I have been drinking coffee since I was homeless at age 17.  I didn’t like it black back then, and I don’t like it black today.  I have always had it with cream and sugar.  Although, I quit using actual sugar when I started getting fat after I quit smoking.  I have been using a sweetener like Sweet N Low or Equal.  I have been hearing about how horrible those sweeteners are for you and how you should use Splenda (gives me horrible stomach cramps) or Truvia (gives me the worst gas along with explosive diarrhea), but I simply can’t use those.  Beside being more expensive, they have caused painful health problems for me.

I used to only use liquid creamers like International Delight or Coffee-Mate, which taste way better than the powder, but I find that I end up using more than I should and go through them much faster than I do with powder.  Even though Coffee-Mate powdered creamer tastes good, it’s not as good as the liquid because it’s bland and doesn’t have the awesome flavors like Dulce De Leche, Hazelnut or French Vanilla.  They do make the powdered ones with flavors, but I can’t afford them.  The plain is more in my price range.

Someone lectured me recently about how I’m never going to lose any weight until I quit drinking coffee with creamer, but if I have to drink it black then I’d rather not drink it at all, so I quit for the week as an experiment.  I was told that if I quit drinking coffee that I would start going through withdrawal symptoms, like headaches.  Well, that never happened.  I went almost a full week and I didn’t have any withdrawal symptoms at all.  In fact, I was perfectly fine.  Although I did notice that I haven’t been going to the bathroom as much (number 2 of course lol) so that has worried me.  My weight loss didn’t increase by quitting coffee with creamer, so that theory of how I’m never going to lose weight if I don’t quit drinking coffee with creamer failed.

I wondered if there were any studies suggesting that coffee was bad for me, but I found quite the opposite.  Popular Science gives me 7 Reasons Why Coffee Is Good For You.  WebMD gives me The potential health benefits — and drawbacks –- of coffee.  Forbes tells me to Have another cup of coffee – it’s good for you!  And finally MayoClinic says What does the research say about coffee and health? Is coffee good or bad for me?  Spoiler alert, it’s good.

Of course coffee does have caffeine which is addictive, but I think I have proven by my non-side effects that it isn’t, for me anyway.  In fact, I have quit drinking many times in my life, not because I wanted to but simply because I couldn’t afford it and I never went through withdrawal symptoms before.  I only drink coffee because I like the taste.  I don’t like that it gives me bad breath or that it coats my tongue, but that’s what brushing your teeth and tongue is for, right?

I have been on my diet, or as I prefer to call it my new healthy lifestyle, for 9 weeks, and I have been drinking coffee this whole time up until last week and I had lost 28.4lbs.  The amount of weight that I lost today on the beginning of my 10th week, which by the way was 3lbs, proves to me that I haven’t lost any more or any less than I have been losing in those 9 weeks.  My goal is 2lbs per week and in those 9 weeks I have lost 3 to 4lbs per week.  Nothing changed by cutting out coffee, so screw it, I’m drinking coffee again.