Ten Months No Soda Challenge

Ten months ago today, I stopped drinking soda. I didn't gradually wean myself off of them. I went cold turkey. I expected it to be a grueling personal challenge, something that I would miss as much as if I'd dropped a part of my personal identity. After all, soda drinking was something I'd always done.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it wasn't that hard to let go of this. I found ways to give myself acceptable alternatives, things I could have instead of soda that meant I didn't have to feel deprived. I learned to make different choices, taking tea instead of soda or water if there wasn't anything else available. The months went on, and I found that I very rarely missed soda, and usually only when I was really thirsty was I even tempted to drink it.

I had expected, as most people who told me about giving up soda had reported, weight loss to accompany this. It didn't happen. In fact, my body stubbornly refused to shed pounds or inches. It did, however, cause me to start examining my life to see where I was maybe making choices that were self-defeating in terms of the weight loss I wanted to achieve.

I began to realize that I was adding sugar into everything I drank - sometimes two or three tablespoons worth. And that was adding up to a lot of extra calories that weren't helping me gain control of my weight. So, I stopped doing that. I started drinking things without adding sugar to them. The needle began to budge, just barely, on my weight loss goals.

I entered into the Isabody challenge, dramatically altering my diet and habits. Bigger changes came. A healthier body began to show itself. I began to feel better about myself and to feel better in general. I shed over 25 inches and 18 pounds of undesired body fat. I have also become much more sensitive to sugar and need far less of it in my food to find that it tastes good to me.

Going without soda didn't prove to be the magic bullet I had hoped it would be, but it did many good things for me. It was as if making that one big decision in my life paved the way for me to re-examine my life and make a decision to make other, equally important, changes to the way I was living. I think that's probably the most important thing I've taken away from this journey.

I still have two months to go. My husband's been asking me if I plan to celebrate the end of my year with a soda. I haven't decided yet, but I don't think so. To be honest, I think I want to celebrate the end of my year without soda with a book. A book I can be proud to have written about my journey to a soda-free lifestyle. And maybe with that book, I can encourage other people who may have been thinking about giving up soda but have been hesitant to try it themselves.

No Soda Month 7, Isabody Challenge: Day 5

It was last Wednesday that I received the package in the mail with my new lifestyle kit inside of it. I looked at it with skepticism. This was going to help me to reach 40 feeling better than I did at 20? This was going to help me get healthy? Still, if I'd been bet $25,000 that I could spend 30 days on a mostly liquid diet eating one solid food meal a day, I know I'd have said yes. This system was no crazier than that.

I unpacked the items and carefully reviewed the literature, looking carefully at the labels for ingredients. Nothing crazy. Things like black pepper, cayenne pepper, and natural flavors made up what went inside. This may sound funny considering how often I used to dump things like soda and coffees and other not-so-good for you fast food products into myself, but I have always been careful with the products I choose to take. I don't like to take medicines of any kind, and I don't want anything I can't identify going in there.

The next morning, I began the program with one of the shakes. It tasted like chalk. I wondered if I was really going to make it through 30 days of this. I was also still incredibly hungry, which made me wonder if this was actually going to work for me or not. Then I re-reviewed the literature. I'd skipped a step - I'd forgotten the pre-breakfast drink.

I took a scoop of that and put it in 12 oz of warm water. I could deal with that.  The hunger pangs faded away. Fortunately, I had ordered multiple flavors of the products. After experimenting with the three, I found the combination that works for me: A scoop of Strawberry-Banana and a scoop of Dutch Chocolate. If I really want to kick it up, I add a packet of their orange energy drink powder.

I struggled with my doubts on Thursday and Friday. Was this worth it? Would it work? I found myself tired sooner, sleeping better but way more than I expected Friday and Saturday night. Was this going to be the norm? Me sleeping so much? I didn't know if I could handle that kind of thing.

I woke up on Monday feeling really good and I made it through a cleanse day - No solid food for 24 hours. Important discovery: low blood sugar brings on headaches. Keep to the schedule of every 2 hours. Don't deviate. Be sure to take the snacks. The tea helps.

