Pop goes the soda!

I am soooooooooo proud of the wife....she gave up diet pop three months ago and has stuck to it. This is quite the momentous feat, considering she has been drinking diet pop her whole life. I never thought I'd live to see the day she would cease consumption of her beloved Golden Arches Diet Coke. She loved that stuff almost much as....... her car. (You didn't think I was going to say me, did you??) In fact, she insisted it must have cocaine in it because it was sooooo good and sooooo addictive.

I've been bitching about diet pop for years on end. I stopped drinking pop (or, do you say soda?) in 1997 and have never looked back. I had been seeing this holistic health lady and she said the diet pop had to go (that, and the mercury fillings in my teeth). I thought she was nuts, but I did it anyway. I owe that lady a huge thanks because those simple changes were quite helpful in the health department. (Bonus points for my teeth look better because there is no silver poison shining through my pearly whites.)

The wife had been feeling constantly achy and ridiculously lethargic with nary a reason to be found. Insult to injury, she was unable to lose the weight of which she had slowly gained over the past few years.

I'd like to say I was her motivation but I had nothing to do with it. The scale was the ultimate motivation. One day I heard a terrifying scream from the basement, home of the scale.

That was the end of diet pop.

So, she went cold turkey. She "enjoyed" a day or two of what I considered horrific and understandable withdrawal symptoms and didn't get off the couch for a day or two. She had a massive headache and was not in the cheeriest of moods. Still, she hung in there. Caffeine be damned, she gutted it out. She kept her eye on the prize: remaining diet pop free. The specific prize the eye was on? One bazillion less chemicals filling the wife's very being, with a side of being less achy and lethargic. Losing weight would be a delicious bonus.

Guess what? The wife is no longer achy, feels more energetic, is not as hungry as she used to be and......she's lost almost ten pounds.

What a woman!!! I ooze with pride and gasp in wonder. Seriously, this is big stuff in the Addiverse. It's like me giving up chocolate.

Now that she has gone three months, I felt it safe to interview her on her successes.
Here's the official transcript of my interview with the diet-pop-free grrrrrl:

Me: Do you say pop or soda?

The Wife: "I guess I say pop now."

Me: Huh?

The Wife: "I used to say soda until I moved here." (Insert scoff at the flaterlander way of saying soda.)

Me: When did you start drinking diet pop?

The Wife: "I've basically drunk it my whole life."

Me: Why? (Barbara Walters has nothing on my interviewing prowess.)

The Wife: "Calories."

Me: What did you like about diet pop?

The Wife: "I liked how it tasted and how it made feel--the caffeine. It was a pick me up."

Me: What was it about McD's Diet Coke that was so special?

The Wife: "It was clean and crisp tasting." (Seriously. She said that.)

Me: What motivated you to quit diet pop?

The Wife: "Stepping on the Scale."

Me: But, it's diet pop. How did that tie to the scale?

The Wife: "Because I knew I had to do something more healthy. And, I've heard people said they'd lost weight after giving up diet pop."


 Me: What else have you changed?

The Wife: "I'm taking my lunch to work instead of going out so much. I'm not eating after dinner."
 
Note to readers: she's never been a big after-dinner eater. I've always been impressed by that. I need a snack. Or, two.)

Me: Do you miss it? Diet pop, that is.

The Wife: [emphatically and without any hesitation] "No." 

Me: Do you feel differently now?

The Wife: I'm not achy anymore. I'm not as hungry anymore. I overall feel better."

Me: What are you drinking instead?

The wife: "Carbonated waters and juices. Water. I dilute the juices with water."

Me: What's next on the agenda?

The Wife: "Move more."

Me: I hope you mean exercise more and not move to the land of soda.

The Wife: "Going for a walk."

I like it. No need for unnecessary pressure of a formal game plan. Take it as it comes. One walk at a time, Sweet Jesus.

There may or may not be correlation between giving up diet pop and losing weight; the jury is still out on that in the scientific world. I've seen it enough times with my own eyes to vote that there is weight loss when stopping diet pop. Eating brown bag lunches certainly added to the wife's success but I believe the diet pop was the catalyst to her journey of wellness and weight loss.

Lest there be any sad, bad feelings in the Addiverse, please know that I judge no one for their love and consumption of diet pop. Most of our friends love diet pop and that's all good with me. Heck, I drank diet pop from 1970-1997, so I have no room to judge anyone. (Tab. I drank Tab. What a delightfully awful product that was! And, what a great pink can.) I'm just glad the wife is no longer drinking it. She is an inspiration.

If she goes back hitting the soda bottle, so be it.... but, my money says she won't. She's an incredibly dedicated person when it comes to making a change. She says something, she does it. The wife puts her money where her mouth is. Mess with her, if you dare....but,

....I wouldn't mess with her. She's energetic and lighter. My money is fully on her.
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