Farewell, Dear Diet Coke

If you've known me for longer than 10 minutes you likely know that I love Diet Coke. I'm not going to say that I'm addicted because I've quit cold turkey for a week before and didn't really have withdrawals or anything. I just really really like them! Recently, James and I have decided to get back to healthy eating since we've both gained weight since the wedding. It happens to almost everyone, I know, but I miss feeling confident and energetic like I did back in December. Also, the wedding weight was not my ultimate weight loss goal so I plan to lose some more once I get back to where I was.

Anyway, I digress. We realized that by cutting out "emergency grocery store trips" and eating out/fast food we could afford to have a really good healthy meal every day. So I proposed that we I give up Diet Coke (and Diet Pepsi and Diet Dr. Pepper) in order to save a little more money. James also said he's been drinking more soft drinks and has lost his taste for water (I might've been the influence on that...) so he wanted to cut back too.

Ideally, I would cut back to maybe 2 a day, then 1 a day, then slowly phase them out completely. But, the truth is, if I have them in the house I'm going to drink them instead. So at our last grocery trip we bought several different kinds of Crystal Light to get us started. They're very low in calories and it's a lot closer to drinking water than cokes are. Once we go through these then we're hoping to commit to drinking water 100% of the time!

I'm also a runner. I was pretty consistent at going 2-3 miles a day at a 8 min/mi pace last year but since we moved I haven't been pushing myself as much and usually only get in 1 mile at a 10 min/mi pace maybe 4-5 days a week. Hopefully being more hydrated will help me get back to where I was.

Finally, I wanted to mention that I have read the articles that say aspartame cause brain tumors, multiple sclerosis and obesity. I've never been convinced of that. I have heard more from people whose opinions I trust that diet sodas are a great alternative to sugary drinks. I've personally lost 50 pounds while drinking diet sodas all along the way. It was helpful for me to have something zero calories that I could let myself indulge in. They are not, however, nearly as good as water so that's why I'm making it my goal to cut them out.

So far I'm on my fourth day with no soft drinks of any kind. I had a little headache on day 2 so I took a Goody's powder and haven't had a problem since!

Wish me luck!

3 days no Diet Coke!