Personal Activism

Update Week 4: It’s getting harder now!

by Lisa Hallman

It may seem weird to some that drinking only 3 cans a day is harder. But for me it is. I’m through the 3 usually before 3pm and that means the rest of the day I have to drink something else. It’s not so hard if I use something else sugar like lemonade, but I think that does defeat the purpose. I really love Bolthouse’s Mango Lemonade, it’s such a beautiful thirst quenching flavour. I am still having a hard time drinking water, I think it’s gross, but I know I’m doing this for my health. Does drinking water get easier? Please tell me it does.

I am putting bottled water in the fridge even though I despise it – but it makes it convenient and then at least I’ll be drinking the water. Last week, on Friday night I ended up drinking 5 cans of pop because I was at a friends house. I didn’t want to chance that they have water I didn’t like. But that was the only day I went over my quota. But I have to say, I didn’t feel too bad about it because I knew that I would get right back and drink the 3 cans the next day. I was looking into installing a RO (reverse osmosis) system in my kitchen only to be told you can’t do it in an apartment. Which is really frustrating because I hate all the other impurities that come in water that a Brita filter does not filter out. I am glad that the water in Kitchener is flouride free because I am totally against flouride in our water.

After I get to week 10 I will probably allow myself to drink things like the Bolthouse Mango Lemonade because at this point staying off pop is the hardest part, then hopefully I’ll learn to love the taste of water as I go along. I have tried putting lemon juice in my water and I found it gross. I have absolutely no apprehension to ice water, but my fridge doesn’t seem to get it that cold unless I put it in a glass container. I feel full of excuses right now why I can’t do this, but I am doing it.

See you next update!

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Update Week 2: Kicking the Pop Habit

by Lisa Hallman

in Weight Loss

As much as I think I crave pop, sometimes I really hate it. I forced myself to drink the required 4 cans sometimes, to teach myself to hate it. I remember drinking it in the morning and crashing heavily, because I had no caffeine. I sleep and sleep, I even tried to counter it with a multivitamin. But it only works so well. The more I drank it, the more I’d feel wonky headed or nauseated. My body is really sensitive to the sugar now. I have to drink water now, just to not feel dehydrated. I didn’t realize that in fact I have been feeling bad because my body was lacking water, and pop is just complete and utter shit for the body.

I have to drink water now, not to feel wonky headed as well. Just to stop myself from being dizzy from drinking too much pop. I often drink pop on an empty stomach, I’m not that tempted to eat first thing in the morning. But there was nothing like a good Pepsi in the morning. The caffeinated variety was always my go to, without the caffeine I’d crash. Much as I am now. I do notice though if you drink a glass of water first thing, it is very good at waking you up. It’s been hard struggling at work to get through when I’m really tired without caffeine. But with my medication the caffeine would make my hyper-anxious and that wasn’t good. Pretty much to the point of hyperventilation, so getting off the caffeine was a no-brainer.

I though I did 2 weeks of 4 cans already then I checked back and realized I had one more week of 4 cans a day. I was ready to go down to three because of how bad I was making myself feel, so I have one more week of this crap and then I can go down to three. For several years I drank Diet Pepsi, and somehow, I got tempted back into regular. I tried to get back on to diet and I just couldn’t I found it made me feel worse, and I just couldn’t stand the taste anymore. The aftertaste of aspartame is raunchy. I am glad that I’m taking this step though, beyond just going down to diet as aspartame is bad for you too. There is so much information out there about it being bad, that I don’t think it’s wrong. Much of the information makes sense and I tend to go with what makes sense to me. My mother would rather I drank regular pop then diet. I am still up in the air as to which is worse overall.

See you next update.

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10 Weeks to Kicking the Pop Habit

by Lisa Hallman

in Weight Loss

It has weighed heavily on my mind now for the past two weeks and honestly I think it’s been a lot longer then that. The sad truth is I have a fair amount of weight to lose, I am hovering around 200lbs. That’s a size 14-16 for those who want to know.

Nope, I’m not the kind of girl that will hide my weight. Can’t say I’m proud of how much I weigh, most people think I weigh around 160. So I guess I’m doing something right. I do think I may have more muscles then most women, and probably tend to be more on the athletic side at least in terms of stature, so I’d never be super skinny and that’s fine with me. I don’t think super skinny would be my style, I love my curves and flaunt them when it’s appropriate.

But back to making the decision. I kept thinking extreme like, going Vegan. But truth is, that’s way too much too soon. Even if I went vegan, I don’t think I’d lose any weight the way things are currently. That’s because I drink 4 plus cans of pop a day, of the Pepsi variety. That’s 600 calories at least, when I drink 4 cans a day. This is empty calories. Totally useless to my body, and I’m sure the addiction I have to this is similar to those with a nicotine addiction (smoking), because the thought of not having my pop as a crutch when I’m stressed – makes me stressed. I recently broke my addiction to caffeine and replaced it with a multivitamin, so that I don’t fall asleep midday.

I am currently drinking Caffeine-Free Pepsi so I have been caffeine free for 3 days now. I’ve had my caffeine headache already and took an Aleve for it, thank God a medicine exists that will actually stop these headaches. No other medication has ever done it. So if your planning on going off caffeine, taper then quit. Then take an Aleve. I am not an advocate of pain medication in any way, but sometimes you need to tango with the devil. I do find as well that if you drink a good cold glass of water it will help with the withdrawal headache.

I realized that drinking pop, was my worst addiction. I was practically raised on pop, and I can remember back when I was a child on road trips with other families that I’d be the only one allowed to have a pop, and sometimes other parents wouldn’t let me and I’d throw a huge tantrum. I was addicted and am still. As far as I can remember that went back to when I was at least about 5 years of age. I don’t blame my mother as that was how she’s raised and still drinking Coke to this day. It’s something I know she really wants to quit as well.

My tapering schedule is as follows:

Week 1: 4 cans a day
Week 2: 4 cans a day
Week 3: 3 cans a day
Week 4: 3 cans a day (I’m on this week)
Week 5: 2 cans a day
Week 6: 2 cans a day
Week 7: 2 cans a day
Week 8: 1 can a day
Week 9: 1 can a day
Week 10: Completion (0 cans a day)

It doesn’t seem as scary to me to do it this way. So at least I can see where I’m supposed to be in 10 weeks. That’s 10 weeks to getting off my pop addiction. I’m excited, I think I can do it this time for good. No, I’m not going to replace it with another caloric beverage. I’m going to spend time learning to like ice cold water.

If you still are addicted to caffeine, you can simply use the above timetable to limit yourself to caffeinated drinks, and then the rest un-caffeinated. It is essentially how I weaned myself off caffeine. Then continue the next 10 weeks to wean yourself off pop completely.

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Apply yourself

Update Week 4: It’s getting harder now!

Update Week 2: Kicking the Pop Habit

10 Weeks to Kicking the Pop Habit

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