I drink coffee, hot tea, iced tea, and water. I don’t ever drink sodas, fruit juices, or anything with sweeteners in it anymore. Sometimes, after a run, I will have some coconut water, but that’s pretty rare.

The area in which I’ve taken the biggest hit in terms of satisfaction has been drinks. I really enjoyed a good iced tea with lemon and sweetener. Mind you, I was never a sweet tea fan as I always found it to be too sweet even when I was drinking sodas. But I did like the taste of iced tea with sweetener in it. Now, I drink my iced tea with lemon and nothing else. It’s good, and I enjoy it, but it doesn’t seem to satisfy as much as iced tea with lemon and sweetener. I find that iced tea made with mango tea seems to be pretty darned good, but again, I miss the sweet aspect.

With hot teas, I seem to accept them being unsweet with more ease just as I do with coffee. Don’t get me wrong: I was the epitome of, “He likes his sugar with coffee and cream.” Now, I’ve gotten used to coffee black, and I can now taste the subtle differences in beans and roast. With that said, as much as I like coffee now, I used to love it more when I could sweeten it. Oddly, I preferred sugar in my coffee and hot tea while I preferred sweetener in my iced tea.

Why not fruit juice? From a caloric level, and when you consider the sugar and carbs in fruit juice as compared to a soda, they are almost analogous. The only difference is the soda is typically sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup instead of more naturally occurring sugars, but the bottom line to the body is it’s still sugar and still very high in easily soluble calories. It’s a shock to the system, and the body quickly converts this extra sugar into fat. Apple juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, and yes, even grapefruit juice are all full of sugar (even non-sugar added varieties). I avoid these like the plague.

I drink lots of coffee every day, and the longer I’m drinking it black, the more I’m getting used to it and learning to enjoy it. I don’t know if I’ll ever enjoy it as much as I used to enjoy my mochas and cappuccinos, but it’s coming pretty close. Very close.