Kicking the Habit

You would think with a title like that, I would taking about quitting smoking, but nope, I’m talking about my naughty little caffeine/soda habit.  I didn’t even realize it, but I was kicking back 2 or 3 sodas everyday.  I drank a soda with lunch, a pick me up during the afternoon, and one with dinner.  It was crazy how many sodas I was actually drinking.  It wasn’t until I read that book, and the authors referred to soda as “liquid Satan”, and explained all of the horrible ingredients and awful side effects that I realized how bad it really was.  The label of one of my favorite soda cans (Coke Zero) reads as follows: carbonated water, caramel color, phosphoric acid (used for rust removal), aspartame (causes cancer), potassium benzoate, (prevents mold growth and used as the whistle in fireworks) natural flavors (ummm…care to elaborate?), potassium citrate (has regulated OTC use by the gov), acesulfame potassium (also causes cancer), caffeine, PHENYLKETONURICS: CONTAINS PHENYLALANINE (harmfulto people with a certain genetic disorder and pregnant women).  What in the world is all that crap???!!!  If you can’t pronounce it, maybe you shouldn’t be putting it in your body….  The first couple days of going clean from soda was awful.  I had a horrible horrible headache, and a bad attitude.  I was fussing a people, and honking the horn during traffic jams.  All of the crazy side effects of caffeine withdrawal are what made me really realize how bad of a drug it really is.  My body was so used to taking it in on a daily basis that I actually had psychological and physical withdrawal symptoms.  Thats just way too extreme, my body should be able to function naturally without the need for any extra drug to keep me going.  I can confidently say that I’m glad I made this decision to quit.    There were also a lot of good side effects that I hadn’t anticipated.  My skin is brighter and clearer, my “bad” knee is not giving me much trouble as it normally does, especially when its cold outside.  And I don’t go to the bathroom as much.  That’s probably way too much info, but it’s the truth. I used to the bathroom all the time, and let me you, my bathroom time has been cut in half! I used to think, okay, that’s just me, I pee a lot.  But now, I wonder was it really from drinking all of these sodas?… Overall I’m very happy that I made the decision to kick the soda habit….on another note, I’ve been studying more aggressively for my Group Fitness Instructor test.  In the 1st chapter of my course book it defines physical fitness as “someone who is physically fit, is able to have a better quality of life.”  That little statement really resonated with me, because I think back to when I was so heavy that getting out of the car was a chore, walking down the street was a challenge, even walking up the stairs to my apartment was difficult.  Once I became more physcially fit, and didn’t have all of that extra weight, litterally weighing me down, I did and still do, have a much better quality of life.  Physical Fitness is not optional, it’s something that we need in order to live a full life.