Who knew the journey to give up diet pop, or soda would be such a bumpy road? I am not a pop-aholic so to speak, but I do like diet pop. When I was a child, we did not have pop in the house, we didn't drink it. I remember having 7up at my grandparents house on Christmas and special occasions, but it was not something we drank often. This is somewhat ironic since my parents were polar opposites when it came to food. My mom was a health food junkie. She had us eating wheat germ, and granola, and fruit and veggies. I remember eating apples with cinnamon for dessert, or one of our family favorites bananas in milk with a little sugar. My dad on the other hand liked to surprise us on occasion with hard salami, ice cream, and liver sausage. They were the perfect combination of healthy most of the time, with an indulgence here or there.
I first started drinking pop in high school, and naturally, as a calorie watching female, when I started to buy pop from the vending machine at school, I bought diet. I only had it once a week, and it was more for the taste than anything else. I didn't need the caffeine, I was an eager, fresh faced, energetic 16-year-old. We COULD dip into the crazy fact that I was so eager, I got up to take a zero hour class that started at 7am, but I think that is a blog for another time.
Then I hit college, and eventually had my first baby, my gorgeous little Phebe. I managed to survive the first year of Phebe's life without having much in the way of caffeine. I had the occasional cup of tea, and a diet coke when I was at a restaurant because who can resist fountain soda?? But Phebe was easy, she slept, she ate, she smiled. I do remember a few sleepless mornings where I DID make a pot of coffee. I drank it and added milk to offset the bitter taste. Phebe and I- we were two peas in our little pod, chugging along mindlessly.
I did start buying diet pop eventually for the house, for Bill I would say, and I slowly started to drink it. Pretty soon I had a glass a day, and occasionally two. I enjoyed it with dinner, or on a hot afternoon. It was, therefore, easy to cut cold turkey when I found out sweet little Sammie was on her way.
It was not until Samantha was born, that I really realized how actually tired I could be. I used to tell Samantha, "it's a good thing you are pretty" because she came out scream first. It took every ounce of energy I had in me to survive Phebe's first year of preschool, with a 2 hour commute and a baby that had colic all day long. A baby who only used me as her pacifier, and I was not allowed the caffeine in coffee, and had to watch how much pop I drank. Once I stopped nursing, it did not take long for my one glass a day habit to turn into 2-3 glasses. (honestly, it was sometimes more)
We did all survive though, and Samantha is now a well-adjusted 3-year-old who sleeps 12 hours a night and takes naps. Evidently, she has sleep to catch up on from those first 7 months. At some point, we switched over to cans, and I started drinking 1-2 cans a day. I don't really remember why we switched, except that Tania introduced me to the joy of diet coke with lime from a can.
Is all that fake sugar good for you though? No, not at all. And be honest with yourselves if you drink regular pop neither is the high fructose corn syrup, and all those calories. So, I knew it was time to quit and be done while I was ahead, before the aspertame completely kills me.
The last few months I have been weaning myself off of diet pop. I still indulge once, sometimes twice a week, but for the most part I don't need it. I was surprised to find that most days I am not tired,but find myself craving the fake sugar. I was literally addicted to the aspertame. Not anymore, I am done. Sure, when I do need caffeine that means back to tea, or coffee (which I do now like) but at least I am done with the fake sugar.
No comments:
Post a Comment