries anywhere), sometimes with a Filet-O-Fish on the side, usually with a tub of the aforementioned Diet Coke. Not only were they quick and portable, they were tasty. But it only took me a couple of weeks to forget about ’em. At this point I can’t even remember what they tasted like. The fries, they’re a different story.
5.) Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate-Chip Cookie-Dough Ice Cream. Sorry Ben and Jerry. I want to save the world, just like you do (although when you sold-out to Unilever I suspect your interest in saving the world waned a bit), and I will attest that you make the very best mass-produced ice cream there is, bar none. But eating your fine product a full pint at a time (’cause I never left any in the container) was making me think I should reserve a room at the local cardiac ICU facility. This was one of the easier foods to give up, actually. No cravings at all. Which tells me it probably had fewer strangely-addictive chemicals than most of the stuff I was consuming, but it still had to go.
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I noticed yesterday that the fine folks at WordPress.com have added a “share” bar at the bottom of my posts on this blog for those of you who use The Twitter and/or The Facebook. While I primarily write this blog to keep myself on the straight-and-narrow, food-wise (and eventually exercise-wise), I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t really dig it when people actually read what I’ve written. So don’t be shy about using those little buttons. Thanks!
— (part II)
I’ve been advised that at least one of you is perturbed that I sometimes promise to write about a particular topic but never seem to get around to it. I do feel guilty about that, but let’s face it, I have a fairly short attention span. That said, I’ll be making a concerted effort to address the issue and clean out the promised-posts backlog within the week.
And again, thank you for reading!
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