On Tuesday, today, I woke up feeling better than I had in a while. I won't be taking my measurements again until day 8, so I won't be able to tell you if I've lost anything since I started, but I feel better and that's worth a lot to me. I lead a busy life, and I can't afford all the slow downs that happen when you're tired and feeling down all the time.

I don't know what the results of this will be. I don't know where I'll end up. This is another twist on my journey toward a year without soda, but I will say this: I like where this part of the road is leading me. I've said it before and it's worth repeating: Once you make one change to take back control of your life, it becomes easier to make that next change - no matter what the change happens to be.

4 Days Until 7 Months

Yes, I've managed to make it nearly 7 months without any soda. I don't miss them, and I can be around them without feeling the urge to get one myself.  However, as far as weight loss, I am still not where I would like to be. In this, the no-soda challenge has been a total bust.

Here are my measurements from December 30th:
waist: 39"
gut: 48"
hips: 46"
bust: 43"
neck: 14 1/2"
upper left arm: 15 1/4"
left wrist: 7"
left ankle: 10 1/2"
upper right arm: 15"
right wrist: 7"
right ankle: 10"

Here are my measurements for Today, March 26th
Waist: 40.5"
Gut: 48"
Hips: 45 1/2"
bust: 43 1/2"
upper left arm: 13 1/4"
left wrist: 6 3/4"
Left ankle: 10 1/4"
Upper right arm: 14 1/4"
right wrist: 7"
right ankle: 10 1/4"

I bought a weight scale today and discovered I am 195 lbs. I need to lose about 90 pounds to get to a healthy weight for myself.

So far, I've quit drinking soda, I've given up putting extra sugar in anything, and so I decided to kick it up an extra notch. I am taking the Isabody Challenge. I will keep track of my progress with the challenge on this blog.

It's not just the money, although $25,000 would go a long way toward fulfilling some dreams of mine. It's the fact that I'm tired of being unhealthy. I want to enter my 40's looking and feeling better than I have in my whole life. That's what I'm striving to achieve - to be truly healthy for the first time in my life.

A Tiny Bit of Progress

Just 5 days from 5 months, and I have a little bit of good news to report - at least, good news for me. The needle has budged, there's progress been made. Is it huge? No. Is it where I want to be? No. But it's progress -and progress is what keeps you going.

Yes, I did sit down and pray yesterday. I took my measurements this morning. That's always nerve wracking because I don't know what I'm going to find. I don't know if I'm going to feel encouraged or discouraged.  I did feel very encouraged after taking them.

Here are my measurements from December 30th:
waist: 39"
gut: 48"
hips: 46"
bust: 43"
neck: 14 1/2"
upper left arm: 15 1/4"
left wrist: 7"
left ankle: 10 1/2"
upper right arm: 15"
right wrist: 7"
right ankle: 10"

Here are my measurements from today, January 25th:
waist: 38 1/4"
gut: 45 1/4"
hips: 45"
neck: 14 1/2"
bust: 42 1/2"
upper left arm: 15 1/2"
left wrist: 7"
left ankle: 10 1/2"
upper right arm: 15 1/4"
right wrist: 7"
right ankle: 10"

So, my clothes haven't changed in terms of fit - but what's impressive is that I can see they soon will. The gut has definitely diminished even though it's not yet where I want it to be, and there's even been a little movement around the waist. :)

Adding Prayer into the Diet

Today, I was standing in the kitchen thinking about my life. I was thinking about my battle to lose the excess body weight that marks my past failures to make good choices about what I ate and what I drank and what I did with my body. I was thinking about how discouraging it is to do your best to make changes only to see that they have no impact at all - nothing seems to change in your life.

That in turn got me thinking about my husband, and about his struggles with depression. About how he makes changes and they don't seem to have a positive impact on his life and then he gets discouraged and the temptation to give up on those changes becomes overwhelming even when he knows the changes he makes are for the better. 

