My Favorite Addiction

♥️♥️♥️ My Love for Diet Coke ♥️♥️♥️

I love my warm, cozy bed in the morning times. Time to leave the comfort of snuggling up with either Cassie or Duke for the bathroom! Morning after morning, my bladder drags me out of bed before I wish, but here we go for another day. As my feet hit the ground, before I even stop at the bathroom, I scurry my cold bare feet across the kitchen floor for my main priority at that moment, my first Diet Coke for the day! I mention the bare feet because there have been too many mornings that my toes RAM right into a dog bone that Duke has deliberately placed. 😖

During 2020, there were actually shortages of Diet Coke! This didn’t happen just one time, either! It was reported by CNN that there was a shortage of artificial sweeteners, to begin with, which is why diet products were the first to be impacted. Then, in March & April, canned soda sales went up dramatically due to so many people drinking soda at home while in quarantine or socially distancing. At this time, there was an aluminum can shortage! Seriously? Yes! Seriously. It was not JUST toilet paper, friends! The global pandemic has affected each and every one of us in so many more ways than I could have ever expected!

I will honestly own, I have an addictive personality! Struggling with some things more than others, but I wouldn’t have thought I would need to be concerned about the supply & demand of my favorite SODA!

Nevertheless, here we are, I can not find my normal Diet Coke products and on the occasion, my Diet Coke orders are fulfilled, it is rarely the 6-pack bottles & the quantity that I order. So, now, I am rationing my Diet Coke intake certain days/weeks. So, yes. I am just peachy. I have considered drinking more water, but then buy a bottle of wine instead. 🍷

“Diet Coke does not contain nasty chemicals. It contains lovely and delicious carbonation, caffeine, and aspartame. What's unnatural about that”? - Meg Cabot

Across the street, every time I see my very best friend (outside ~ socially distanced) Cindy, one of her first questions to me is…

“Can I get you a Diet Coke”? Oh, Cindy! You are the best, and you know me SO WELL {love you lots!}!

I don’t care for all of those questionnaires that ask if you drink soda & how many a day! Seriously? I am shamed over DIET COKE? Nuts, right!

I have cut down on my Diet Coke intake a few different times, but I always come back to my friend. The first time is a given, in fact, it counts as the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd time I quit drinking sodas of all kinds. Each time we went through IVF or I was pregnant, I did not drink any soda. I was like many women, water was the only thing I would drink. Then, when I would inevitably miscarry, I went back to my favorite soda.

I “cut back” the amount of Diet Cokes I consumed a few times, too. It just wasn’t important to me. It was always because somebody else didn’t like that I enjoyed too many Diet Cokes, in their opinion.

When I was going through chemotherapy, my oncologist told me to “keep my diet the same” and not to add any additional trauma to my body. Of course, other people thought they knew what was best for me & strongly encouraged me to stop drinking soda. RRRrrr.

It is amazing the things I allow other people to judge me for, but anyway.

After my treatments, I was introduced to a woman I truly appreciate & admire, my dentist! Her name is Gina & my husband has been friends with her & her family for decades. Gina does NOT shame me, in any way. I was so intimidated to go to the dentist (plus, she is absolutely beautiful, so I wrongly anticipated to be even more self-conscious) because my teeth were so horrible. I didn’t take pictures anymore with an open smile, I didn’t even like Brian to see my teeth, they were so embarrassing! 🦷🦷🦷

Gina has spent hours putting my smile together, and do you know what she suggests I do? Absolutely nothing!

{I mean, she may have mentioned it a time or two LAST year, but when I saw her last week… she said absolutely nothing regarding me enjoying a few (or 8) Diet Coke’s/day}

Remember how people always suggest that most of our problems stem from our mother’s & childhoods? Thank you, Mom, for introducing me to my addiction. In fact, I do believe that you have me beat in Diet Coke consumption per day!

Morning, noon & night, I am always pulled back to the refrigerator for the cold, refreshing, fizz of my favorite & comforting, Diet Coke!