Paradigm Shifts

As we grow up, become adults, and then become older adults, many of our attitudes and opinions change. We gain more experience, and as we shine the light of that experience on our formerly held beliefs and values, we often find ourselves surprised and even embarassed by the thinking we used to subscribe to. This is a normal part of growing as a person.

Every once in awhile however, I've found myself doing or thinking something that would profoundly horrify a younger me. One such incident occured earlier this evening while I was working late at work. I'd like to share this with you in the hopes of maybe starting a discussion.

First, some background information:

I was working fairly late, as I often do. We have a small cafe type thing that has, among other items, various coffees and teas that people have donated/abandoned there.

I also drink a fair amount of coffee on many days, but today I had more that usual, enough to recognize that I probably shouldn't have another. As is often the case when one decides they shouldn't do something, I immediately wanted one more than all the gold in the universe. I didn't really need the caffeine, I was already fairly wired (largely why I figured it wasn't a good idea), I just wanted the taste of a nice hot cup of coffee.

Ultimately I decided to say to hell with my nervous system, and made my way to the cafe. It was there that I saw something I had long since dismissed, a concept I intrinsically hated from an early age, as though my basic genetics recognized it as evil. Written on one of the abandoned containers: "decaf".

Well, I imagine at least some of you can guess what happened next. Yup, I drank it. It was _instant_ and I drank it. No milk or sugar, just dehydrated decafinated grocery store brand instant coffee.

.. and.. it wasn't really that bad.

I'm not saying I'm gonna ditch my local roasted beans, fancy grinder, and french press. After some introspection however, I may consider decafinated coffee as an option in the future under similar circumstances.

Anyway, anyone have any thoughts or similar moments they'd like to share.

Haha....I had to laugh, at least in a way. I want to say, "Oh....how could you!!!" I too love a good cup of caffeinated coffee, though mine usually comes from my Kureg.

I've been stressing with trying to lose at least 10 extra pounds. The only time I'm hungry is in the evening/night after I've eaten supper. For a while I've been buying Skinny Cow and Weight Watchers ice cream bars trying to appease the nagging feeling in my stomach. Just recently I've started reading the calorie counts on these things. The kinds I used to get like Truffles had 100 calories, but all the stores in my area have been out of them for months and the replacements have 150 and 170 calories.

Ironic that you should post this thread tonight because it was today when I went to the grocery store that I went into consumer rebellion, refusing to buy any of it. Don't you hate it when it's food that drives our basic desires. We are getting older....sigh.

It was intended to be way over dramatized, but I genuinely was hit with a weird kind of "ah, so this is why this actually exists" type realization.

As someone who did the whole diet/weight loss thing awhile ago, definitely with you on the food. You find something that you really like and is reasonably healthy, then it disappears or is impossible to find or they change it. Just off the top of my head:
- Peaches / other fruits packed in water instead of syrup: I actually prefer the less-sweet taste and it cuts the calories by like a half to 2/3rds.. but it's one of those things where they might have 1 or 2 cans hidden somewhere amongst a whole wall if they have it at all.
- Turkey sausages / turkey meatballs: turkey as a substitute doesn't work for a lot of things, but I founds sausages and meatballs worked and practically half the calories/fat of beef. Like the peaches, another hard to find gem in most grocery stores.
- Soft corn tortilla shells (compared to flour tortillas)
- Chicken broth with no salt added. I found soup to be a serious cheat code, cause broth is like 10 calories a cup... if you make your own you can make a huge amount of decently satisfying soup and still only rack up like 150 calories. A lot of broth though was also like your entire daily sodium intake per cup. There was stuff with no salt which to me actually tasted better, but damn was it hard to find.

I'm not really a caffeine type of person. I used to drink iced tea on a daily basis but nowadays I drink mostly milk and water. In fact I prefer decaffeinated coffee for health reasons; I have a fast heart rate and caffeine would only exacerbate that.