Soda...The Other Love of my Life

How Soda Impacts You

    Many of you may not know, but I am a former soda junkie. I LOVE Soda, Coke is my all time favorite. Is there anything better than a large fountain coke? I think not. It's not like I would just have a soda every now and then; I had one with breakfast, lunch and dinner. If it wasn't soda it was sweet tea. When I started working in Orlando I found out the campus only sold Pepsi products (insert disgusted sigh here.) I had to quickly find an alternative to the Coke I loved so much; it came in the form of Mountain Dew. I went from drinking 3-4 sodas or tea a day, to 4 glasses of Mountain Dew. I didn't know it at the time, but Mountain Dew has about 50 calories more per serving than coke does!

    After a few months in Orlando I stepped on the scale and realized I had put on 4 pounds. WHAT! That can't be right.... but it was. Yes, I went out to eat frequently, but I would be willing to bet money that those sneaky pounds came from the soda I was consuming. I decided I wanted to cut out soda and tea once and for all!  I knew it would be hard because I consumed so many sodas a day that I would get terrible caffeine headaches if I didn't have a drink by 10am. I was also the most irritable and cranky person you have ever met (no exaggeration) if I couldn't get some caffeine in my system early. After seeing the above graph one afternoon I decided that I would power through the headaches and quit drinking the stuff. I've always known how bad soda is, I'm a nurse for crying out loud! After two days of near-tear inducing headaches I smartened up and had one Excedrin in the morning (just one of those has more caffeine than a can of coke!) After two weeks I stopped taking the Excedrin and found that the headaches were gone.

   I'm happy to say that yesterday marked 2 months since I've had any soda. I won't even drink diet soda because they are just as bad but without the calories. Now I only drink water, and on occasion diet cranberry/raspberry Snapple. I do miss the taste of Coke, but I no longer crave them like I did when I drank them all the time. 

   I have so much more energy since giving it up, and I get more sleep at night. I also think my bones, teeth, and heart are very appreciative! I'm eating healthier and exercising and I've replaced my standard soda can with a hhhuugggeeee bottle of water. I really do feel an amazing difference.

                     Say what you want, but Fiji water really is the best!

Bottom's Up!

~xoxo, Brittany