I'm Back!

Mmm... right now I'm eating the most fantastic chicken tortilla soup. It is amazing. Veggies, chicken, spices. No beans or actual tortillas. I  imagine I could eat it everyday and be perfectly happy. 
I probably shouldn't eat it this close to the computer though, after the apple juice incident of Oh'twelve. 
April 1st will be my next go around. I'm going for a whole14 this time. I think I can put on my big girl panties and suck it up for two weeks. I think it will be better the second time around because: 

• I won't be battling aspartame withdrawal 
• I have already (mostly) done it before, so I can do it again
• I know more recipes now
• The last batch of brownies I made didn't turn out so good. I probably won't fixate on them as much. 
• I won't be going on vacation in April
• The food budget can be adjusted. Meat costs more than rice of beans. Gotta get over it. 
• I'm getting tired of being tired after eating foods that I KNOW will make me tired. 

On April 1st it will be time once again to say goodbye to grains, dairy, wine, chocolate and say hello to delicious foods. But, only for two weeks as a re-set. It's so easy to slip and slip again. I've been eating jelly beans. Not even good, cotton candy jellybelly jelly beans. Fred Meyer brand beans. Not worth it. 

ps. Erin, one day, I will return your Whole30 book....honest...

My Whole14

I stuck with the program for 14 days, minus a piece of toast. Here's what I've accomplished/learned:
1. I hate aspartame. I will never consume it again, unless it's unknowingly. Which, probably won't happen because I'm not going to eat a lot of fake food. I know where they hide it. 
2. I WILL NOT go back to Diet Coke. 
3. My children will not eat aspartame foods. 
4. Whole eating is the way to go. I don't like the idea of all the chemicals/fake crap that are put as fillers for real food. 
5. I learned a lot more about cooking and spice usage. Spices are awesome. 
6. I will not eat fast food again. Gross. 
7. I kinda don't want to get the kids Happy Meals again. They are not nutritious and the toys are not needed. BUT, they are so happy when they get them and I remember being happy when I got them as a child (rarely).
8. Eating real food will make Matt and I 'weird' at times. We are OK with that. 
9. I like treats. 
10. I think after doing two weeks of incredibly clean eating, I can do Paleo. 
11. I had pizza last night from The Rock. It was good. BUT....today I can tell had it. 
12. Balance is a good thing. 

What I still need to learn:
1. More varieties of food. 
2. More advanced planning of menus
3. Making Paleo a bit more economical
4. Getting the kids to try more foods

Also, I gotta give a HUGE THANK YOU to Erin. She is awesome. Matt and I have benefitted greatly so far from Paleo(for him) Paleo-ish(for me) eating. We've lost weight, have had more energy, and Matt  is feeling fantastic. 
I may try again to do a whole30. I may start up in two days, two weeks, two years. I don't know. I know that this has been a great learning experience for me and I think if I allow a bit of flexibility in it (whole30 is more strict than Paleo, at least as far as I can tell) it's going to be a great change for our family. 

Jumped off the wagon: Part 1

Yup. I totally bailed. 
I was feeling pretty rotten all week. Each day seemed to get a little sadder than the next. Saturday was a pretty terrible day. I was grumpy and short tempered. That's not the kind of mom or person I want to be. I was tired. I did not have Cheetah Blood. My head was fuzzy. It had been fuzzy off and on for awhile. See, I think I NEED to have more carbs than just fruit and veggies. Or maybe I was doing it wrong. Either way, keeping up the pace with my two little ones and no food was not working out. 
I jumped off the wagon Saturday night. I had a piece of bread (wow, I like bread) After that, I had a piece of dark chocolate. The dark chocolate was incredible. Every nerve/cell/neuron in my body and brain leapt for joy. It was an incredible feeling. I mean, the chocolate melted in my mouth and every cell was rejoicing. 
To Be Continued...(once kids are napping or at least not trying to cause bodily harm to each other)

Day 14

Blah.
Two weeks in. I don't think I've had enough food today. I don't know what to eat. I didn't prep enough. I did weight myself yesterday...even though they say not to. My goal wasn't weight loss, but I'm four pounds down in two weeks.
I want food!

