Oh soda. How I have forsaken ye.
From my childhood in the south, I've been a big Coca-Cola drinker. I pretty much missed the whole emerging coffee scene about a decade (or two) ago because I thought, WHY mess with coffee when I get all the caffeine and sugar I could ever want in a single can of soda? I referred to it as my "cold coffee".
When I say I drank a lot, I mean it was a lot. Multiple cans a day. It kept me going. It made me happy. It was fizzy, sweet, satisfying-- everything wonderful. Every week it was a mainstay on my grocery list, and every week I would time it just right to where the 20 pack was running out on grocery day. Yep, at least two at home and a third one on a weekend day-- and that doesn't even count the ones I'd pick up during the day.
As I was working with my accountability team on ideas for the challenge, one of my awesome team members, Gina, shared how cutting out all sodas and sugary drinks had made a huge contribution to her improved health. Still, I couldn't imagine dropping the soda. My Coke.
But, something told me she was right and I needed to make this a part of my challenge. It is probably my oldest habit, so I knew I had to start on it early and that I would go into shock if I tried to go cold turkey. This suspicion was confirmed as I started researching soda and what it is really doing to your body (and special thanks to get moving coach Kelly for that video!). Then I found all these articles about people whose death was linked to soda intake. And of course, the one that got me the most was people who had elevated levels of aluminum in their bodies from drinking soda in cans.
I read how it could be used to take acid off a car battery, clean a toilet, shine a dull penny. All kinds of stomach churning things. Each story I read pushed me to be more committed to breaking this habit.
But the kicker was when I picked up a 5 lb bag of sugar. There are 2270 grams of sugar in that bag. There are 33 grams of sugar in a single can of coke. That means 69 cans of coke have the same amount of sugar as the one bag of sugar I was holding. So, at my usual pace, in roughly every 2.5-3 weeks, I was consuming the equivalent of a 5lb sugar bag. That just seemed crazy to me.
I've done well this month. I've gone many days down to just one soda and overall am drinking less of it than usual. I'm now on my second full day with no soda-- my weekly supply ran out and I made the decision to not buy it this week. Instead, I grabbed another 24-pack of Aquafina and rolled on over to the paper towel aisle.
My goal was to eliminate soda in March, so I haven't gone totally cold turkey. It does surprise me, however, that I am without soda so much earlier than planned. My first few days on reduced soda were awful. I was sleepy, craved sugar, was super cranky. But, each day got a little easier.
And, this doesn't mean I will never have another soda again in my life. Rather, I will have it as it was intended to be enjoyed when it was conceived-- a treat to enjoy occasionally. Not as a daily piece of my diet.
So, soda-- it's not you, it's me. I just don't want all you bring with you in my body.
But, we can enjoy our future few and far between special times because you will always have a special place in my heart.
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