September 19, 2006 @ 3:11 pm | Filed under: Food and Drink

Tonight is the big night.

As of today the 30-day challenge is over and I am finally free to once again savor the one-of-a-kind taste of a…Diet Coke! It began in fun, just a simple conversation, really, between me and Mike.

"You don’t think I can go thirty days without Diet Coke?" I remember pausing because, really…I didn’t think I could either!

Still, I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge. Maybe this was just the push I needed to get my DC cravings under subjection anyway. Kind of a "kill-two-birds-with-one-stone" type of approach.

It wasn’t until about a week later, when the withdrawals were at their worst and the cravings were at their peak, that I began to wish I’d have termed this experiment a ‘fast’ instead of a mere ‘challenge’.

You laugh, I’m sure, but getting this body under the kind of submission it needed to give up Diet Coke was no small feat. Certainly not something that I recommend for the faint of heart or for the ones in search of instant gratification.

The satisfaction of a challenge attempted and achieved has only come in the past few days. As THE END has approached I’ve finally allowed myself to contemplate the fact that a nice large icy Sonic Diet Coke was looming in my future.

And now, in a mere few hours, I’ll be meeting a few of my friends at Sonic and, for the first time in a month, I’ll place that order.

"How do you feel about it?" Mike asked me just last night as we prepared for bed. "Are you ready to have one?"

I truly had to stop and think about it.

See, the cravings are gone. No longer do I reach for the ghost-cup on my desk and the memory of the actual taste of Diet Coke itself is quickly fading. I know, I know…I didn’t believe it could happen either.

Now, say I were an alcoholic and just coming out of rehab. Would I be meeting a group of friends at a local pub, celebrating winning the battle over booze by…<gulp> drinking the stuff?

I think not.

But here’s the thing. Diet Coke is a vice of mine and everyone has vices. I know a lot of people who aren’t willing to own up to theirs and, instead, try to justify why they do or don’t do, say, or participate in lots of different areas.

So I will meet my friends and we will celebrate. These gals (and many more of you who’ve either commented or emailed me concerning this challenge) have supported me with encouragement, notes, and emails.

The unexpected bonus from this challenge is that it’s enabled several friendships to flourish in the process. Although there were difficult moments in the beginning, I have to say that the past thirty days have been fun.

I’ve tested myself and found that I can meet a challenge head-on and win.

I’ve learned that attempting anything with the cheers of your friends in the background is bearable.

I’ve faced temptation (scrapbook night when I was surrounded by DC-drinking buddies, our weekend with friends when Frank found it delightfully funny to wave a cold can of DC in front of me, and numerous trips past the Sonic) and walked away.

So, yes, tonight at eight-ish I will gather with a few close friends and family and I will have that first, long draw of an icy (because there’s nothing on this planet like the crushed ice at Sonic!) Diet Coke and I will once again…feel the burn…

I hope I still like it…