Kicking My Diet Soda Addiction

I am a recovering Diet Coke (or, more recently, Diet Dr. Pepper) addict.

Is “addict” the most appropriate word? Maybe. Maybe not.

But I have been drinking diet soda ever since I was a freshman at Ohio State. I couldn’t stand coffee no matter how much I doctored it up – so Diet Coke was my way of caffeinating myself enough to pull those requisite all-nighters. And I found it very helpful to get through Astronomy class without snoozing as soon as the TA doused the lights in the planetarium.

And, okay, so “requisite” probably isn’t the correct word either. But I have always been a procrastinator. And sometimes I had to stay up all night finishing a project or studying for an exam.

Later, when I started working, I would drink several diet sodas in the morning and then finish the day drinking water. I’d read that 12 ounces of diet soda had about the same amount of caffeine that a half a cup of coffee had. So I figured if I didn’t drink more than, say, four Diet Cokes in a day, I wouldn’t be over-caffeinating myself.

I didn’t really hear too much negativity about soda back then – other than how bad soda with sugar was.  And so, because I only drank the diet soda without sugar, I thought it was okay.

Of course, once we learned more and read about the harmful effects of artificial sweeteners, I stopped drinking it immediately.

Yeah, right.

I continued drinking diet soda, although I did make a valiant effort to cut back.

Sure, there were times I tried not to drink it at all. I’d give it up ever so briefly. Or I’d cut back so I only had a couple cans a week.

And I thought this was progress.

Vince only occasionally drank diet soda – so he didn’t have the same issues I did. He even got me started drinking a cup of coffee in the morning, which eliminated at least one can of diet soda a day.

But I still didn’t really like coffee. And black coffee the way Vince drank it? No way.

No, the only way I could drink it was to add all sorts of frou-frou stuff. Like whipped cream. And vanilla  soy milk. And sugar-free hazelnut syrup.

Eventually, I managed to give up the whipped cream. And I switched the soy milk for almond milk.

Either way, all that frou-frou added up to a lot more calories. And I was still ingesting something with artificial sweeteners in it.

Sigh.

But last February, Vince and I embarked on a “30 Days to Healthy Living” program by Arbonne. Its aim was to get our bodies in an alkaline state for 30 days so we could rid ourselves of the toxins in our bodies.

While I’ll get into the nuts and bolts of the program another time, let’s just cut to the chase and I’ll tell you that two of the things we had to eliminate were 1) coffee/caffeine and 2) artificial sweeteners.

Egad, I thought. How are we going to survive without caffeine?

Not only that, I fretted, but how am I going to survive without my diet soda?!

I thought I was destined for failure.

Nevertheless, I agreed to try this program.

And, so, for thirty days, I didn’t drink a single diet soda – nor did I drink a single cup of coffee. We were able to have a little caffeine in the Arbonne Fizz sticks, which are sooo good. They have natural caffeine and vitamins and gave us a gentle boost to caffeinate ourselves. Made it easier to eliminate the soda and the coffee.

I’m not going to lie and say it was completely easy, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I didn’t get any caffeine-withdrawal headaches, which happens sometimes. And, other than a time or two when we went out to lunch or to a movie when I would normally drink a diet soda, I didn’t miss it much.

At the end of the thirty days, we were allowed to add back in some of the things that we had eliminated. Part of the goal is to re-introduce some of those items on the “bad” list and see how your body responds to them.

The only “problem” was – I really didn’t want to re-introduce diet soda.

And so I didn’t. It was a good "problem" to have.

One of the things we were supposed to do in preparing for our 30 day program was to rid our house of all those “don’t” foods. Except that I still had three 12-packs of Diet Dr. Pepper on the shelf in my garage.

But I wasn’t tempted. And after about six months of not drinking any diet soda, I pulled those 12-packs off the shelf and, after seeing that the expiration date had passed and it wouldn’t be good to donate or give to someone who drinks it, I poured all of that soda down the sink.

And I felt a little thrill of victory!

So, see? It IS all about the little victories.

Now, if only I could feel the same way about chocolate cake.

What can I say? I’m still a work in progress.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back with more later!