My tripple threat to kicking Diet Coke
Celebrating my one year anniversary from kicking Diet Coke out of my life!! Funny, I never thought I could end that relationship and then I just went cold turkey in one day. I think the major driving force has been the continued news reports not only about Aspartame but how even the innocent sounding “Carmel Flavor” is an over processed toxic mix of chemicals. I mean really, do we not yet understand just how bad Diet Coke is for us? Just how in the world did we allow this product to be associated with terms like “Refreshing”, “Quench your Thrist”, “Live Well” and “Enjoy Life”?
I admit that I was addicted to Diet Coke. Hearing someone open a can in the office and I would immediately run to the soda machine and get mine. I was easily drinking 8-9 cans a day. And if I woke up in the middle of the night, I just had to get a drink of Diet coke before I could go back to sleep.
I will however diverge from the Anti-coke crusade and say that if you are trying to lose weight, you will with Diet coke. I lost my 50 lbs all while drinking diet coke. I’m a firm believer that sugar is enemy one and we need to take steps to lose the belly fat right away. I’m afraid that If I tried to lose weight and give up diet coke at the same time, I would have failed big time. However, I can’t stress that the long term health implications of my continued use will haunt me down the road. I mean who knows the kind of damage I’ve done to my body drinking that much diet coke for so many years.
But once I reached my goal weight, my plan was and still is to slowly start building muscle weight and work on eating clean. So to meet this goal, I had to finally give the boot to Diet Coke and artificial sweeteners. I look back and I clearly see three major items that made this possible.
- Sparkling Water – I found the Costco carried a flavored sparkling water from Ice Mountain. I then learned about La Croix from Dr. Patrick Baker. They both are zero calorie and zero nasty ingredients. Dr. Baker assures me the natural flavoring is ok.
- Sun Crystals – This wonderful sweetener is only 5 calories per package. It is raw sugar wrapped in Stevia. It has grainyness to it which just makes it very enjoyable.
- Shakeology – I had just recently started using Shakeology as my afternoon meal/snack and it did an incredible job taking away my normal 3:00 coma…where I would normally go for that caffeine rush via Diet Coke. I just no longer have that urge and it keeps me satisfied til dinner.
I should mention that I still drink coffee. I never said my goal was to get rid of caffenie…but I suspect my next step to healthier nutrition is to introduce Green Tea into my life and ween myself off of coffee. In time!!!
