Goal Number One

It might be a silly thing to start with, and it might not even be working toward good health as much as I would like to think, but within the next few weeks, I hope I can get off Diet Coke entirely.

So far today, I have drank close to 60 ounces of the stuff. It's only 3:45 pm. I'll go home, cook a healthy, diabetes friendly dinner of meat with vegetables and sugar free applesauce, and then I'll drink another third (at least) of the 2 liter in my fridge. All this caffeine ant artificial sugar I put into my body cannot be good for me.

It started in high school, I'm sure. The year after I graduated, they removed the soda machines from my high school in order to combat obesity. Or something. They replaced them with juice and sports drink machines. I was glad they waited til after I graduated. Every day, I grabbed a can from the fridge on the way to school. I bought a 20 oz bottle with lunch, and another before my after-school activity (unless it was softball, in that case I drank a water on the way and bought a 20 oz on the way home). Sometimes, my after school drink would actually be a 32 to 44 oz fountain drink. I worked at Sonic and would drink the DC constantly while I was at work (we got it free from the fountain if we brought our own cups).

In college it just got worse. I kept my mini-fridge stocked with cans and drank from the fountain every meal, including breakfast (even though my school only provided Pepsi, yech!). I had officially formed a caffeine addiction, which I'm sure started in high school. When I went home for my first Christmas break, I had headaches for three full days before I realized what it was and bought a 24 pack to last the rest of the break.

My first full day working here at GWCNM, I went home with a MMCH. Massive migraine caffeine headache. It was terrible.

I'd love to stop drinking the stuff, switch to Green Tea or something more healthy until I can break the addiction. The reason I'm writing is to find motivation. I would really like to be off the stuff by the time classes resume on the 24th, but with eight solid days of work without a break and a vacation with multiple eating out opportunities ahead of me, I wonder if I can do it?

(And I finish the 20 oz bottle sitting on my desk).