I thought about what my advice to him is - to pray over it - and how he resists my suggestions. Then I remembered something I read the other day. It said, in essence, that if the Devil can't make you bad, he'll try to attack your prayer life. He'll try to get you to the point where the very thought of praying is loathsome and you can't stand it. So you won't do it, and you won't grow in holiness like you should be and you'll end up falling away from faith. I've seen that in action in myself. I have to constantly struggle against the temptation to let other things creep into and take over my prayer life.

This led me to a realization. That same feeling of loathing of the things that you should want to eat is characteristic of the person who is overweight.  Either because you can't afford them, or because they take effort to make, or you just don't like the taste of them - you tend to avoid what is good for you and end up eating what isn't. It ends up destroying the body, just as a failure to pray will eventually destroy your faith and lead to a spiritual death in the same sense that not taking care of your body leads to a physical death.

That's when I had an idea. It really shouldn't have been as much a revelation as it was. I mean, I do believe that God wants to be part of every facet of my life - or at least I say I do - but the idea made me aware that I tend to segment parts of my life as belonging to God and not belonging to God. The idea was that maybe I need to recruit God to be my weight loss partner by praying through my dieting. After all, he wants my body healthy just as much as - probably more than - I do. He wants me to see my body as a temple, and he certainly doesn't want that temple being poorly maintained and unfit for worship.

Up until now, I have been trying to do this by myself for the most part. I've been sharing this in blog so that I get a little encouragement from friends and family who follow me on the journey I'm taking, but I don't have any other support systems set up. I can't afford a doctor, so I can't get support from the medical community except what I can find online. But, the good news, is that I can invite God to be part of this diet with me.

He can help me when I become discouraged. He can do what I can't do - undo the damage of past choices - because he lives outside of time. He can help me to see things that I'm doing to sabotage myself in a whole new way, because quite frankly he sees the bigger picture of all of it. He understands, even better than I do, why I do what I do. But in order to help me with it, I have to invite him in. He's a gentleman. He won't come into my struggle uninvited. He won't be Mr. Fix It unless I ask him to be.

So, I'm going to start incorporating prayer into my diet. I'm going to ask for His help and His guidance in taking care of the body that He gave me so that the temple of the Lord is cared for in a manner that is pleasing to Him. I'm going to ask Him to help me fix what I broke, and to show me the way forward. I'm almost 5 months into this no soda challenge. We'll see where the next 5 months take us.

Just 13 Days Away

I am just 13 days away from having passed the five month marker. One of the things that giving up soda has done for me is to give me encouragement to look closer at my life and take control of choices I am making, to see what else I can do to improve my outcome and get my body back under my own control.

A few weeks ago, I started doing planking. At first, my arms would begin trembling right away and I could barely make it to a count of 20. Last time I did it, I was up to a 60 second mark. I've slipped in the past few days and haven't done it every morning, but it's encouraging to see that I can make such large improvements over such a small space of time with daily effort.

Yesterday, I decided to do something I have never done before. I have decided to go on a diet. I will tell you that as a person with very limited financial means it was incredibly discouraging to look at the list of recommended foods and know that this was going to cost me a lot of money to implement, but I did my best.

This morning was my first day of implementing the program. The one thing I have noticed is that while I don't like the hassle of keeping track of calories, it has made me more aware of what I'm doing. It's made me think before adding more sugar to my coffee.

Here's what I had for breakfast:
1 hardboiled egg, large.
1/4 cup yogurt
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup non-fat milk
1 cup coffee

Doesn't sound bad, right? Except that in the coffee, I added a tablespoon of sugar. I normally add two. Then, I sat down to do my calorie counts. I realized that the one tablespoon of sugar was 98% of the recommended daily allowance of sugar! I have been adding two tablespoons to my tea, and I normally drink between 2-3 cups of tea a day. That means I usually end up having about 300 extra calories from sugar added to my diet each day.

There may still be underlying medical issues - but I can control my sugar intake. I can reduce this amount greatly just by controlling what I put in my tea or my coffee each day. I can go without the sugar entirely in my tea and save it for coffee (I really hate the taste of coffee). I can also gradually reduce the amount of sugar I put in my coffee. That way I'm getting my body more in line with where I need to be in terms of calorie intake.

