Day 14: Coke is King

So, as some of you may know, the fifth step in the AA Twelve Step program is admitting to God, to ourselves, and to other people that we have a problem.  Here is my admission:  I am addicted to Coke.  No, not cocaine, Coca-Cola.  Emily calls it my “Coke habit,” which I don’t really appreciate.  The fact is, though, she is right.  I am completely addicted to it.  Honestly, it calms me down and helps me “drown out” my sorrows as I am driving home, as the kids are out of control, as I am about to do something stressful, as I am actually doing the stressful thing, and even after I am done with the stressful thing.

Let me say from the get-go that I do not do diet drinks.  I think they taste like chemicals and I really don’t like chemically-tasting things.  I do kind of like Coke Zero, but, if I had to choose, I always go with the Classic.  I was reading this interesting book the other day, and it was talking about the origins of Coca-Cola.  Apparently, the guy that made Coke famous bought it from someone for $500.  That is kind of an amazing thing, if you think about it.  Today, that $500 recipe is the foundation of a company with $9 billion in revenues. 

I love Coke, and I was extremely concerned about giving it up when I started the diet.  Coke has always been a part of my life.  When I was a baby, my mother used to put Coke in my bottle instead of milk (or at least I like to think that she did).  When I was a kid, I helped my dad with his "Coke collection," which constituted about 200 bottles of Coke from different countries, Coke pins, a model Coke airplane, a few metal Coke cars, and even a Coke dispenser (one of those old ones that dispensed the Coke in the glass bottles).  When I was in high school, I applied for the prestigious Coca-Cola Scholarship (no, I didn't get it).  When I was in China, I drank Coke every day (mainly because you can't drink the water unless you boil it).  When I married Emily, she created this ridiculous rule about not having any soft drinks in the house.  This included Coke.  It caused some contention in our young marriage, but over time, I learned that it is just as easy to store the Coke in the trunk of my car as it is to store it in the garage.

Anyway, since my diet allows for almost no sugar, I am pretty sure I am not ever authorized to drink Coke again.  It is probably for the best.  Like alcohol to the alcoholic, I am a Cokaholic and even one Coke would probably knock me off the wagon.  If I have one, I just can’t stop drinking them.  I have often wondered if I drank alcohol (which I do not), if my tendencies to drink Coke would be transferred to alcohol.  Fortunately, I will never know. 

The most amazing thing is that I am now fourteen days into my diet, and I have not had a single Coke!  I think this is quite a feat.  What is even more amazing is that I have not even had a temptation or craving for a Coke.  I have been really surprised by this, especially because all of the times I directly tried to wean myself off of the drink, I couldn’t do it.  Now, almost without even trying, I have been able to stop.  This is totally unexplainable, though I wonder a bit if it has to do with the fact that I am so busy trying to abide by the diet, I haven’t had time to stop and get one (as I said, Emily has never allowed Coke in the house, so I have to go to McDonalds or some other place to get one).  So, I am not sure how it has happened, I am just glad that it has.

Thus, I am happy to report that I am not even two weeks in and I think that the one addictive thing of which I partook, Coke, seems to have no power over me.  I feel great (physically) by drinking all of the water (other than having to go to the bathroom (see Day 10)), and while I “miss” the taste of Coke, it is now officially something of the past for me.  There was a day that Coke was King, but now, it seems that it is a commoner just like all the other food I can't have!