Giving up Coke...for the 100th time.

So I recently read a few articles about Coke - soda, in general that have made me decide to give up soda - for now.

I have these types of ideas frequently - for awhile I wanted to be vegetarian - but it was hard to come up with all those meals with no meat (I will be generous and say this lasted 1 week). I frequently say I am "giving up" coke, or fried foods, or fast food - and never really stick to it.

But this article about soda was responsible for my most recent pledge to give up my daily, carbonated joy.

So, a history. My addiction to coke (in Texas we call all sodas coke - so I could be talking Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Sprite, Diet Coke) began at an early age. We often had it at our house, and I hated water, so what's a girl to drink? In middle and high school, I probably bought a daily coke to go with my lunch. In college - sometimes I'd buy my own coke for our apartment and proceed to drink 2 or 3 a day somehow! And that was all regular coke (no diet).

As I graduated college/moved into the working world, my habits continued. When I started my relationship with B - he helped me to see that perhaps I drank too much coke/not enough water. Slowly, I began to drink more water - but still kept the cokes in. I learned that buying cokes for my house was a big NO - because then I would drink 2 or 3/day.

In my late 20s, I began drinking Diet Coke. This, I figured was fine because there are no calories, no sugar, no anything! Then I started reading a lot of articles about being "organic" and thought - what do they put in here so that there are no calories? Answer: Fake Sugar. I've read plenty of articles that this fake sugar causes me to crave more and more sugar throughout the day. But I am definitely addicted to caffeine - and I don't love coffee, particularly on summer mornings in Texas where it can be 80 degrees at 8am - so I drink coke. I figure one/day can't hurt me. I tried to be more conscious of my sugar intake to combat the coke's fake sugar or high fructose corn sugar - but sugar is another thing I'm addicted to.

So what's so different now? It's well known in my circles ;) that I'm a hypochondriac. The health issues brought up in the article above are just too much for me (I think). I'll outline them briefly, but really - read the article:
1. Weird liver fat - although this first reason applies to regular coke drinkers, I routinely switch between diet and regular...I go through phases.
2. Diet soda belly - gross...so I'll switch to regular. Wait, see #1. :/
3. Caramel Cancer Causers - say cancer and I generally listen (see hypochondriac admission above)- although sometimes ok to dismiss because these days - what DOESN'T cause cancer?
4. Accelerated Aging - as a woman now "into my 30s" (ugh), this matters to me.
5. Water Pollution - eh...I'm a liberal, so therefore care about the environment - but honestly not about this water issue as much.
6. Mountain Dew Mind - I don't drink the Dew - but I'm sure this flame retardant chemical is also in stuff I drink.
*side note - I recently have sworn off Taco Bell and McD's because of gross stuff in their food (silica and pink slime, respectively). So I'm thinking this idea of knowing something chemically gross is in there will help me.
7. Whacked out hormones - because of BPA. Infertility, obesity, diabetes? No thanks - Already have a predisposition for diabetes - why make it worse?
8. Dead Birds - again...I care, but don't feel this is paramount to my resolve of giving up cokes.
9. Unknown side effects of GMOs (Genetically Modified crops) - since a lot of coke ingredients come from corn derivatives, which these days are mostly genetically modified - who knows how that will affect us? This is a good reason for me, because sometimes, I want to be a "natural" "hippie".

So - long story short, I need to give up my daily soda. Every morning at work, I pop open a can of Coke Zero(my current phase) and drink it along with my super sugary breakfast. I only allow myself one per day, most days - but it is definitely a daily staple. My pledge is to eliminate my daily work coke. I think this will be a big step for me. If I don't drink coke at work, I won't at home (because I don't buy them). I may still if I go out to eat during the week(but usually I just drink alcohol at that point, which may lead to a different addiction post in the future), but mostly it will eliminate 5 cokes from my weekly average. I guess I'll still allow weekend cokes for now. But since I rarely drink more than 1/day for the past 3 or so years - that would mean cutting down from 7 cokes/week to 2. And that's my goal.

Now my reader, Katy will most likely scoff at this, as she has seen and heard these things from me before. But as I get older and worry more about death, unhealthiness and looking old - I'm slightly more serious. And, I have this post to remind me of why I want to do this.

We'll see! Enjoying my iced tea this morning!