I Choose Water!

I grew up heavy. And I grew up in a house that was always filled with diet soda. And it has taken me this long to see that perhaps the two are connected.

My parents were chronic, veteran weight watchers and devotees at the altar of Tab, and later Diet Coke. And they still are. And I don’t blame them – there is something (more than caffeine) so addictive in that stuff.

So it took me three times of signing up for the NoFizz America Monthly Challenge to actually complete it. This saddened me, and frightened me, but it didn’t shock me. I was addicted to diet soda.

I would take money out of savings to buy it. When it would snow, I would calculate how much I might need for the duration of the bad weather, and then make sure I had twice as much as I guessed I’d need in my house. I stopped for soda in the morning, on the way home, had it for all three meals and at dinner. And bedtime. And beside my bed in case I got thirsty during the night.

I started keeping the two liter bottles near all my favorite places to sit, so I wouldn’t have to walk to the kitchen for a fix. I had an upstairs bottle and a downstairs bottle all the time.

Co-workers knew about my addiction, they even called me the Diet Coke Queen (only it was a different five letter word that started with a “w” because I’d do anything to get it). They knew if they traveled with me, the first thing we’d do when we arrived somewhere was find a store for a 12 pack of the brown fizzy stuff. I would choose hotels, restaurants, routes to work based on how easily I could get my fix.

Yeah, it was bad.

But what was worse was seeing the same behavior starting in my kids. My little kids. We tried 100 different ways to get them off soda, but none of them worked because I was still drinking it.

So one day I was reading a book called Designated Fat Girl. It’s a memoir by a North Carolina native, Jennifer Joyner, about her experience with gastric bypass. And the sentence – the one sentence – that stood out for me from that whole book, was when the bariatric doctor told her “No more soda. Ever. The carbonation stretches out your stomach and will allow you to overeat.”

Ummm, what? If carbonation could stretch out her stomach, could it have done the same to me? I’m not a gastric bypass patient but hey, maybe the same thing applies, right?

So once again I went over to the NoFizz America site and read about artificial sweeteners, and how badly it messes up your metabolism and your ability to be satisfied and your body’s ability to regulate calorie intake for sweet stuff and I just…quit. I threw away the soda I was drinking and I quit. That was January 14, 2011, and I haven’t had a soda since then.

Nor have I wanted one.

I also started a weight loss plan that day and so far I have lost 25 pounds. And I am a NoFizzer for life. I occasionally will have some lemonade, or coffee, but the vast majority of my liquid intake is water. I bought myself some cool water bottles and I carry water with me everywhere. I have a certain amount that I drink by certain times every day – like a bottle by the time I get to work, another bottle by 11, another by after lunch, etc. People who know me are shocked to see me drinking water all the time – but it is the very best thing I can do for my body, so why wouldn’t I do it?

I’m also glad to report that my kids aren’t drinking soda anymore either – once in awhile, as a treat, they might have some. But we don’t keep it in our house and we don’t even miss it, now that it’s done.

If you’re thinking about doing a 30 day challenge – do it. Just take the first step. But have a plan – know what you will do to defend yourself against caffeine withdrawal, what you will order instead when you eat out, what you will keep around the house to drink…make it special. Try water with lemon, lime, orange, melon. Get a water filter for your tap or a pitcher. Drink out of a really pretty glass. Notice how when you drink water your thirst is quenched – your skin looks better, your body works more efficiently, your mind is clearer, and you know you are doing something really great for yourself.

Take the first step. One small change that will change your life, if you let it.