I really hate that I have vices in this life.  Drives me nuts.  Sometimes it drives me to the point of changing something… other times I just live with it.  And while they seems small, insignificant and fit into my budget- I still don’t like the fact that if I was stranded on a island somewhere… I might just not make it.  Yellow bananas are one of them.  This my friends is numero dos.

I’m addicted.  Really I am.  Ever since Mrs. Lennander used to come pick me up before school 12 years ago and take me through Gregories drive through… I’ve been hooked.  I didn’t like it at first.  I had to start with the mochas.  Then eventually came to grasp the beauty of turtle lattes (chocolate and carmel) and now usually just settle for a carmel something.  It is something I treat myself to a few times a month (usually all my personal spending money each month goes towards expensive coffee- something else that drives me nuts!)

Since journeying through this new “lifestyle” of watching what I eat/drink I started measuring out two TBS of coffee creamer each day in my coffee instead of just pouring until it turned light brown. 🙂  And since I put a good 1/3-1/2 C of milk in my coffee as well, I kept telling myself that I wasn’t drinking much.  One cup in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Try as I might, I have not broken the habit.  Sure my calories are down, but you know what is the kicker?  Caffeine!  I’ve met ppl who say they drink 5-10 cups a day and could stop at a moment’s notice.  Not me.  I skip one cup (remember 1/3 of that cup is milk and creamer!) and I get a headache like none other.  However, I’v decided that I really want to stop drinking coffee in the afternoon.  I have been reading in several weight loss magazines that have said that green tea is great for your body and it specifically targets belly fat- woot! When my in-laws were here a few weeks ago they brought me all their coupons (yes!) and there were two in there specifically for $1 off green tea.  Add to that I was talking to my sister E late last week and she said something about drinking green tea with sun crystals in it.  Well, that did it.  I decided to give it a whirl.  My (around ) $3 investment at Walmart looked like this:

I tried it for the first time on Tuesday and put an entire packet of Sun Crystals (combination of Stevia and dehydrated cane juice AND only 5 calories!) and it was WAY too sweet. Plus, I had a stressful afternoon with the kids and my head was pounding so I caved and split a cup (1/3 C milk remember??? can you tell this is how I justify my habit? 🙂 of coffee with Jason after dinner and felt better.  Yesterday and today I still had my coffee first thing in the morning, but so far the tea has held out in the afternoon (yes, the tea has caffeine in it as well…. I will work on that next :).  I’m adding a half a packet of Sun Crystals and it tastes better.  My head is still throbbing some this afternoon- but thankfully I keep an ample supply of Tylenol on hand.

I do not intend to “give up coffee” – I would just prefer not to be dependent on it anymore… we will see.  I haven’t had a drop of Pepsi in 6 months! (if you know me well, this is a big deal!) so I know it can be done. Plus, I just dropped 9.5 lbs in 6 weeks… I feel like anything is possible.  And no, I have no intention of doing anything about the yellow bananas at this point. If I get stranded on an island… I’m hoping it is tropical and I can just pick a fresh one each day. 🙂