i'll take mine black, thanks

I have substantially less sugar in my life these days than usual.  I didn't realize before limiting myself to 3 sweets a week exactly how much sugar was sprinkled all the way across most of my days.  

Tonight I was in a meeting and got a tickle in my throat...one of those that threatens to just never go away, you know?  There was hot coffee in a carafe right in front of me...decaf, even.  A hot drink ALWAYS does the trick for me with the terminal throat tickle.  I looked around...within arm's reach was the real sugar.  The substitutes, though...nothing even remotely accessible without making a big clumsy scene amidst important conversation.  I generally dump 2 or 3 packets of sweetener in a small styrofoam cup...you don't even want to know how many I put in a big coffee mug.

So I poured myself half a cup and drank it straight.  Let me tell you that awhile back I joined some of my Sunday school kids in a test of the theory that switched my mom from doctored coffee to black, back when I was a little girl...someone told her and a friend that if you drink it black for 2 weeks, you learn to love it that way.  I remember those 2 weeks (I was a nosy little kid always lurking around to overhear what the grownups discussed).  And mom always took her coffee black after that.  

So anyway, I told my class that story and the next thing you know they were trying the 2 week test...so I tried it with them.  It worked for some of them.  But it didn't work for me, despite the fact that I gave it more like a month.  I learned to be able to swallow it without shuddering, but it still tasted....so bad.  I used that to teach the kids:  don't form a 30+ year bad habit - it's harder to break than one you've had for 1 year or 2.  

Tonight, though...the black coffee...it was fine!  I mean, I wasn't like, "YUM" but...it was fine.  Enough so that I poured another half cup and drank it too.  My throat was much better, and my brain was abuzz with amazement about not hating on the unsweetened coffee.

The lesson here seems to be that stripping my sugar down to almost none...is making me more receptive to other tastes.

That's pretty nifty, eh?