The Tragedy of Iced Tea

I grew up in a house where there was always a pitcher of iced tea in the refrigerator. My mother used Luzianne tea bags. The tea was delicious and refreshing, never bitter and never overly sweet. Her procedure was simple. Pour a little boiling water over the tea bags, let steep for a bit, remove the tea bags, add about a cup of sugar, stir, add cool water to fill the pitcher to the top, then stir again. Into the refrigerator the pitcher would go until suppertime.

We had iced tea with supper every night of the year, not just in the summer. (The only difference in summertime tea was that more often that not you would find a sprig of mint in your glass.) I don’t remember exactly, but surely as a small child I was given milk at meals, not tea. And I don’t remember when it was that I “transitioned” to tea. But I know for a fact we were, indeed, a tea-swilling family. There may not have been any beer or wine in the house, but by golly there was caffeine!

It’s not clear when the demise of iced tea began. I do not recall the exact moment when SOMEONE had the brilliant idea that sugar could be left out. But that was the beginning of the end … of good, real iced tea. Those little packets of chemicals that sit on restaurant tables are just a travesty and even though this is old news it still breaks my heart to see someone grab three at a time, rip all of them open in one fell swoop and then stir that powdery mess into a glass. And then drink it.

My beverage preferences have changed over the years. I don’t drink naturally sweetened drinks much less unnaturally sweetened drinks anymore. It’s part of my plan to try to live longer. And it’s just as well, because unsweetened iced tea has no place in this world. It’s unnatural. I would rather drink lukewarm water than cold tea that doesn’t have Dixie Crystals granulated sugar in it. And that’s just as well, too, because if iced tea was still made with real sugar, as God intended, I’d have to choose between tea and my plan to live longer.

How To Be Thin

It’s a process. This is what has worked for me.

But first a little history …

When I was a little girl my mother shopped for me in the 6x department. I had been chubby from day one. My mother, petite and small boned, was quietly resigned to the fact that I would take after my father’s side of the family where all the women were … er … large. Not obese, by any means, just large. I never really knew I was chubby because my mother didn’t make an issue out of it. I guess I thought everyone had size 6x dresses … until my sweet little friends began to call me Fat Pat. From that moment I’ve experienced the painful yoyo-ing between fatness and thinness that seems to be a common thread for a lot of people. I tried the expensive Nutrisystem when my husband and I could least afford it. I tried Weight Watchers several times and have been truly impressed by the ingenuity of their ever-changing points system. None of that worked for me. Maybe it was because those programs placed food front and center – smack dab in front of my face, 24/7.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing steps I take for keeping the Fat Pat moniker at arms length. If the moniker is looming, I’ll implement several steps at once. If the moniker is in the distance, I’ll relax a bit. It’s a process, a step at a time … forwards, for the most part.

Week 1

1.  Throw away your scales. You have to do this. They lie. They will enslave you. Before we were enslaved to social media we were enslaved to our scales. Some of you still are. Break the chains! Toss the scales!

2.  With the exception of dried fruit and nuts, don’t eat anything out of a package.

That’s it for Week 1! Easy peazy! See you next week!