Sometimes one positive change in your life is what you need to make the next positive change and get yourself headed in the right direction. Giving up soda hasn't changed my waist line the way I hoped - but it has changed my thinking, and maybe that's the more important thing.

Month 4, Day 1: Still hanging in there

I gave up on blogging because even though I wasn't drinking soda, I also wasn't losing weight. Nothing was changing. In fact, I actually gained a couple of inches since the last time I blogged. It was massively discouraging to even talk about it.  However, that is the truth about giving up soda: it isn't a panacea that's going to magically fix everything.

That's just as important a finding as anything else. Drinking soda is being blamed for a lot of things, but if after 4 months of going without the pounds haven't magically melted away and I'm still not drinking any, then there must be another culprit at large. Something else that I have to fix to fix the problem.

It's not a lack of exercise on my part. I live in Elko, Nevada. I regularly walk a mile or more a day just in my effort to get to work. This isn't walking on flat, even land. This is walking up 30 and 45 degree angle hills, sometimes with 10-20 pounds worth of groceries. There's plenty of resistence built into my routine, and it's never the same amount or the same weight each day so I can eliminate the notion that it's my body getting used to what I'm doing and plateauing.

Eliminating soda has reduced my sugar tolerance. I used to take 3 tablespoons in everything. I have cut back to 2, so I've eliminated another source of sugar in my diet and there still hasn't been a positive change. In fact, as I said, I've actually put on some inches since the summer time.

Here are my current measurements:
waist: 39"
gut: 48"
hips: 46"
bust: 43"
neck: 14 1/2"
upper left arm: 15 1/4"
left wrist: 7"
left ankle: 10 1/2"
upper right arm: 15"
right wrist: 7"
right ankle: 10"

I do have a thought about what's going on. It would have to be tested and proven first, before I could call it more than just a thought, but here's what I'm thinking may have happened.

I used to be super skinny. 98 pounds worth of skinny, about 12 pounds underweight for someone 5' tall. It didn't matter what I ate, none of it stuck. Getting pregnant with my son changed that. I put on 44 1/2 pounds with him.

This indicates that there was already a problem with my thyroid, which regulates metabolism. It was cranked up into overdrive. The hormones in pregnancy altered that, bringing my thyroid back into line with what it should have been.

I drank a lot of soda back then, at least a super big gulp a day - roughly a 2 liter of soda a day. That's a lot of caffeeine intake. Caffeeine as we all know is a thyroid stimulant, cranking up the metabolism artificially. What most people don't tell you is that when you artificially begin stimulating the thyroid, the body will eventually stop doing it on its own. It doesn't want to waste resources that it could be using elsewhere doing something that you're just going to override anyway.

Add in a second factor - which is that I took a depo provera shot shortly after my son was born - and that massive dose of hormones escalated the situation. Sent it into overdrive. Years of heavy soda drinking and that combined to wear out the thyroid early. It's not functioning like it should be.

About 8 years ago I went to 3 or 4 doctors trying to figure out what was wrong. None of them were listening. All of them told me my hormone levels were "normal", despite the evidence I gave them that it wasn't normal for me. This is the problem with charts and graphs. What's normal for one person isn't always normal for every person. I'm pretty sure the results would be different now. However, I can't afford a doctor to verify this.

I think a long-term study needs to be done on the effects of soda on the thyroid, to see whether it causes the thyroid to burn out early as I'm guessing it does. Here are the symptoms of hypothyroidism in women:

• Weight gain, even though you are not eating more food
• Increased sensitivity to cold
• Constipation
• Muscle weakness
• Joint or muscle pain
• Depression
• Fatigue (feeling very tired)
• Pale dry skin
• A puffy face
• A hoarse voice
• Excessive menstrual bleeding

I have several of the symptoms on the list. 

Day 22-25: Keeping It Up

I spent two days on the road, and yesterday recovering from that. I still haven't had any soda, which is actually somewhat miraculous.  On Saturday, we were up at 4 am to get out of the house by 6 and in the air by 8. Our train wasn't due to depart Salt Lake City until 12:20 am the morning of the 22nd, but by 10 pm we were told it was going to be two hours late and I was already exhausted. I needed energy, and the only drinks available in the vending machine that might have given me the boost I needed was Mountain Dew. My husband even suggested making an exception under the circumstances, but I held firm.

