[Magdalen] Recovery query.

[Ann Markle]

Most AA smokers were smokers before they quit.  Not many start afterward.
I drink artificially sweetened seltzer water, San Pellegrino, and diet
sodas, as well as yes, more coffee than I used to.  I've noticed that, like
my brother, I tend to have a supply of beverages in my car now -- and I
didn't before!  Yes, I know the artificial sweeteners aren't very good for
me, but it's better than the alternative.  Heard the thing on NPR the other
day about the studies linking sugar and cancer/metastasis, so pick your
poison, and I'll take the lower-cal version.  There are always sweets at
meetings, and AAs have food celebrations A LOT.  It's hard for me to
maintain my food addiction abstinence and AA too, but I'm managing (after a
fashion).

Ann

The Rev. Ann Markle
Buffalo, NY
ann.markle at aya.yale.edu
blog:  www.onewildandpreciouslife.typepad.com

On Sat, Jan 9, 2016 at 9:41 PM, M J _Mike_ Logsdon <mjl at ix.netcom.com>
wrote:

> Anything to get away from discussion about varying experiences of AA, eh?
> :-)=
>
> Query:  From the purely "oral fixation" aspect of alcoholism, what do some
> of you substitute for alcohol?  And don't say, Well, Mike, just about
> anything.  (Anyone who's been to AA knows the obvious answer is caffeine
> and nicotine.)  But when you've lived with 40% for 13 years, substitutes
> can be a mystery.  My first guess is my favorite substitute for sugary
> sodas:  seltzer water.  The carbonic acid that results from the combining
> of H2O and CO2 has a nice flavor, I think, and is greatly superior to club
> soda, and certainly superior to tonic water with its quinine-ishness.
>