Drinking soda?!

Drinking soda?

After all is being said about soda drinking today, I would like someone here to break the soda habit with me for at least a few days and see if we have any corresponding positive changes in our bodies. I'm ashamed to say that I drink nearly 8 cans of Diet Dr. Pepper each day. I'm wondering if the lack of plain water in my system is making me sluggish. How about it?!

1 day ago
hehe...now y'all see why I wanna get off the diet soda kick!!!

1 day ago
By the way, it's really called "pop" in my part of the country.

Rather than trying to stop drinking the soda all at once, you should try decreasing the amount slowly. Since you drink diet Dr. Pepper, you are very likely to have negative effects from caffeine withdrawal. However, if you drink half as much pop and replace it with green tea for a week you should see some benefits without the withdrawal sysmptoms.

But concentrate on drinking more water.
Even if you still drink just as much pop, drinking more water will help your body to eliminate the toxic substances found in pop (especially diet pop). The lack of plain water can indeed make you feel sluggish. An article about athletes (which I can't find right now) said that better hydration increases athlete's performance by as much as 30%. Plain water is exactly what every organ, indeed every cell, in your body needs. All the other drinks you consume are processed and filtered by your digestive and excretory systems to get plain water.

My husband successfully decreased his consumption of caffeinated pop from about 4-5 a day, more on weekends, to water and flavored green teas most of the day and pop only once or twice on weekends (usually noncaffeinated). He has more energy, takes fewer naps and gets up easier, and seems to get sick less often. (I don't think we would have seen those effects in a week, though.)

By the way, one simple way to tell if your body has enough water is to look at the color of your pee. Dark yellow means you are dehydrated and your kidneys are working harder to filter water out of the sludge. Light yellow or clear means you are getting enough water which allows your body to easily eliminate toxins.

One last idea is that whenever you are thirsty, make yourself drink a glass of water first, and then allow yourself to have whatever drink you really want. That has worked well for me and for my kids. They like the fact that I am more willing to buy good pop (like Jones Soda) because we don't go through it as fast.
(Incidentally, this approach also worked for me on other dietary things. When I want chips or candy, I make myself eat a small serving of a fruit or veggie first, then have whatever I was wanting - if I still want it.)
Good luck.
.