Because once I broke one addiction (sugar), I wanted to make sure nothing else was controlling me without me really knowing.

Maybe I'm addicted to breaking addictions. Heh. I'll keep the coffee for a while longer.

Amen to that! There's a story from the Desert Fathers about a hermit who is plagued by temptation. His master tells him he suffers because he is still clinging to a few worldly things. I'm afraid I follow that philosophy to a fault - if I'm not getting better, I always think of foods I could give up, instead of foods I could add that might help me.

But if it's foods that is causing the problem, adding new ones isn't going to solve anything.

I drink too much coffee.

The funny thing is - a long time ago (pre low-carb or whatever) I gave up coffee and switched to tea. The tea is much nicer, less of a 'jittery' effect, but still provides a nice uplift in the middle of the afternoon.

When I met my husband, he got me back into coffee. I *love* the smell of it, and before too long, I was back to multiple mugs of coffee in the morning.

And with regard to food addictions in general: I was one who fretted about giving up the cream in my coffee. I *knew* it wasn't doing me any good, and it still took me an entire year of thinking/talking about it before I finally just ditched all dairy entirely. Nancy's 100% right, it was much easier than I'd imagined.

You know what? Come to think of it - it seems like these things are always hard to manage portions/intake of. I could never regulate the cream consumption a la Atkins, and now - the coffee thing has snuck up on me over the years - so that I'm now drinking too much of it (imo). I also used to drink tons of Diet Coke too. Quit that awhile ago.

Funny, I never seem to find myself eating too much spinach or chicken.

LOL! Me neither!

You know what does trigger me to over eat is soy sauce, especially mixed with a few other ingredients like ginger and garlic. Hoo boy, I can eat myself sick on stuff made with my asian marinade.

I suppose I could give it up....if I wanted to. But I don't want to.

I don't drink as much coffee lately as I did while doing Atkins. I have switched to a more semi-low carb/lower calorie diet now and don't crave it like I did on Atkins. I rarely drink it in the afternoons or evenings anymore.

But I'm still not giving it up...

That's gluten-free soy sauce, right?

What makes me worry is I can never get enough chicken or pork chops. Or at least, I don't usually get enough. Most of the time we cook 6 pork chops for 5 people, Wifey gets two, and I get one plus the meat from everybody else's bones and all the fat they don't want (which seems to be dwindling). But when we have extra pork chops, I eat them all. Maybe if I ate 6 all for myself I'd be satisfied, but I'm not sure I've ever had the chance.

With chicken, I usually eat 3 or 4 thigh-size servings, avoiding light meat, and then there's no chicken left. Eating the bones helps a lot, though - I eat the cartilage from leg and thigh bones, and I crunch up the wing tips and ribs. If I'm really hungry I crack open the big bones and eat the marrow, but that's getting into serious splinter territory.

Even with hamburgers, 4 isn't usually enough; although sometimes 6 is ok.

My six-year-old is funny. Last night we had chicken and she said "I hate fat! Here, Daddy, have my fat." She handed me some cartilage. That was fine with me, but I made sure she knew that wasn't fat!

Another scary thing about chicken is that sometimes if I eat slightly undercooked chicken or chicken skin, I get really nauseous. I don't think it's food poisoning - last time it happened was after I made stock. I took all the skin out and rendered it, and then ate some of the cracklings - it wasn't really undercooked, but some of it was still a little floppy.

Natch. It is wheat free tamari. I've been on this gluten diet thing for 3.5 years now, I think I've got it pretty well nailed.

I don't think I'm addicted as much to caffeine as to hot drinks. I never get caffinated soft drinks and I am perfectly fine with decaf coffee. But I just love to drink something hot. Its the comfort factor of holding and drinking a hot mug of "something." I used to also drink hot cocoa and I also drink hot tea. In the summer I don't drink hot drinks as much. I just need something hot to drink first thing in the morning on cold days. I have been toying with the idea of drinking hot broth instead of coffee or tea, but most broth is very salty.

I'm definitely addicted to hot drinks too. You're right, it is comforting and it warms up the hands!

You can get low sodium broth. I get it (gluten free too) at Trader Joe's. Sometimes I add my own spices, like Turkish Blend from Penzeys. But I forget about broth for long stretches of time! Thanks for the reminder.

Ok, so here's my report on coffee free:

My intestines have changed 100%. No more urgency to go and the consistency has changed a lot, much firmer, less mess. Obviously part of my problem was coffee all along!

Blood sugar has been down about 5-10 points but I'm also exercising fairly consistently right now. Also I sometimes gets periods where it is lower so this might be a fluke.

Congratulations for breaking your addiction, Nancy. I gave up regular coffee sixteen years ago (for the first time anyway) when my employees told me they could tell when I'd had a cup by how cranky I was -- I had no idea! Apparently I'm much nicer off coffee. I've had several relapses, but it's never been as hard to break the habit as it was the first time.

I feel like I've overcome a heroin addiction myself: I finally got off dairy products!!! I agonized over that decision for ages. A year? Maybe more. I would get so panicky at the prospect of not ever having cheese or cream or yogurt again that I would nearly break out in a sweat. I was finally going to do it Jan 1 of this year. It didn't happen. Finally, in early February I told myself that I would try it for two weeks only. I got through the first two days with HiDelight's recipe for avocado/coconut milk smoothies. Then, miraculously, I didn't care anymore! I can't tell you how surprising this is to me. Cheese? Who cares! Ice cream? So what! My only lingering regret is that I still want some Indian dishes that are traditionally made with yogurt but you can't specifically taste the yogurt. I think it's the spices I'm craving. Maybe they'll taste okay with coconut milk.

I feel like this is a huge milestone for me. I can't explain why.

Jackie, how about herbal teas? I like the ones from Celestial Seasonings. They have a wide array of flavors. If you ever find yourself in Boulder, Colorado they have their factory here and you can taste all the flavors you want in the tasting room.

On the surface that's TMI-- ,but practically speaking your post was helpful because I have been having digestive problems too. I am going to try to go coffee-free for awhile. I know that its not all about the caffeine. There is also a lot of acid in coffee with may upset the alkaline-acid balance in the stomach and intestines.

I love Indian food and I usually sub coconut milk for yogurt and it works great! If you want to keep the yogurty tang you can add a little lemon juice or vinegar as well.

I've made raita and tandoori chicken with coconut milk yogurt and they came out really great - in fact, it was hard to tell the difference.