Day 13

Day 13! Seventeen more to go! After I got home from subbing today, I really, really wanted a cookie. Not in a desperate way, but  in a happy/sad sort of way. I thought it would be nice to sit back with one of those totally fake cookies they sell at the store. You know the ones. They are sugar cookies with super bright, thick frosting and sprinkles. I'm sure there isn't any real food in them, but I do like the texture and taste. Instead, I had some chicken and a hard-boiled egg. 
It's just incredible how food is weaved into our lives. When we are happy, we want a treat. When sad, something yummy to cheer to us. On the weekend, something fun, like pizza. Game night? Chips and dips. Relaxing in the evening? A glass of wine. Part of the whole30 for me is becoming more aware of how food is intertwined in my daily life and realizing the patterns. I can not eat on autopilot. If I want a snack, I have to get out the cookbook and see what I can make. Sometimes, that's too much effort and realize I'm not that hungry after all. 
Ideally, replacing the unhealthy stuff with healthy treats that I love would be great. I'm not there yet. I still would prefer to have a cookie than, say, spinach.  ( I do appreciate that I am eating all real foods, though.  I have more than two weeks left. I think I'll try to branch out to some new foods and new snacks and see how it goes.

Day 12

No cheats. Back from vacation. Work tomorrow.
We booked our Vegas vacation while still on our Sunriver vacation :)
I'm over two weeks diet coke free. (Hi, my name is Rose...)

Day....11...ish

I must confess, to y'all, that I have sorta slipped in what I have put in my mouth. Yes. I was weak. Was it for a slice of pizza?  A cookie? A chocolate at Goodies? Nope. Nothing even close to delightfully sinful. 

It was a piece of dry wheat toast. It wasn't even good bread. It was Ok bread. How did such a thing happen? I was feeling really blah this morning. I did not wake up energized and my stomach didn't feel super awesome. So I got a little grumpy and directed it towards the whole30. As I lay like a slug on the couch, Sawyer brings over a piece of toast for Cali. She didn't want it. I ate it. I thought it would settle my stomach. 

Matt was slightly horrified and disappointed that I didn't cheat with something good. He reassured me that it was OK, and I could keep going. I guess I'll do a whole10 followed by a whole19.8. I don't plan on slipping again because IT SO WASN'T WORTH IT! 

I assigned my own penance. This evening we took the kids to Goodies and I sat in there while they ate ice cream and didn't cave at all. I didn't even want to cheat again. 

 We were eventually able to convince Sawyer that the water was Shark free. Although..the facility is called SHARC..so maybe he was concerned when he heard us taking about going there....

Cali making a new friend. 

 

Cali and Sawyer's first time tubing! My first time on a tubing hill. There was a pretty big hill behind our house growing up that was filled with trees, rocks and blackberry bushes that we'd tube down when it snowed. 

Video of Cali and I going down the big hill. 

Day 10

I LOVE SUNRIVER! I like hot tubbing at night when it's 17 degrees and the stars are bright. I like waking up and seeing that the snow has not melted. I like getting to play in the snow and then go swimming. It is fantastic. 

I do miss having treats while on vacation. I really almost ate pizza and a chocolate chip cookie for breakfast. I figured I'd made my goal, which was to give up the Diet Coke. I have a lot more energy in the morning, which I wanted as well. Mission accomplished. How bad could one little slice of pizza and one oven warm cookie be? 

According to the book, It Starts With Food, pretty bad. They convince you that a moment of food weakness isn't worth messing up the Whole30. I'm kinda thinking I don't like the authors. They might just be messing with people. I mean, sure, in practice it totally works. But what about my cookie???

Instead I had a nut and fruit bar thing, which they say is kinda cheating because it's still giving into a 'sugar craving' but those things used to taste like bark to me. Now they are super delicious. Same with sweet potatoes. I had always loaded on the butter and brown sugar, now it tastes sweet enough on its own. 

Another thing keeping me going is you guys. I don't want to write that I didn't do it. I guess there is something to making your goals public. Thanks for the encouragement. 

I still want a cookie. Maybe I should bake up a sweet potato. 

 Cali loved the pool and wanted to swim. This summer we may do lessons

 You can tell we don't get a lot of snow very often. Our two foot high 'sled hill' was super fun this morning. 

 He didn't want to get in the pool, but liked hanging out with his fluffy white towel. Later when we asked why he was scared, he said "sharks"  

Reminds me of the little boy in Christmas Story. He kept getting stuck and needing help up :)

Day 9

Day 9 is good. Felt great this morning and woke up with lots of energy. I think I had enough to thoroughly annoy Matt with. It could have been because while he was trying to eek out a couple more minutes in the warm, comfortable bed, I thought it would be more fun to show my appreciation for the Christmas gift he gave me:  an alarm clock i-pod dock. I'm not sure he enjoyed LMFAO blaring out, but I did. 

