I'm All Fizzed Out

A week ago Monday, I decided that I was going to try to go seven days without drinking any soda whatsoever. I haven't challenged myself to do this since 1997 or thereabouts (and I was successful), so I figured it was time to try it again.

I will say that it's a little bit easier this time around, as I have slowly changed my soda drinking habits over the last few years. It used to be that the standard size of soda I'd buy was a 44-ounce fountain, because darn it, it's more value for my money. I cut back to 32 oz., and sometimes just bought 22-oz. or a 20-ounce bottle. Plus, over the last three or four years, I've increased my bottled water consumption considerably. The other thing I did about 18 months ago was to switch from exclusively sugared soda to diet Coke and the like. I enthusiastically embraced diet Coke with Lime--it's pretty tasty. A few weeks ago I accidentally ordered a regular Coke, and I practically could not drink it. (Now I see there's regular Coke with Lime, which just sounds disgustingly sweet!)

The only carbonated drink I've had was a bottle of sparkling Pellegrino from the gelato place last weekend. I don't really count it, because it was still just water. I've had a couple of drinks of tea, and today I opened up a bottle of Dole Light fruit juice (yay, it has Sucralose, not sugar!); other than that, it's been strictly water. Fortunately for my wallet, Portland tap water is pretty palatable, but I still run it through the Brita. At work, I have unlimited access to the filtered water from the soda fountain - I love that little "hidden" switch next to the iced tea tap.

As for the benefits of dropping the pop, I haven't noticed too many changes within my own body, except for the fact that I'm a lot less farty than I was before. I'm sure that my pancreas appreciates the reduction in sugar, especially since my heredity says I have a good chance of developing diabetes at some point. There's the caffeine factor, too...I'm already past the withdrawals. And generally speaking, soda is just full of chemical garbage, so it can't hurt. And oh yeah, there's this to think about.

I don't know how long the soda embargo will last, because I still catch myself reaching for it sometimes, but I'll get used to it, I'm sure.

Now let's hope that I don't become a coffee addict!