The next day was stressful as we dealt with issues at home that had been neglected in our absence and tried to find solutions. Fortunately I was too busy to be overly tempted by soda. Today, however, I found myself staring with some longing at my husband's soda and the 2 liter bottle they bought while I was sleeping last night.  Still, I resist because honestly it's not worth going backwards in my progress. A year's a long time, but I've done well so far and I want to keep it that way.

That's another life lesson: Victory comes through meeting little challenges every single time with the end in mind, and not giving in to the thought that it's just this once.  Sure, I can start over again if I have to, but the truth is that every time you give in it makes it that much harder the next time you have a battle against temptation.

Day 18: Still good

I really didn't know for sure if I would reach this point or not, but I'm proud to say that I have reached day 18 without any soda at all. Not so much as a sip. It's probably the longest period I've gone without it. I think I've tried doing it a few times during Lent, but I always allowed myself to have it on Sundays since technically you aren't supposed to fast on Sundays.

The feeling is good. Soda has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was growing up, it wasn't allowed to be part of my daily life but it was often enough that we identified ourselves as a "Coke" household because that was the only brand we drank. I grew up and moved out on my own, and began drinking soda as often as I could afford it and as much as I wanted. I was a grown up, after all, and I could make my own choices.

It wasn't that I didn't know that soda wasn't good for me. It's that I knew and figured it wasn't that bad. There are so many things these days that you're told are bad for you, how do you sort through those things which are truly a threat and those things which are not? Part of it, too, was not wanting to believe it was that bad for me. I liked soda. I liked the way it tasted, and I didn't really want to give it up, so I downplayed the things I saw listing how bad it was for you.

I did frequently joke that it was nothing more than carbonated sugar water. I knew it was horrible for my teeth, and yet I clung to the behavior because it was something that I'd been raised doing. I'd tried giving it up for a time before, but always found myself craving it and looking forward to the end of my deprivation. I didn't want to give it up, so the reluctance drew me back to it as soon as there was no more excuse to keep me away from it.

This is yet another lesson learned about quitting something.  It's not enough to know that you need to do it, or that you should do it.  It's something you have to want for yourself. You have to want to quit, want to be free of that addiction, want to give it up.  You also need to be sure that you have someone or something holding you accountable for results. Knowing that someone is keeping track of your progress is plenty of incentive to do what you know you should be doing.

Day 11-12: Moving Forward

Today, I weighed myself. It was rather discouraging, depending on which scale I looked at. The first scale put me at 198 lbs. I want to believe that scale is a liar. It's probably more accurate.  The second scale put me at 160 lbs - still considerably more than what I'd like to be but closer to where I'd like to be than 198 lbs. Still, the fact that I'm at a size 16-18 tells me the first scale is probably more accurate.

It's a reminder to me of how important it is to keep up this soda challenge. I have got to get out from all the weight that I don't need. I have a goal of getting down to 120 lbs. At 5'0", that is a very healthy weight. That means I have 78 pounds to lose, and I won't lose them by drinking sodas every day.  After all, I don't just want to live to see my grandkids - I want to be healthy enough to enjoy them when they are growing up.

Perhaps the weighing in is good for me. It's a little discouraging after feeling so triumphant over my dramatic losses just a few days ago, but it's an important push to continue forward and not allow myself to get complacent. This challenge is about getting control over my life as much as it is about anything else, and this is one area I definitely have allowed to get out of control.

The nice thing is that I've talked to several other people who have read my blog and follow along. My sister-in-law is at 3 years successfully living without soda. My friend, Frank, has gone 9 years. Both my sister-in-law and my friend are living healthier lives, and it did begin with giving up soda.  I know the path ahead won't always be easy, but it is a better path to follow and the results will be worth it.