We are in Sunriver! Woowoo! LOVE it here. We decided on Saturday to go this week. I must say, it's amazing how much food is tied into vacation. I was a little sad thinking about not having a glass of wine to enjoy this evening. I was even a bit distraught when the house filled up with the smell of seriously delicious pizza. I really, really like Blondie's Pizza. In a little bit, I'll be popping chocolate chip cookies in the oven. Matt was doing a whole30 with me, but with the lure of vacation and my blessing, he went with a whole8. His calzone looked amazing. I had a salad with salmon and dried cranberries and sliced almonds. It's really good, too. But..I could imagine my teeth sinking into the cheese and sauce and the perfect crust. Ooooh yyeeeeeaaaaa.  I am staying strong. I would probably just get super pissed off at myself after that one bite and figure I had to start all over again. This whole30 thing is a practice in awareness for sure. I find that certain activities make me want to reach for certain foods, none of which are healthy choices. Ahhh, who needs wine and chocolate when you can have homemade guacamole with...carrot sticks. I sound sarcastic, but it really is tasty. Before leaving today, Matt and I menu planned for the trip and brought most of our food. Tonight was our 'take-out' night. 

Day 8

Last night I dreamed I was at a Paleo summer camp. Erin and Kelly were there. I'm pretty sure Matt was there too. Lunch was deep fried chinese food. I ate it, knowing that it was not whole30 (and obviously not paleo...dreams are weird) and then I felt super guilty. I woke up feeling a little guilty and had to remind myself that I didn't actually go out for a deep fried chinese lunch. 

I don't miss Diet Coke anymore. I feel good. Normal. I didn't want to consume a snickers or a brownie or an entire baguette. I stayed up late last night (the energy kicked in around nine thirty for some reason) and made my budgets for each month for almost the entire year. There are some tweaks to be made, but I have a general outline and a general idea of how much of my student loan I can pay off. I'd love to say goodbye to it by the end of the year. I don't know if that's possible. But I gave up diet coke...so..kinda feeling like I can do whatever I want if I want to. 

Day 7

Day 7. Today was slug day. I woke up with a clear head, ready to go. I did a couple quick writing assignments while the kids enjoyed some Micky Mouse. It is Saturday after all. We bundled up and went to the park with the pond, where the kids did two half mile laps and stomped in every puddle on the way. I loved stomping on partially frozen puddles when I was a kid. We visited the ducks and watched them navigate through the thin ice. They'd try to walk on it, but then their little legs would sink through. They didn't seem overly dismayed. 

I won't lie. Today at times felt like I was hiking up hill through waist deep mud. I was tired. It was a peaceful hike, but I was definitely moving slow. 

After church, I wanted to eat an entire baguette, a snicker's bar and a Whitman's Sampler. I got to thinking, "Hey, a wholeseven isn't so bad....I've given up DC after all"  But I am stubborn enough to see this through and I can't quit when Erin is doing this too.  She'd probably advice me to put on my big girl panties and suck it up, going without bread or chocolate for thirty days isn't the end of the world. (Thanks Erin :-) 

 Cuties on the bridge

 Fat duck

 Duck fam

As you can see from this photo, I let Cali express her independence and choose her own clothes, even when going out of the house. As long as it's weather appropriate, she gets to choose. This may be hard at times for me to stick too. I reserve the right to limit her choices when it's time to go to church or any other sort of formal event. Also, they REALLY loved puddle stomping. Sawyer kept saying "big one, big one!" 

Day 6

Today, kinda not bad at all. I woke up just fine. No fog or grogginess. Cali was grumpy and was singing "I'm sleepy and I know it" and was not eager about getting ready for school. I went to the living room and played Gangnam Style pretty loud, and danced  until she came out of the room. Oh yes. I was rockin' the gangnam style. And Cali came out and laughed and laughed and we had a cheerful rest of the morning.

In my DC days, I would have been barely dragging myself out of bed, and grumpy myself. Our two grumpinesses would have been combined and led to a grump fest. 

I made my own guacamole last night and had it with some sweet potato chips. All natural, no bad stuff and they are fantastic. 

Day 6, Much better than any previous day.

Day 5

Right now I want a chocolate brownie with a warm, still kinda gooey inside.  Then I want to smother it with peanut butter and stuff it in my mouth. 

