Staring at the enemy
My hand was poised at the vending machine. Two crisp dollar bills had been inserted.
Out of Mug Rootbeer again.
Mug Rootbeer is not my drug of choice. I’d rather drink Barq’s, but our company’s vending machines don’t stock it. I consider myself lucky to get Mug.
But the vending machine is not stocked that well with Mug, and I don’t know how long it is before they replenish the supply.
So I normally just go for Dr. Pepper. I don’t exactly enjoy Dr. Pepper but it’s good for a sugar fix. I don’t like orange or red pop that much; it’s too sweet.
And then my eyes glanced at and then stopped firmly at the Mountain Dew.
Mountain Dew, for a change, is well stocked. Mostly because I don’t drink it any more. I’m heading up to three years of MD sobriety.
I haven’t missed it that much, honestly. I can’t imagine what I loved about Mountain Dew. I don’t want to think about it too hard, either. Because then I could imagine, and then it’s just a few steps away to getting a cold, frosty green evil beverage out of the vending machine.
I can’t go down that path again. But I did stare at it for a minute, and reflect on the evil. And then selected a tame Dr. Pepper instead.
I really need to stop drinking pop entirely. Rootbeer has been a minimonkey on my back during the last year or so. Never to Mountain Dew proportions. I’ve even quit a few times.
But I still stress and I still like the sugar.
At some point in my life, hopefully soon, I’ll quit drinking pop again. I look forward to swimming every day, and scaring off the little skinny girls baking themselves by the pool. I need to restart using the gym membership I’ve been paying for.
Then I’ll have a reason to stop drinking sugar. Eating sugar. Making unhealthy choices. Somehow, when I’m working out, the decision to not eat or drink something bad becomes easier: it negates all the hard work I’ve been doing.
And for now, I try not to think about all the harm I’ve been doing to my body with the things I’ve been eating and drinking. About the tighter-fitting pants. There’s always tomorrow.
I found it easier to switch to a Diet soft drink, rather than quitting entirely. I had to do something, though, because I was drinking too much of the stuff–at least 40 oz. per day–and I was gaining weight as my job became more sedentary.
It takes awhile to adjust to the taste of Diet, but you do adjust and then can’t drink the really sweet stuff again. I found that by not going cold turkey, I also cut back on how much I drank over all. Good luck!
You crack me up! I knew you had to get a sugar fix from somewhere else. I tried doing the Crystal Light thing
for a month, but MB lured me back. I’ve discovered a mix of 3/4 Diet Pepsi and a 1/4 regular Pepsi is pretty good.