Day 10: Measuring Day

So, after 10 days, I find a measuring tape and am finally able to record the changes not drinking soda has made.  Some of them I have thought I felt, but wasn't sure. Now I know for certain just how much things have changed. I am a long way from being where I want to be, but I am making more progress in these last 10 days than I feel like I have in the entire year prior - and it feels good.


Measurements           August 30th       September 8th
Left & Right Wrist           7"                            7"
Neck                               15"                         15 1/2"
Bust                                 44"                        43 1/4"
Waist                               40"                        40"
Gut                                  48"                        43 1/2"
Hips                                 46 1/4"                 45 1/2"
Rt ankle                           10 1/2"                  10 1/2"
Lft ankle                          11"                         11"

That is an impressive amount of change for about a week and a half of going without soda. I've lost nearly 5 inches of gut, and 3/4 of an inch in the hip. Yes, I've lost a little bit of the bust, too, but not as much as I might have expected there.  The fact that the size of the neck went up might be due to the fact that I picked up a cold during my travels and its possible I have slightly swollen glands. We'll see how things check out in 10 more days.

I must say that I have heard plenty of people recommend getting off sodas if you are trying to lose weight, but I hardly thought it would have such dramatic results. It's still possible that it isn't the soda but the truth is I've actually decreased somewhat the amount of walking I do each day. I am currently in a place that's like a sauna though, so that might affect the results, too.

Days 8-9: Continuing Forward

I can proudly say that I am on day 9, and I have not really missed soda at all yet. I haven't really felt too tempted by it. I had been told when I was contemplating doing this that I could expect headaches and cravings.  I was expecting both. I got neither, but that may very well be because I have focused a great deal on drinking water regularly.

What I have noticed is that I get thirsty a lot, and need to drink water more often.  I wonder if perhaps the soda drinking I was doing was masking the signals for thirst and making me less aware of the need.  Either way, I'm drinking water far more often than I have been in the past and I think that is probably a really, really good thing for my body.

I'm not sure how long it takes to get the last of the soda out of your system. I have seen people say that it can take about a month or so. I've got, then, 21 days until I find out for sure whether I'll go without withdrawals.  However, I'm willing to wager that I'm probably in the clear in that regard.

Of course, it might be that I have restricted myself to just giving up soda at this point. I'm still drinking some caffeinated beverages such as tea and coffee.  I am simply making sure that the sugars I take in are greatly reduced and, for the most part, contained in fruits or fruit juices. I may someday choose to do a no-sugar for a year challenge (that would be a much tougher one, I think, because sugar is in everything), but not yet. One step at a time.

I think one of the things that people tend to do that causes them to fail when they try to break a life-long habit is try to do too much at once. Focus on one area and one area only and master that change before you make more changes.  At least that's my story for right now. It's subject to change without notice, honestly.

Day 6-7: Staying on the Straight and Narrow

Yesterday I spent enjoying time with my son and then on the road headed back home. No glitches, no hitches, and nothing much to write about this time. I knew my weak points and took pains to avoid falling into the traps. I made sure to choose drinks that wouldn't leave me feeling thirsty and got through the whole day with no trouble.

The same thing today. It's been an entire week since I started the challenge, and I've not experienced any adverse reactions. I haven't actually had any headaches related to the caffeine, and I haven't noticed any particularly strong cravings except for the situations I mentioned earlier.  It's a little early to predict how well things will go, but this leaves me feeling hopeful that going a year without it won't be that difficult.

I don't have a measuring tape handy that will allow me to compare this week's results to last week's. I'm kind of excited to see whether or not there have been any changes on that front. If my hypothesis - that my difficulty losing weight is partially caused by the soda that I have been drinking - I should begin seeing noticeable results soon. It did seem that one of my pairs of pants was somewhat looser than it has been. However, until I find the tape measure I won't be able to say anything definitively.

Day 4: The First Temptations

Yesterday was no big deal. I traveled throughout the day and I didn't encounter a single instance where I had to remind myself that I am not drinking soda.  Today, I was put to the test not once but twice.

