Willpower

It has been two months since I've had one of these:

About a week before Christmas, I was standing in front of the Coke display at my local Jewel-Osco with my hands perched above the twelve packs, ready to replenish my stock.

But then I reconsidered.  I had tried to go off of Diet Coke before, with little success.  Its siren song always drew me back, usually at a restaurant where my other options were sugared sodas, gross mass-produced lemonade, or iced tea (blech).  For a very long time, I kept my Diet Coke consumption down to one a day, but between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the daily amount kept climbing.

People who are Diet Coke drinkers know how hard this is.  It isn't just the caffiene - that I can get in a variety of places.  It's also the taste, which some people think is disgusting but DC addicts think is divine.  Truly, I believed there was not much better than a bubbly ICE COLD Diet Coke from a can or bottle.  I was less enamored of the formulation of the fountain kind.

Since that fateful day in the grocery store, I have not had a single drink of Diet Coke.  I've been tempted, sure, but I have water or Sprite (can't give up soda 100% yet), but I don't have anything with aspartame in it.

I feel better!  I really do!

But today, this first weekday after "springing forward" was really, really long.  I came thisclose to going down to the vending machine in the teachers' lounge, putting my $0.75 in the slot and popping open one of these beauties.

But I didn't.

And I'm better off for it.

Now... where are those thin mints?