Hi, my name is Melissa and I was a Starbucks addict.

Three years ago, I freelanced full time from home and would frequent Starbucks four to five times a week.

My addiction was twofold:
1. I needed my daily iced grande nonfat latte fix.
2. I needed to get out of the house and see people.

It was just nice to get out of the house and be around other people. I never really met anyone there, aside from a quick chat with my favorite barista, but it was nice to see familiar faces every week. I was spending somewhere between $4 to $6 every day on my latte and a breakfast cake, every much addicted to the caffeine and satisfaction of toting around that cup with green mermaid logo.

When I got pregnant two years ago, the iced grande nonfat lattes became iced grande nonfat decaf lattes. I still freelanced from home, so the regular trips to Starbucks were still a reality.

Then Mini-me was born and and all possibilities of getting away to my favorite coffee shop quickly flew out the window. Then came the discovery of both my and Mini-me’s dairy allergies. It took some trial and error, but we figured this all out when she would break out in a rash all over her squishy little face, cry uncontrollably because of gas pains and vomit on occasion. These things happened when I would have milk or cheese to eat (we were breastfeeding).

So, getting rid of dairy in my diet was a no brainer.

Then, something remarkable happened. The chronic rashes that I would get on my hands disappeared. I lost weight. A lot of weight. As in, one month after giving birth, I weighed 25 pounds less than before I got pregnant. After some internet research, my suspicions were confirmed: I was allergic to dairy too.

Starbucks was now completely out of the picture (I’m also allergic to soy milk, if you were wondering).

But, the thing is. I don’t miss it. All it took was having a baby.