soda free.

On November 16, 2014 I had my last drink of soda.

I grew up not drinking much soda. We never had it in the house, so it was a treat. When I started Weight Watchers in 2013, diet soda was a zero point drink. Great! I could drink all the diet soda I wanted and it wouldn't count against me. So, I did. At first I just drank a can a day, at lunch. Then I started drinking it for lunch and dinner. Some mornings I even woke up and had some while I knit before work. If I didn't have soda for a few hours, I would get bad headaches. I really really loved soda.

Suddenly I realized I didn't want to be addicted to soda anymore. I was going to give it up, and that was that. I set my mind to it. For that reason I was able to push through the 8 days following November 16 of constant headaches and irritation because of no soda. It was pretty bad for a while, but I knew the headaches would end eventually. I now haven't had soda in 18 days! This may seem like a small feat, but for me it is amazing! Almost 3 weeks I have not had one sip. And you know what, I have only missed it three times.

I missed soda a lot when I was stressed out, emotional, angry, and needed something to make me feel better. In the past I would chug a soda when I was feeling that way. However another realization flooded my head: It's not healthy to rely on food to sooth emotional problems. Believing food can solve my emotional problems is the reason I am so heavy today. I want to shatter that belief.

Maybe I'm not totally healed from my food addiction, but cutting soda out of my life when I never thought I could has taken me 5 steps in the right direction.