The End Of Diet Coke!

Diet Coke racksIt’s been four days now since my last bit of diet coke.  The headaches are gone and, while I can’t say that I feel like a whole new person, I certainly feel some improvement in my overall health.  As a bit of background, I used to consume huge amounts of diet coke.  3 to 4 cans at work and 2 to 3 glasses at dinner or lunch.  That means around a gallon per day.  Essentially, all my liquid intake would be through diet coke and very little through water.  Doesn’t sound very healthy does it?

I drank diet coke because I kept telling myself that it was the least of all evils.  It allowed me to get some sweet like flavors without any calories.  However, my experimentation with the 4 hour body diet showed me that drinking soda, even diet soda, led straight into a carb binge.  Apparently, my taste buds really can’t tell artificial from natural sweetener.  All they knew was “SUGAR!!! MORE!!!” and after drinking even one diet coke I was much more likely to binge on candy, sweets or more diet coke.  So my “I’ll stay away from the candy and just drink one diet coke instead” would turn into “three diet cokes, a few candy bars and a piece of cake!” [Read more...]

Week 2 of No Soda or Candy

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series SERIES - Voluntary Simplicity

It’s been a week now since I stopped drinking any soda or eating candy and I got to say, I feel GOOD!  Some of that could be due to the fact that I’ve been getting more sleep lately.  However, I got very little sleep last night and I still felt good this morning.  Usually, even after a night with a decent amount of sleep, I would get to work and feel like taking a nap.  I would keep feeling this way until well into the afternoon or at least until I had my first diet coke.

I had the same experience while at school this weekend.  I used to be unable to make it through a class without at least one diet coke.  This weekend I was able to make it through all of my classes without feeling sleepy even once.  Well, actually, I did feel sleepy once but hey, you try paying attention to a three hour lecture about stock option pricing formulas and we’ll see how awake you are!

Regardless, I think I underestimated how much I had grown dependent on caffeine.  I picked it up again towards the end of last year as a way of treating myself when I felt down or depressed, but I always thought it was just a casual habit.  Turns out I had become a caffeine addict without even noticing it to the point where I was unable to stay awake through many parts of my life without a shot of caffeine.

Which is why I’m incredibly happy now to say that I’m done with caffeine.  I think this is one part of the 30 day promise that I will have no problem maintaining long term.  I feel better without it and I no longer need the artificial pick me up to feel better about my day.

Ahh Candy, My Old Friend!

The candy part, that’s a different story.  I love candy.  Actually, let me correct that, I love sugar, especially processed sugar in all its glory.  Sure, I can enjoy an apple or an orange but there’s something about candy, especially good chocolate, that drives me a little crazy.  It’s an incredible pleasure for me, as you can see in some of my previous posts.

In the past, I was able to control my consumption of chocolate to a reasonable amount.  However, I also recognize that there were time when I binged on sugar in a way that was extremely unhealthy.  So I was looking forward to trying out this 30 day experiment and seeing how I felt.  Unfortunately, temptation has proven a worthy foe.  While I have cut out nearly all processed sugar from my diet last week, I have fallen victim to the occasional brownie at lunch.  I know I shouldn’t eat them, I’ve told myself not to and yet, I still do.

At the same time, I’m not going to beat myself up over this occasional lapse.  I have decreased my processed sugar consumption by an amazing amount last week and I would rather focus on this accomplishment rather than my slightly less than perfect success rate.  The decrease in sugar is not having as big of an impact on my body as the removal of caffeine but I do find myself craving sugar less and less, so perhaps there is something going on here.

So Far So Good

Either way, I am exceedingly happy with how this 30 day experiment is going so far.  It’s had a very positive effect within a week of starting out and I feel like this is going to have a long term impact on my eating habits and health.

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Thank you to Fitbuff for including a recent 60 in 3 article in their latest Total Mind and Body Carnival.