A Memory in Moderation
A favorite hack since I was younger has been diluting what I ate with a steaming cup of black coffee. Working in a huge midtown Manhattan corporation in the eighties (think Mad Men one decade on), I would sit at the lunch counter at Chock Full O’ Nuts and order a hot cup of plain black coffee alongside my favorite, The Nutted Cheese.
I can still taste the legendary sandwich. The textures (hard, harder, and soft), the temperature (room and cool), the taste (sweet and cream). And the hot, hot coffee that made it last longer and fill my hunger, and a twinge of loneliness, that much the more.
(The sandwich and coffee combo had its birth during the Depression when it was served for a nickel and saved thousands from starvation of body and soul.) I used this hack not to fend off starvation but to resist the growing tendency around me to overindulge. The overindulgence that seems to have overtaken the world today, with obesity being one of humanity’s greatest health risks, is something I instinctively navigated early on.
The steaming cup of black coffee is my ally to this day. It is the single ‘substance’ found to enhance performance in the gym, the office, and the study, without causing harm. It’s the stimulant that also hydrates, the fluid that wakes you in the morning, alerts you in the afternoon, unites you with colleagues on break, and dilutes that indulgence you crave.
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