I Have A Confession

I have a problem. It's expensive. It's hard to admit to. It's ruling my life. It causes arguments with my partner. It affect's my ability to be a parent. Yes, I'm an addict.

I'm addicted to diet coke.I love it.

Diet Coke has become my rock, my way of getting through the day. I drink it in the morning, right up until bed time. It's pretty much all I drin, ever and I am that known for my diet coke consumption that when I go to friend's houses they don't even ask me what I want to drink, they just tell me if they have diet coke or not. (Most of them do because they know me well enough to prepare for my visit's!) In fact if we go out for lunch etc and it's a non wine occassion then no-one even ask's me what I want to drink anymore, it just appears in front of me. Like magic. Brilliant!

So how much do I drink? Some days are worse than others. Some days I drink 2litres of the stuff (one big bottle) and some days only half of this amount...most days are more than less though! I am that reliant upon diet coke that rather than need tea or coffee in the mornings to wake me up (like most normal parents), I have to have diet coke. As soon as I've had my fill, I'm back to the land of normality leaving  hair-sticking-on-end, bleary-eyed, dribble-down-chin-chloe behind...until the next morning anyway! After a glass of diet coke, I become...alive! Before then the conversation you would get out of me would resemble that of my 17 month old talking to his toys (he can't speak yet).

To me starting the day with diet coke is no worse than others with tea and coffee-the thought of those drinks revolts me (ewww) as I'm sure many reading this will think the same about tasting diet coke at 7.30am. But hey, each to their own! Like I said I drink it constantly through the day until I go to bed and stop drinking anything. In a way diet coke is my best friend. Always there, always pushing me through the difficult times, always giving me the enegery and strength to get through the day. Diet Coke is the best friend you could ever ask for.

Don't let it be said that I am not civilised because of my addiction. Oh no. I am very civilised I will have you know. I sometimes drink it out of a wine glass, just because. See?

Now I know diet coke on this volume could be deemed as bad for me. Pah. Lots of things these days are bad for us. Everytime I read the paper there is something daily, something household that can cause us harm, then a week later it's apparantly the opposite! So I did actually research in to any long term damages and besides your teeth (I don't mind, I'll get dentures) and weight gain (luckily I'm usually so stressed as the mother of a toddler that it combats fat) I couldn't find anything that would be 'harmful'. Except it's addictive (Really? Who knew?) So I don't feel too bad!

I would even go so far as to say that without diet coke I wouldn't be the person I am today. If I won one of those award thingies or wrote a book my first dedication would be to diet coke. I would be moody, tired, irratable and far less happy without it in my life. To combat this my boyfriend makes sure we always have some in the house, in case of emergency running out. He's very good bless him, he  knows it's him who suffers otherwise! I even think diet coke makes me a better parent, without it I would be moody and never want to play cars with my son for very long. So I thank diet coke for giving me the energy to play cars with Josh everyday.

So to summarise. My name is Chloe. I'm a twenty something mum and an addict. I'm addicted to diet coke. It's my best friend. It's the only thing that gets me through the day, my motivation to get up in the morning, something I look forward to... Thank you diet coke, God bless You.

Love your biggest fan,

Chloe xx

**certain elements of this post have been exaggerated for humour**