Resolution: To Find Happiness Outside of Food

I've given up soda as part of this new year's weight-loss goals.  I am pretty convinced that soda and weight are inexplicably linked, at least for me.  I wish it wasn't so.  There's very little I love as much as drinking root beer with pizza.  I'm now on Day 6 of no soda, and I'm taking it very much in the same vein as an addict - one day at a time.  I can't think about the fact that I am trying to cut out soda forever.  I can only think about the fact that I'm cutting out soda today. Today I woke up and chose not to drink soda.  That's all I can think about.

But it's gotten me considering how much food is linked to happiness with me.  Tonight we went to the movies.  How on earth was I supposed to sit through a movie without a giant soda?  As it was, I kind of cheated and had Hi-C, but it's not soda, and soda is what's verboten at the moment.  At some point I might cut out all high fructose corn syrup, and I have been drinking mostly water the past 6 days, but for tonight it was a Hi-C.

I wonder what I'll do, for example, what to do when hubby and I go out to eat.  Drink water?  With Chinese food, for example?  Ick!  Nothing goes with General Tso's chicken quite like diet coke.  Seriously?  Water with pizza?  Water with anything like that?  Disgusting!

And it's not just soda.  If I can't go to the Soup Plantation's all-you-can-eat buffet anymore, it's like my entire life is over.  What's the point of living if I can't go to all-you-can-eat buffets?  Why celebrate anything if it can't be over an enormous plate of food?  What about when I'm upset and want to eat chocolate to smooth things over?

Why is so much of my life somehow linked to food?  People celebrated achievements without food before, I'm certain of it.  There are other people in the world right now who don't care about food either way.  They don't get upset if they can't go to the Soup Plantation.  They don't even know about the Soup Plantation.

That is just so foreign to me.  But I want to get there.  One day at a time, right?  Yes, food should be pleasurable, and at some point I hope that I can enjoy food in moderation.  But right now I can't.  Right now I need to learn how to not get much emotional pleasure from food.  I need to separate emotions from food.  And then the pendulum can swing back to the beginning.