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Hi. My name is Michele Spring and I have been Starbucks latte and bread free for 6 months now. And I haven't even craved one either ONCE. (Update Dec 2017 – now it's been 3 years!)

Seriously.

I even went into a Starbucks last week and ordered a decaf Americano (espresso with water) and even though I saw the red cups that used to call my name, I didn't even blink twice at not ordering a holiday drink. I had no desire whatsoever to get one.

Now to put this into context, I used to haaaaaave to get a Starbucks latte (Caramel Macchiato or Pumpkin Spice Lattes being my drink of choice) pretty much every day. If I had gotten up the gumption to not have one that day and I passed a Starbucks store later in the day, into the drive-thru I would go. If again I had somehow decided not to have one and saw a red cup or the Starbucks logo somewhere, OR if someone so much as mentioned the word Starbucks, I would have to go.

Those really annoying people in the fall that act as if PSL's are the greatest things on earth? That was totally me.  I tried to give Starbucks (and lattes in general) up for Lent several years in a row and would only make it a week before I went back.

Seriously, a WEEK!  How pathetic is that?

I mean, it was bad. I don't want to total up the amount I spent there, because all those financial experts who say giving up a latte will save you “X” number of dollars probably were using me as the example.

As for bread, it wasn't as high on my list of cravings, but a good crusty baguette or a slightly-underbaked pizza crust from my favorite pizza restaurant were comfort foods all the way for me. So anytime things got tough, I got super stressed out, or I was feeling under the weather, bread was at the top of my list.

Well, bread accompanied by a latte of course.

It didn't even seem to matter to me that both the milk in the latte or the bread were giving me stomach issues and making me feel like utter doo doo.  I honestly didn't care. I ate Paleo the other 90% of the time, Starbucks was my only “vice” and I only occasionally ate the bready products when the going got rough.

Eventually though, when my health failed to un-ignorable lengths last spring I knew I needed to give up both. But I knew from my past, honest attempts at trying to give these items up that there had to be something mental attached to my cravings. It wasn't just as simple as “just get over it and be done”. I obviously had some deep-seated emotional attachments to them and in my mind, in order to combat something so deeply ingrained in my subconsious, I needed to attack it with something equally as deep.

Enter hypnotherapy.

Yeah, it sounds all woo-woo. I fully admit that. I was definitely skeptical but at the same time figured I had nothing to lose. I had heard some pretty great things about it from a meditiation/relaxation standpoint and it seems to be the method of choice for smokers to stop smoking. I wasn't sure enough to actually go to a hypnotist and get this all done so instead I found two hypnotherapy programs I could purchase online.

I bought one from my massage therapist (who also does hypnotherapy) who sells them on her website as an mp3 and one from an app I randomly found on my iPhone in the App Store.

In the course of 2 days I listened to the program from my massage therapist once and the iPhone one twice (once focusing on Starbucks and once on bread) and have not listened to them again. Both programs were very soothing and I never felt out of control or anything during them. If anything, they are fantastic methods of relaxation.

You just sit or lay down in a comfortable place (I sat on the couch), close your eyes, and listen to the person talk with gentle, new age-y music in the background. You need to follow the instructions (if applicable) to picture a food you want to remove from your diet, but other than that you just sit back, relax, and listen.

But then as I stated above, I have not once craved these things I was focusing on again. NOT. ONE. TIME. 

A scientist I am not (though I love reading about it), but rather I am an evidence-based person. Show me that it works and I'll listen. This is one of those cases where I'm sure there is some sort of science to back it all up, but I don't care. All I know is that in my case, with my seemingly permanent cravings for these items, I managed to wipe the cravings out within a 48 hour period. I am an experiment of one, but it's enough for me.

Update December 2017 – I STILL do not want either of these things. In fact, I go to Starbucks on occasion but rather out of necessity (Like I need caffeine, I'm on vacation, and it's the only place around). I really haven't chosen to go there out of desire more than 2-3 times in the last 3 years.

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In case you want to try it out for yourself, these are the two programs I used. I don't know if one of them worked better than the other or if it was the combo of both or what, so unfortunately, I cannot say “just do this one”. But with them being relatively inexpensive, you could try one and then the other as well.

• The one from my massage therapist/hypnotherapist is an mp3 called “Find Your Ideal Weight” and can be found on her site Healing Meditations. It is $10 USD. Click below for a free sample:

• The one I found on my phone is in an app by Mindifi called Weight Loss Hypnosis and the specific program I did was called Craving Buster. The app is free but the Craving Buster in-app purchase is $4.99 USD.  Available for iPhone/iPad and Android.

Sorry Starbucks, but this gal is breaking up with you. And doesn't feel a thing….