Monday, March 31, 2008

Weekly Challenge: It's not you, Diet Coke, it's me.

Rather than take on a bunch of changes all at once, I have decided to experiment with a new method: taking one challenge at a time, and trying it on for a week. I get overwhelmed when I think of all the things I should change about myself--eat fewer refined carbohydrates, cut down on sugar, stop drinking diet soda, eat more protein, eat more fruits and vegetables...the list goes on...and on. Although I know things could be far worse, I do have bad habits that I would like to break. And I've heard it said that it takes twenty-one days to break a bad habit. My goal here, though, is to just take something on for a week, in the hopes that the effort I have made toward improving something (and the supposed benefits that will accompany said effort) will be sufficiently rewarding that I will be encouraged to maintain my healthy habit.

This week's challenge? No more diet soda. This is going to be hard. I love the taste of cold Diet Coke. I love the first sip in the morning, I love the way it fizzes, I even love the way it smells. The problem? Well, at this point, the list of negatives far outweighs the positives. Granted, this may have something to do with the fact that the one real positive is the caffeine boost. But the negative effects of diet soda in general are actually pretty disturbing. Recently, studies have shown an association between diet soda and weight gain, metabolic syndrome, and heart problems, just to name a few of the seemingly endless soda-craving killers. In recent years, I have significantly reduced the amount of Diet Coke I drink, so cutting it out completely will, admittedly, not be as hard as it would be if I were going from a daily dose to nothing at all. For caffeine, I will be drinking tea, and probably coffee as well which, though probably not the best choice, is still far healthier than the dreaded diet soda.

I will post about how the challenge is going at the end of the week. Until then, I will be fighting off the urge to have a Diet Coke IV hooked to my veins.

What will you challenge yourself to do this week?

2 comments:

SueWho said...

I haven't thought of any challenges yet, but I will come up with something eventually. For now, though, I will support you in your quest to stay away from Diet Coke. I gave it up recently, and I feel like it's completely out of my system now. I don't find myself craving it and I feel great! You can do it!

zebeckras said...

Once you get through the first week of giving up DC it's actually very easy. I mean you still want it, but you don't WANT it. I'm hoping to soon just be at a point where every so often, I'll kind of think "Oh, I haven't had a Diet Coke in a week or two, that would taste nice now" instead of "Boy that Diet Coke yesterday was good. Want more NOW." :P

Challenging myself this week? I don't knoooow... hmm... I'm doing that "Tank Top Arms" etc DVD you tried out and to my surprise my ARMS ache the most after doing the whole thing yesterday! I'd have thought it would be my glutes but no. Weird. Maybe that's my challenge?