When I passed the giant bags of M&M's in Costco, I wanted to rip one open and shower myself with them. If some landed in my mouth, so be it. 

There was a huge Coke truck parked outside of Costco. I had to walk within inches of it. 

I went for another walk around the park. On my second lap, when I was at the top of the hill (about a 1/4 mile away from home, if not a third) a loose dog ran by me. Oh, those people who don't keep their dogs on a leash. 

It was Marley. 

He escaped the yard, ran up the easement, jumped the rail, ran up the street, through the parking lot, into the park and up the gravel hill.

 Marley doesn't usually escape so I was a bit surprised to have him at my side, and dismayed that he was utterly naked without so much as a collar to grab onto to lead him home. 

If you've read the book or seen the movie Marley (which, btw, He was NOT named after. Marley is 9) they happen to have similar personalities.

A leash would have been helpful. 

We made our way back home. The look on Matt's face was pretty fantastic when I returned with Marley. He'd only let him out a couple minutes earlier, and I'd already done one lap and was on my second when he came to find me. Funny dog. 

I'm cooking up cajun sweet potato fries, salmon and I don't know..something else to go with it. 

Twenty five more days and then I'm so having a brownie. 

Day 4

Today was a bit up and down. I felt great this morning. After dropping off Cali, I did a bit of writing, then cleaned up in my office. I went to my Sunday School classroom to put up a few pictures that I hadn't posted yet, picked up Cali and went shopping for dinner ingredients. I never realized how much junk food is dispersed throughout the store. While at self-checkout, there was a cooler filled with ice cream treats. I tried not to stare at the little ice cream sandwiches, with the perfect little vanilla waves stuffed between two chocolate cookies. 

 I crashed when I got home. I was too hungry and wanted junk. I spied a Reese's pb cup package on the countertop, but it turned out to be a roll of packing tape.  

After lunch and after  the kids were in bed, I took a nap. When I was woken up by Marley, I was grumpy. SUPER grumpy. Then hungry. Then happy while  having an apple with almond butter, but then grumpy  again. There is a blog post that describes what you may feel over the whole30, and day 4-5 are called "kill all things" because of the grumpy factor, and days...I think it's 6-7 are tired. I combined both into one afternoon. I'm hoping that this is not the pattern for the next three days. 

To get  out of the grumpies, I grabbed my i-pod, put on Mumford&Sons and went for a walk around our park. The sun was shining out from behind the clouds and the air was cool, but not too cold.  It's rare in January to have sunshine without bitter cold or  harsh east wind. 

With a much improved mood and a cup of Chai Spice tea, I made  dinner while Matt played outside with Cali and Sawyer.  I was nervous about the dinner.  It was spaghetti and meatballs.  I made meatballs with ground chicken breast, onion, garlic, salt and pepper. I made marinara sauce using tomatoes I grew this past summer as well as garlic, onion and various spices. Then, I cooked a spaghetti squash. Those things are so cool.  If you haven't tried it yet, you need to. Once cooked, you just pull out the meat of squash and it looks just like spaghetti noodles. I was worried that my meatballs would be bland, the sauce yucky and the noodles weird. It turned out to be really yummy and has to be super healthy. 

My lesson for today: Rose+notenoughfood=GRUMP! Grumpyrose+walk+food=Happy

Matt prefers happy Rose. 

Sawyer catching snowflakes on his tongue a while back. I'm hoping the forecasters are wrong and we will get lots of snow tomorrow. 

Day 3

Today I went to Target to buy tea. I had to pass the aisles filled with franken-food and inhale the scent of chocolate and dorritos. Dorritos don't really smell while in the package... but I could practically taste the cheeze-its. The Stash tea was on sale and I bought all I could reach of the Raspberry Pomegranate green tea. They were on the top shelf and there wasn't anything long nearby I could grab the rest down with. I suppose the tall people who like that flavor will be pleased. 

Matt and I had a date night! Jody came over and watched the kids and got them tucked into bed. We watched Les Miserables. It was wonderful to have an evening to ourselves and know that the kids were thoroughly enjoying themselves. 

However, I am used to enjoying a smuggled Diet Coke while watching a movie. I also like to have my pockets stuffed with chocolates, and on occasion, a small buttery popcorn even though  I KNOW it will make me feel terrible after.

I felt a bit sad that I could have none of the above items. Instead, I had pumpkin seeds and a Luna bar that was made up of nuts and cherries. I've had those before and thought they were disgusting. Today it was delicious. I'm starting to think that after thirty days I really might like dark chocolate. I wanted to lick some today.

