Cuz breaking up is hard to do … .
Editor’s note: This post is part of our Pulling the Plug series!
I do not “like” water. It’s not very fun. But Diet Coke – yum! Diet Dr. Pepper – come to mama! I even like Diet Mountain Dew, which now that I look back on it, is pretty foul. But I used to happily Do the Dew! I drank diet soda like it was water. And sometimes it was all I drank. For the whole day. Terribly healthy, I know. Somehow I used to justify it by the fact that I don’t drink coffee so soda was my sole source of caffeine. Whatever it takes to get you through the day, right?
My father-in-law died on Dec. 20 this past year. It makes you think about life. It makes you think about how you’re treating your body. I decided that all my fat-free, no-calorie, no-sugar food basically equaled a chemical shitstorm. Enemy #1? Diet Soda. It had to go.
I had my last Diet Coke on Dec. 26, 2013. The first few days, well weeks, were rough. Probably rougher than I ever let my husband or friends know. I had a dull and constant headache. I was irritable, but honestly I’m not sure if anyone really noticed much of a difference there. I don’t love water, so getting used to drinking it exclusively was tough. I did start drinking iced tea, but then there was the issue of sweetener, aka chemical shitstorm. If I was going to use sweetener, I might as well drink Diet Coke. So, over the past couple months I have embraced water and plain iced tea. They are my new BFFs.
It’s still weird for me to go to restaurants where I used to have two or three Diet Coke refills during the course of a meal. Like water, I tell you. I don’t keep it in the house now, so there is no temptation. But for me – Mrs. All or Nothing – it’s really easier if I am not around it so restaurants are a challenge. But now I enjoy my tea or water. Lifestyle change, plain and simple.
I did have some 7-Up during a bout with a stomach bug last month, but it was the real, high-octane stuff. My personal trainer (oh yeah, joined a gym and got a trainer… but that’s for another blog post!) agrees that if you’re going to drink a soda, drink the stuff with sugar. It was very counter-intuitive for me and I didn’t even enjoy it. Frankly, it was the only thing I could keep down so I drank it.
If you think breaking up with diet soda was rough, maybe I’ll tell you about my personal trainer and her fat pincher… maybe… .
Have you ever been motivated to let something go that was not good for you? What did you Pull the Plug on? Let us know!