I did it, I kicked the habit!

Nine days without any soda. I think I have officially overcome my addiction. We've been out to eat a few times since I quit and it has been no problem asking for a cup for water instead of ordering a soda. I'm so proud of myself because I am the girl that never finishes anything she starts (just come take a look at all the semi-finished projects at my house). Dr. Pepper will always hold a special place in my heart and I'll probably tear up every time I'm in the checkout line at the store and the darn bottle stares up at me from the cooler with it's shiny maroon label and fancy script spelling out it's name. I'll miss you Mr. Pepper! ;)

Five days, no soda!

I'm so proud of myself. As Mom told me Grandma Bower used to say 'don't hurt your arm patting yourself on the back' or something to that effect. The first few days were so horrible. I had migraines and missed that burn in my throat at 9am every morning. I've gone five entire days....make that six, I just realized it's Friday and I haven't had a single sip of soda. I even took Addie out for pizza a few nights ago and I had water while her root beer taunted me from across the table while she was away playing video games. I almost snuck a sip, but decided not to...even though it was caffeine free. My goal is to quit it completely, even the caffeine free stuff.

Oh and for all you diet soda drinkers out there, I've read that diet soda contains something regular soda doesn't that is pretty scary in my opinion (please don't take this as me on a soap box, it just scared the pants off me). The stuff is called Aspartime and it's known to cause the following: arthritis, birth defects, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer's, lupus, multiple sclerosis and diabetes. Here's a little excerpt from a book I recently read:

"When methyl alcohol, a component of aspartime, enters you body, it turns into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is toxic and carcinogenic. Laboratory scientists use formaldehyde as a disinfectant or preservative. Want more bad news? When aspartime is paired with carbs, it causes your brain to slow down its production of seratonin."

By the way, this stuff is found in most sugar-free foods. Just an FYI. Thought I'd pass along the information because I was absolutely blown away that they'd put this stuff in our food and drink.

Okay, so off my pseudo soap box and back to the topic at hand. So each time I go out to eat and see the soda fountain or I open my refrigerator door and I see the Dr. Pepper staring me back in the face I almost feel like I'm betraying THE DRINK. I'm so torn, I don't want to hurt the poor soda's feelings....but then I remember, it's just a soda, it doesn't have feelings and there's nothing to feel guilty about. I am a bit disappointed that I haven't seen my extra pounds melting off, but that could have something to do with my intake of strawberry cream hearts (darn valentine's day). Oh well, I guess I just need to give up one thing at a time if I want to be successful. This has been really hard though, don't know if I can give up all chocolate.