OK. I love coffee now and I refuse to feel bad about it.

I never thought it would be me. I never thought I would say I actually enjoyed and craved coffee.

I don't drink it every day, so it's not that kind of craving. Not the addiction kind. I had a health coaching student a few years ago who told me on our first call together that he drank about a pot a day. A pot of coffee. Just him. Every day.

He set a goal to reduce that and by our next call a few weeks later, he had gotten himself down to a cup a day. He worked it into a routine of walking his dog and going to a cafe to get it made for him. He created a ritual around it to make it special. It helped reduce his craving and allowed him to savor what he did have.

And here I am, a few years later, doing the same thing. I never understood those coffee addicts. I've known plenty of people, friends and clients alike, who fiercely defend their coffee habit. "I can't live without it," they tell me.

I can say that I get it, because coffee tastes amazing. What I've found that makes it more amazing, however, is how I've created the possibility for coffee in my life as something I enjoy rather than depend on. It makes all the difference for me.

First, I considered what coffee is doing FOR me. I knew the negative side effects of increasingly blood pressure, heart rate and caffeine being incredibly addictive. When I became a health coach, I learned the positive side of drinking coffee. I tested it out on myself, as an experiment, and I got some impressive results. Now, I can say I love coffee and I refuse to feel bad about it. What was once something I considered on the NO list is now on the HECK YEAH list. My life was once full of saying no and depriving myself of food and other forms of nourishment, including good friends, good sleep and good money.

I'm evolving away from that, day by day.

Here are a few tips for seeing and enjoying coffee in a new way:

1) consider it a treat

2) factor it in as a supplement

3) savor it