21

It's been three weeks since I savored my last beloved Diet Coke. I also gave up coffee just because it seemed like the caffeine version of a slippery slope. I still drink tea but can fool myself into believing that's super healthy. No more morning trips to Starbucks to spend 5 bucks on a Venti Skinny Sugar Free Vanilla Latte with 3 pumps of syrup so it's not so sweet - with a big straw. Somehow I always ended up behind the asshat who ordered 8 coffees through the drive-up, or in the line that was 8 cars deep...and still I would wait for the over-priced, still fattening no matter how you order it coffee. Way to go, branding!



 
On days when I didn't have time or money for my latte I would swing through McDonald's to get a Diet Coke - 32 oz of morning caffeinated love. Someday, someone will find out exactly why McDonald's Diet Coke so much better than everyone else's. And then I'd have another one for lunch. And maybe a little canned soda in some yawner afternoon meeting. That's a damn lot of caffeine in one day! And let's just think, I've been a Coke junkie since I was 13 when I used to get a glass bottle out of the teacher's lounge at my junior high every single morning. I figured out the Pepsi AM thing before Pepsi did. But somewhere in my 30s I decided to make the shift from regular to Diet because "they" said you could lose 5 pounds easy by making that shift. Apparently, "they" were wrong. Diet Coke makes you fatter. http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20050613/drink-more-diet-soda-gain-more-weight

So today I hit my 21st day of no Diet Coke. I did have one coffee but I figure that's not so bad. At least it's not the all-chemical soda with aspertame that is apparently making my hair and nails not grow, giving me gas, and could someday give me facial ticks because it's eating away my brain! How many people have ever told you about the "coke ate the penny" story? My dad told me that a million times I think and yet, according to Snopes, it's all false. But still, have you read some of these studies about how detrimental soda and its ingredients can be? Yipe, yipe, yipe!

Don't get me wrong, I still crave it every once in awhile but I think "they" might be right...if you kick something for 3 weeks, you've got it kicked. Bring on the iced tea (thanks, mom and dad). I'm off the sauce. At least the Diet Coke kind.