The return of my taste buds!

I made a remarkable discovery upon the eve of my 50th day sans alcohol: yesterday I was eating some potato chips and they were exploding in my mouth. Little daggers of salt and pepper felt as if they were pricking every nerve ending along my tongue and roof of my mouth. I just assumed it was because the chips were over-seasoned.

This morning, I was drinking my customary cup of pre-gym Bustelo coffee and thought to myself, "Is there sugar in this?" But that was impossible (unless there was a sugar imp hiding in my kitchen, throwing tiny fistfuls of the stuff in my coffee when I wasn't looking). In fact I was realizing that Bustelo had a natural sweetness to it that I had never tasted before.

Apparently when you stop drinking the booze, taste returns in new and exciting ways!* And considering the fact that my taste has probably been blown for decades it's no surprise that these new sensations are exciting, if a tad scary.**

Quitting drinking continues to be the best decision I could have made and the benefits continue to surprise me!

*This is incredibly surprising for me, especially since I must confess an uptick in smoking since I quit drinking, and I had always assumed the smoking is what was numbing my taste buds. Apparently alcohol was the much larger culprit!
**I really did think there was something wrong with those potato chips and that coffee at first.