The first temptation came this morning when my husband and I went for breakfast at Whataburger. Living in Elko, Nevada you don't have a Whataburger for several thousand miles, so getting a meal from here was a rare treat. I decided to have a vanilla malt and a regular whataburger with fries for breakfast.

My normal habit is to drink my shake and then take sips from my husband's soda in order to get past the thirst the shake causes. I forgot about the thirst and didn't think to order a courtesy water with it.  I found myself tempted several times to reach across and get a small sip of soda, but fought against it.  I'm glad to say I didn't give in at all.

The second time I was really tempted was this evening as we were on our way to Lawton, Oklahoma for Family Day. We stopped off at McDonalds to get a few things straightened out and grabbed a couple of burgers. My husband got a soda, but I didn't want to pay for bottled water so I didn't get anything. I found myself really thirsty and really tempted.

This is when I realized something: Failing to make sure I drink enough water leads me to become tempted to drink soda. I'm fine as long as I'm properly hydrated. That's something I'll have to make a note of for future encounters.

So far, I have resisted all temptations and stayed on track. Only 361 days of the challenge remaining, but I'm feeling good about it and - I noticed - feeling better about myself. I don't know if anything has changed weight wise or health wise, but I know that I feel like I'm better because of this.

Day 3: The Challenge Continues

Last night, after getting home from some errand running, my husband wanted to go get a soda and I went with him. However, I did NOT get myself a soda. I got an iced tea instead. Still a flavored beverage, but less carbonation and less chemicals. I think. At any rate, it's also far less expensive.

This afternoon, as part of getting ready for a trip I'm about to make, I had to walk across town to visit our cell phone carrier. This trip normally would have resulted in me stopping and taking a break at Burger King or McDonalds and picking up something to eat and a soda to drink. Instead, I walked there and straight back home, which probably saved me about $7. I had water when I got home, and again found that having water with my meal leads me to eat less than I normally would.

So far, I'm not finding it much of a challenge to leave soda behind.  Talk to me again in 10 days, or when I'm at a party or out at a fast food restaurant and my attitude might change, but here's to hoping this lasts.

Day 1: The challenge begins

I'm Catholic, and I truly and really despise hormonal birth control pills. I think they are not only horrible for women's bodies, but they are terrible for the environment and the sheer number of women taking them means they are impacting everyone's bodies around them.

I was discussing this with a friend of mine, who pointed out that sodas are having similar effects - including harmful effects on the environment with chemicals that wind up in the water stream and poison other people's bodies, not just my own.  This led me to thinking about the matter, and I realized that it's hypocritical to be concerned about the effects of one while overlooking the effects of the other.

That led me to making a decision that I've thought about making off and on but have, until now, refused to commit to because I figured it would be too much of a challenge for me.  I am going to quit drinking soda for an entire year and chronicle the adventures in this blog.  When I'm tempted to go buy a soda, I'm going to take the money I would have spent on soda and set it aside for charitable causes instead. At the end of the year, when I donate the money, I'm going to figure out just how much money I've really been spending on soda that could have been better spent elsewhere.

I'm also going to chart my measurements at the beginning, as I go along, and at the ending to see how much of an impact soda drinking has on those things. I want to see if there are other behavior changes that happen, too. Does my decreasing the amount of soda lead me to drink more water? Does it impact my moods? I don't know. These are questions I'll have to answer as I go along. I have a sneaking suspicion that it has a direct relationship with my inability to lose much weight despite the fact that I usually walk 1-3 miles a day, sometimes more. Abstinence will make it easy to tell.

I'm making this public because I know it's going to be a tough challenge for me. I'll need to know I have a cheering section.  If you want to join the challenge with me, chime in on the comments section. If there are enough of us doing it, I'll create a Facebook group we can all join. I'll be doing my best to post something here everyday so that you can track my progress and see how well I do. If I succeed in completing the year,

I will be putting together a book from all these blog posts that I hope to share with others to help inspire them to take up this same challenge and shake the soda addiction.

Neck: 15"
Bust: 44"
Waist: 40"
Gut: 48"
Hips: 46 1/4"
Wrists: 7"
Left ankle: 10.5"
Right ankle: 11"