My dear colleague, Anita, decided to call me out a few weeks ago for my diet soda addiction—in a fairly public place. I would have ignored her, but the fact is, my children have also been giving me a lot of grief for drinking way too much of what I freely admit is an unhealthy beverage. My 11-year-old actually said to me, “I don’t understand how you can eat salads at every meal, never eat a donut and then drink 5 cans of soda at the same time.” Ouch. But he’s right, and Anita’s right, so in the interest of becoming a better parental role model, I (grudgingly) decided to follow the detox plan she recommended.
It wasn’t easy. I went through a huge spectrum of emotions and moods throughout the entire three weeks it took me to free myself of diet soda’s clinging claws. Here are some of the (slightly disturbing) thoughts that ran through my mind:
- Could everyone please stop judging me? Diet soda is not crack.
- I exercise. I eat salad. I faithfully practice portion control.
- So one of my favorite sounds in the world is pop…fizz. Is that wrong?
- I hate everybody today.
- I miss soda.
- I hate water.
- Ouch! There is a stabbing sensation above my eyebrow that would only be solved by a nice cold can of you-know-what…
- I hate everyone today. Did I mention that already?
- Is this “withdrawal”?
- Maybe diet soda IS crack.
- I am going to bed early tonight.
- Oh wow. I slept 8 hours without waking once.
- Water is starting to taste slightly less bad.
- I started to take the supplement Anita recommended and feel a little more energized. A little.
- Today, I found myself craving fresh peaches and steamed broccoli. I eat these foods normally—and enjoy them—but this might be the first time I actually thought to myself, “must.eat.peaches.now.”
- I don’t think I need any diet soda anymore, now that I am down to just 1 a day.
- Oops, bad call. I need one. That stabbing eyebrow pain is back, and I hate people again.
- ….maybe just half a can.
- Diet soda is disgusting. It stains your teeth, makes you burp, and is full of sketchy chemicals.
- Today I took vitamin B, drank one cup of coffee and three cups of my favorite chai spice tea
![Proud of Mom]( "Proud Family")
Jorie had to give up diet cola–she couldn’t stand to disappoint these three little faces. with stevia….and did not drink any soda! And I feel amazing!!
- I also drank nearly 100 oz. of water. If anyone needs me, I’ll either be walking to or from the ladies’ room.
- My son just said to me, “I am SO proud of you, Mom! You did it!” I think I like how that sounded a lot more than I like the sounds pop and fizz.
- Yay me!