We get to the theatre and have our back row to ourselves with my purse stuffed with real food. And you know what they do to me??!!??  COKE ADS!!!!!  Open up Happiness! Happy coke! They had a long commercial for regular coke, which I was like..ok, fine. BUT THEN they had the one for Diet Coke. Ohhhhhhhhh.  I know we went our separate ways, but it still hurts sometimes. They showed a lady with her wedding dress and her diet coke. I remember on my wedding day I was totally freaking out until my SIL brought me a diet lime coke. Then all was good. Little did I know it was the ASPERTAME that soothed me.  

Giant, big screen Diet Cokes. It was so wrong. Matt tried to cover my eyes. 

After we got through the commercials, we had to take a ride on that roller coaster thing that flings you through all the candy, more cokes and the popping popcorn.  Torture. 

The movie, though, was to quick to distract me. It was incredible.  I mean, a real movie of substance. The acting was amazing.  If you haven't seen it, you really, really need to. 

Day 2

I woke up today feeling...pretty good.  Even though Marley and Sawyer woke me up about a half dozen times between the two of them, I didn't feel tired. My head felt normal. I didn't feel like I was in a drowsy fog. I think today is one week since I gave up the Diet Coke.  I drink a bunch of tea during the day, and it's doing the trick. My stomach no longer feels queasy throughout the day, like it did after stepping down on the aspertame. That stuff is nasty. 

For breakfast I had another egg 'muffin' and a couple pieces of breakfast sausage that I made, which were pretty darn tasty. For snack I had an apple with almond butter, and later an orange. Lunch was a hamburger patty again, with an orange.  I'm making almond chicken for dinner tonight, with spicy cajun sweet potato fries on the side, as well as a green salad. I'm spending a lot more quality time in the kitchen and will soon get to know it quite intimately. I have yet to use my new food processor and am looking forward to getting to know it, too. 

Day 1

Real food.  I'm eating only real food. Do you know how much more work that takes? And planning? I'm sure some of you do. 

So this morning I had an egg 'muffin'  It was whipped up egg poured into muffins tins that were filled with chopped up broccoli, onion and green peppers. It was OK. The kids thought it would be an actual muffin.  Cali wanted to put frosting and sprinkles on it. Once they tasted them, they were a little um, not interested anymore. 

I wanted some ketchup for it, but I hadn't made any, so I stuck with a bit of salt. 

For snack I had a chopped up organic apple with almond butter to dip it in. Pretty good. 

Lunch was a hamburger patty with mustard, pickles all wrapped in a lettuce leef. 

Pumpkin seeds and lots of cuties. 

Tonight's dinner is a green salad with chicken and I have no idea about the dressing yet..since honey mustard and thousand are out. 

You know what one of my favorite snacks was?  A warm chocolate brownie and a cold Diet Coke. I don't really want the diet coke, but a brownie and a root beer would be good. 

Ahhhh...franken foood.....

Day -1

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  What am I going to eat tomorrow????  I just had some cheese and bread and hot chocolate. Later I may have a glass of wine.  Probably need to eat more bread, too.  I'm thankful this has been planned between candy holidays.  
I pray for strength and willpower. 

I'm sure  Cali does too, so her mommy doesn't go crazy. :) Ok.  Here we go. 

Day - 2

This morning my lovely MIL offered to watch Cali and Sawyer for a couple of hours.  It's perfect timing because I need to get all of the Christmas decorations put back up into the attic. In their eagerness to assist me, they usually don't actually help.

I went to Starbucks again.  I kinda see the appeal. I don't get out much so I should that into consideration.  First, I saw someone from church, so I got that whole neighborhood coffee shop feel.  Then, as I was waiting in the not-too-long line, the guys behind me were having a conversation about relationships. "What do want out of a relationship?" guy 1 says.  I'm thinking, wow, this is so cliche coffee shop talk. He wasn't propositioning him.  He was mentoring. After I ordered and was waiting, I got to see a much older guy with a much younger guy.  Like grandpa was giving advice to his 20 year old grandson.  The advice kinda consisted of be cautious of settling down too fast. 

As I'm eavesdropping, I see a table to the far side of the shop with writers. Their laptops were set up, books spread out, earbuds in. There was a low light hanging over it.  I thought that perhaps if I took my laptop and wrote at Starbucks, I'd magically use commas correctly.  Or I could research comma usage in my giant Chicago Style Manual and at least look cool.  Or maybe I'd look like a student from MHCC trying to pass writing 131. I don't know. 

