In my younger, wilder days I will admit that I liked to drink a bit, and for about 30 minutes I smoked, but I never did drugs and once I realized that smelling like an ashtray was anything but sexy....I never touched another cigarette. Basically since the mid 90's, my drug of choice has been food but only since about 2003 has it been a vice. Probably though, my worst addiction is diet soda. Yes, we will call it an addiction because truthfully....it is. I literally crave it. Yes, I have heard the studies that it can cause cancer, and then the ones that say you would have to drink a case a day for it to do so. I have heard that it actually stimulates appetite rather than curb it, but today was the kicker. My mother in law called to tell me that my most favorite beverage has now been linked to heart attack and stroke. WHY?????????? Why did she have to call and tell me? Why couldn't she have kept that little tid bit to herself?????
Fine! I know that anything with as much artificial junk in it as diet pop cannot really be good for me, but come on.....I don't drink, smoke, do drugs or basically have fun of any kind, so can't you give me diet soda? Apparently the answer is.....only if I want to die of either cancer, a heart attack or a stroke. Where is the justice????
Logically, which I am not fond of logic, diet soda has many draw backs. It is as I stated above, loaded with artificial additives that apparently kill small lab rodents when they ingest 60 times their body weight. It is also expensive and I do tend to believe that it doesn't do much to deter the appetite when you see people order a double whopper, large fries and oh....lets not forget the diet soda. Even I am not so delusional as to think the zero calories in the diet pop are going to magically cancel out the 2000+ calories in the rest of the meal. Nor do I think after drinking the diet soda that I am no longer going to be hungry for the rest of the high calorie meal. But I LOVE diet soda. Most especially.....Diet Mt. Dew. It has been an ongoing love affair for many years and the few times that I have walked away from the Dew, it has always graciously taken me back when I realized the error of my ways. Now I am thinking that maybe this delicious Dew is just evil in disguise. Maybe it is time once again, to say goodbye to the Dew.
So here's the deal. I am not foolish enough to say I am going cold turkey because we all know that would be a lie. Starting tomorrow (my weigh in day) I am going to start tapering back. I will limit myself to only one a day and then every other day and so on until I run out at home. Then I will buy no more. I want to go for one full month without a diet pop of any kind and I want to see if I feel any different. They say the artificial sweetener can cause headaches, body pains, etc (but then again,...so does being over 40) so we shall see.
Regardless of the results, will I ever be diet soda free? Who knows but I do like tea and I drink a lot of water, so the tapering off while not fun, should not have me sitting on top of tall buildings aiming my sling shot at unsuspecting passerby's below. After all., the whole point of this year is to have a positive life style change and honestly diet soda is probably not one of the more healthy things I put in my body, so why not at least give the change a try?
Okay....so I have drank almost a whole 20 oz. diet Mt. Dew as I wrote this and I am really trying to feel guilty but it is just not there. I will however make tomorrow a starting point. I still feel crappy, I still don't know my mammogram results and I am still not happy about my mother in laws latest news flash, but I guess all this too shall pass.
So here's to more water, less soda and a healthier tomorrow. This is all a good thing....right?!
Oh I'm such a soda addict its not even funny. I try to stop, but I can't. I used to give it up for Lent, and I probably should, but I probably won't.
ReplyDeleteOh Lisa. My love affair with diet pop is also so very bad. I would drink a two liter at my desk per day.
ReplyDeleteI have tapered back dramatically, but to be honest, it has caused me to eat MORE. Now I have the terrible craving for a diet pop and I find myself putting something else in my mouth instead.
So for the most part I drink tea (which also leaches iron from your system - just FYI), and I try to imagine it is diet coke.
It is a terrible, terrible thing.
A final note, try Good Earth tea (original). I have also become addicted to it, and it is the only substitute for diet pop that has even made me a little bit happy. $2 per box at Wal Mart. Worth every penny.