Confessions of a Coke head: Week One Update

Despite being headache-y the first few days, I successfully managed to curtail my diet coke intake to 4 cans per day.  Now I'm working on whittling down to three cans per day and it's going well.  By early afternoon, I've usually filled my quota so today I made cucumber infused water.  Refreshing!  And the best part is that all of the cucumbers were harvested from my own backyard!

Cucumber Water

Thank you to everyone for the encouragement and sharing your own experiences with me last week when I announced my desire to end my more than two decade love affair with soda.  I'll keep you posted on my progress and am looking forward to sharing any changes or improvements I observe once my body is no longer dependent on the bubbly, artificially flavored and sweetened, caramel colored syrup.

Confessions of a Coke head

I just finished another weekend  of yoga teacher training (my ninth!) with Holistic Yoga Therapy Institute and it never fails.  Each day when we break for lunch, I am the only person who orders a diet coke as my beverage of choice.  Plenty of people place orders for water with lemon, water without lemon, iced tea, hot tea, and even the occasional glass of wine or Sunday brunch mimosa--but never soda.  I'm the only one.  And I know why--artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners--they're not good for me.  They know it and I know it, but I'm an addict...and not just to the caffeine but to the bubbles.  What is it about the bubbles?  And now, my thirteen year old son seems to be heading down the path of addiction as well...so if not for my own health, definitely for his...

I hereby publicly denounce the further consumption of soft drinks.  I don't plan to quit cold turkey.  That would be asking for failure.  Caffeine deprivation would surely lead to migraines and as someone who suffered from stress-induced migraines for the first quarter-century of life, I cannot knowingly inflict such pain upon myself.  I will, however, incorporate the less painful, less stressful method of weaning myself off the drug.

On any given day, I probably consume the equivalent of six cans of soda.  So, beginning today and for the rest of week one of "Operation Confessions of a Coke Head," I plan to drink no more than four cans of soda per day decreasing by one each week.  Therefore, next week I will drink no more than three, the following week two, and so on.  If my math is correct, I should be coke-free in about 30 days--approximately the same amount of time it takes to form new habits or break old ones.

I recently read an article about chemicals in foods that are banned in other countries but still allowed to be used in the United States.  It proclaimed citrus flavored sodas and sport drinks contain Brominated Vegetable Oil, a flame retardant ingredient used in the manufacture of plastics.  Yikes.  And to think before I was a Coke head, I did the Dew! 



So, let's raise a glass...of water with lemon...to new habits formed and old ones defeated!

Cheers!