Or maybe I just need to get out more often. 

So thanks to Jody for watching the kids and thanks to Matt for saying it was fine to spend a lot of money on a small, yet delicious, peppermint white chocolate mocha.  And thanks to Terra for recommending it in the first place. I added a slice of iced lemon pound cake. I figure it was go big or go home. In two days I won't be having either treat. Oh, and thanks to Erin for food wisdom. I wouldn't have gone to Starbucks if it wasn't for the loss of my best beverage.  

I'm living it up food wise these last couple days. I had a bunch of delicious bread yesterday and some Ben and Jerry's too. I'll have to have a glass of wine tonight or tomorrow night. Ok, enough rambling :)

Day -3 Breaking up is Hard to Do

Is it ever easy ending a long-term relationship?  No. I mean, even if it's an unhealthy - even toxic- relationship, there are always the good times to look back on.  Diet Coke and I had been together for a really long time.  And even though I knew that maybe it wasn't the best relationship for me, it was usually a satisfying one. It fulfilled me physically and was always there for me, no matter what time of day. 

I called things off once I realized it contained a neurotoxin that can alter one's brain chemistry (or something along those lines) I mean, I knew I had to cut back on the time I spent with DC, and was planning on having a much needed break and take some time for myself to figure out what it is I really need from a beverage.  

I even returned an unopened case to Target today. 

Right now I have a white chocolate peppermint mocha from Starbucks.  Sure, it's delicious, new and fun, but it's just a rebound beverage.  There's no long term potential there.  Mostly due to the ridiculously high cost. 

Even though I know DC and I shouldn't be together, it's still hard to say goodbye. 

I need a breakup playlist. 

Day -3

My head hurts. I'm tired. Stomach is blah. The wind is still blowing.  Matt and I played 'guess that wind gust!' last night with our anemometer. I think I could open a side business by bringing in the neighbors garbage cans after the garbage/recycling guys come by.  There was a lot of dodging today as I drove to the dentist and then to gymnastics. 

Kinda wish they had adult classes. 

I chose this picture because it was warm and sunny and Diet Coke was still a loved companion instead of a bitter enemy. 

Day -4 No More Diet Coke

People - doctors - have repeatedly told me that aspartame is not good. When I'd share how many aspartame rich products I consumed, eyebrows would raise and jaws would drop.  Ok, well, I may be exaggerating slightly.  But while I  *knew* that aspartame wasn't super awesome, I didn't realize how not super awesome it was for me.  Just stepping down from Diet Coke has been miserable.  I was grumpy, tired, and even felt a bit nauseas. Realizing my addiction to DC was actually a real thing and not just a "hahaha, I drink a lot" I decided to google DC withdrawl and find out if I was alone.
Now, you might think that searching anything on the internet is dicey at best. You can find anything supporting anything.  I did find a reputable-ish site and it describe how it wasn't just the caffeine. It was the aspartame that can create addiction.  I had no problem with a caffeine addiction.  But I am so not going to be addicted to something made up in a lab somewhere and starts with ass. 
I have not had a Diet Coke today. It's 5:13 pm right now.  I had a coffee which was pretty disgusting, and a natural root beer with no freaky chemicals. I've got a few more days until sugars and grains go.

A photo taken last night.  Mt. Hood is in the center and the trees are blowing like crazy. Cold.

Day - 5 ...

It's really, really cold. It's days like this that make me wish for warm Diet Coke.  Why don't they have that?  We have hot and cold coffee! Why not hot and cold Diet Coke? I could curl up by the fire with a steaming hot mug of pop goodness.

I was going to just have two yesterday, but I was pretty grumpy last night and had a third. Diet Coke=Happy.

No!  I must fight it! Tea=Happy! Yes, tea!

But you can't pop open a can of tea.  Ok, I have done that before, but those teas are pretty gross. And they aren't carbonated so it's just weird drinking something that's thoroughly flat from a can.

****

So I wrote this in the AM...now it's 3:15. I've had one Diet Coke.  I totally had a headache and was extremely grumpy.  I'm a little pissed at DC now. It's seductive caffeinated goodness has me completely dependent on it. I did some time on our elliptical since I am not hard core enough to go run in 20+ east winds with a windchill in the teens. Water is going to be my new bestie.