Soda, or the lack thereof

Soda — the precious elixir of life?

Back at the end of May, I decided to give up soda. I don’t remember the exact day, but I flagged a calendar app as the last soda I consumed as being on 31 May 2017.

Today makes 133 days since that date.

The interesting thing is I still get twinges every now and again. For instance, I went into an A&W over the weekend and the last time I had been in there, I had several glasses of Rootbeer (because that stuff tastes good). That led me to crave some Cream Soda, which I only like every few years, but I wanted it at that moment. And knowing that I could not have the Cream Soda made me want some Squirt.

I resisted all of it and drank water.

How am I so strong?

Recently, someone asked me how I managed to give it up. How have I been able to hold strong on this goal? It’s been more than a third of a year now, so what is my secret?

My answer is: I am not entirely sure. I’ve not kept up with my exercising as I wanted to. I’ve not managed to sketch and draw as regularly as I should. I’ve not written as many blog posts as I need. Yet, I have avoided the soda.

I don’t even remember the exact moment I decided to stop drinking soda. The triggering event is now foggy in my memory. I do know I was drinking way too much of it as a way to relieve stress and I knew that could not continue. As a result, something clicked in my brain and I just decided to stop.

I’ve been able to resist when there is soda in the house and even when I have gone out to eat. The going out to eat is the harder prospect because the staple of restaurants is soda and one gets used to having a certain beverage with a certain food. I’ve managed to keep to water and juices (yeah, just as bad as soda, but let me kill one vice at a time).

One thing that has helped a lot is a phone app called Countdown. Once enough days passed in the app, I wanted to avoid resetting my record more strongly than I wanted to have a soda. Now if I were to drink soda, I would have to wipe out a third of a year and that would hurt. The good thing is that every day that goes by makes staying on the wagon easier and easier.

I will say soda (or mostly sugar) is truly addictive. I don’t think I will ever get to the point that I don’t sometimes crave it, but I know I don’t need it and hopefully that will always be enough.

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