March 20, 2012

Soda Ban

Depending on where you live you may refer to carbonated soft drinks as Soda, Pop, Coke, or even Tonic.  I blogged about this last summer, but that isn't the point of this post.

I've been hearing more and more lately of the "evils" of soda, specifically diet soda and I've decided that I would sit back a spell and cut soda out of my diet....cold turkey.


Last month I bought a bunch of Pepsi and Diet Coke when it was on sale at Fred Meyer and I was supplementing that with pop from eating out, going to the movies, etc.  My day normally starts with a can of Diet Coke.  On a light day I might only have three cans and on a heavy day I bet I drank somewhere between a half-gallon to a gallon of the stuff.  I really like fountain soda and have a couple of 64 oz travel mugs, so I'm not just guesstimating my consumption levels out of thin air.

At our Sunday night HackMaster game I unwittingly had my last can of soda.  I knew I was down to my last can in the fridge after I opened one to drink at the game, and I figured that I'd start the week Monday morning with that final can.  A couple of my fellow players were dragging and one asked if I had any soda they could have.  I could either give her my final can and be a gracious host or simply say no to hold it back for me.

Oh well, in for a penny...in for a pound.  I guess my Cold Turkey approach started 12 hours sooner than expected.

Yesterday was a little rough.  I started off with some Stash Chai Spice Black Tea, but I felt deprived.  When evening came I found myself much more tired than normal and even this morning I slept in much more than is normal.

I'm not sure how much caffeine is in my tea, but as near as I can tell my tea is maybe 10% lighter in the caffeine department.  It could be that I'm using Stevia instead of sugar also, or just a simple matter of differences in quantity.

We'll just have to see how this experiment goes.  I've given up soda for decent periods of time, but I keep going back.  I'm certain I will eventually start drinking it again, but my goal is to consider it a rare treat and to stick with varieties made with cane sugar when I can.

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