Goodbye, my lovely bubbles

Consider yourself warned: I have decided to give up diet soda for Lent.

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Run! Run while you can!

Last night:

Me: Oh, and just so you know, I'm giving up soda for Lent.

Hubby: Um, are you going to be able to do that?

Me: Well, I'm going to try my hardest. I'll probably be pretty cranky and angry.

Hubby: So... you'll be more cranky and angry than you've already been, then, is what you're saying?

So, yeah. Join the hubby as he runs, runs while he can.

I've given up soda twice before. Once, post gastric-bypass because I literally couldn't drink it.  The carbonation filled me up painfully after one sip. If I drank soda, I felt uncomfortable AND I couldn't eat a single bite of food. Did I miss soda? Absolutely, but eventually I kicked the habit.  But then, as with any habit I have, I went back.

The last time I (mostly) gave up soda was when I was pregnant. I can't drink regular soda (too much sugar) and I didn't want to drink artificial sweeteners while I was pregnant (or much caffeine) so I gave it up then, mostly. I would buy the little mini cans (they're the size of half a regular can, I think) and would allow myself one a day in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters.

But then Nate was born. And he would wake up at 5:30am and I would be dead tired, but he would be crying so I didn't want to make him wait for his bottle while I made some coffee and I feared spilling hot coffee on him, so I started drinking caffeinated diet soda. All day. Starting at 5:30am.

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I remember panicking one day because I finished my last can of Coke Zero. It was a zillion degrees outside but I packed up Nate in the car and headed to the drug store for some soda. I wasn't going to make it through the day. It had honestly become an addiction - I needed it to calm my frayed, early motherhood nerves. Plus the caffeine. My battery basically was running on caffeine.

And so it still is. I realized recently that I pretty much do not consume a non-caffeinated beverage ALL DAY. I go from coffee to soda to more soda to much more soda to maybe a cup of tea to soda. For someone who is fairly well educated in regards to health, this is quite stupid and I know it.

Diet soda is bad for the body for so many (alleged) reasons. (I say "alleged" because I'm pretty sure none of these are proven 100% but I've read them all in several places and, really, when it comes to one's health, better safe than sorry, I say.) So, from what I've read, the artificial sweeteners trick your body into thinking it's getting something satisfyingly sweet, but then it doesn't and so you crave snacks. The carbonation robs calcium from your bones. The caramel coloring is carcinogenic. The caffeine... well, I don't know anything about what too much caffeine does, I just assume it can't be fantastic.

So I'm going cold turkey for Lent with the goal of allowing some soda into my life, on occasion, after Easter. I've been thinking about this for a while (a month or two) so I've mentally prepared myself. I actually feel really ready to do this, although I will admit that my first thought upon waking this morning was, "Soda." Nothing in particular about soda, just, "Soda."

To help with the caffeine so I don't fall asleep at work, I have stocked up on coffee and tea. I have my travel mug with Newman's Own Extra Bold (pow!) and I have some Stash mojito mint green tea and some fusion green and white tea with me for later. (Have you had Stash tea? It is heavenly. And it's hard to find caffeinated mint tea. This one is incredible.)

The drink machine at work does have diet iced tea in it as well as water. I also have a liter bottle of water with me since it's time to become reacquainted with my friend water again. I've been thinking maybe I'll start putting some slices of lemon and lime in my bottled water for daytime, just to perk it up a bit.

Have you ever quit a food or beverage you loved because you felt better off without it? Do you give up anything for Lent (even if, like me, you're not exactly religious)?