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About 6 months ago, I gave up diet soda. I had overindulged in diet soda for many, many years. I loved the carbonation. I loved the fact that I could drink something that tasted like sugar and it wasn’t fattening. I was addicted to it. I enjoyed drinking a soda as I drove. I enjoyed drinking a soda as I worked. I enjoyed drinking a diet soda as I watched television. But, I knew how bad it was for me. I thought about it every day. Then a couple things happened that finally made me want to change.

First and foremost, my brother came to acknowledge his addiction to alcohol. We had always known it but for some strange reason unless the behavior becomes truly reckless or unless they admit it, I think we all try to fool ourselves that it’s really not to that level where we need to label it the a word – “addiction”. But, a couple really bad reckless events happened in a very short period of time and he also landed in the hospital for the second time in as many months for pancreatitis. He could no longer fool us that the pancreatitis was the result of something other than chronic alcoholism. So, after a tremendous amount of prayer, tears, sadness, encouragement to him and yes – hope; I decided to give up diet soda. I realized that what I would go through would be what he would go through. How could I support him if I didn’t really understand what he was going through? How could I understand the daily trials if I did not bear my own cross? I wasn’t going to celebrate my success but I was going to share my struggles and when I fell off the caffeine wagon. I called him periodically to tell him things like “I was driving in the car today and really wanted a soda. It was not because I was thirsty or craved the taste. It was that my body wanted that motion.”. I would tell him how I understood that not only were our bodies thirsting, but even our muscles were aching for that familiar routine.

Anyway, that was October 22nd, 2008. I didn’t have a soda for a few months. Long story short, I still miss the fizz so periodically I will buy a big 20 and have about 2 sips here and there. The big 20 will last me a week. My family has been really good. They don’t harp on me although they do look at me funny every time I take a sip. I can only imagine how my brother feels.

But, here’s the great thing – my face totally changed. I did not realize how puffy and swelled up it was. But as I looked in the mirror, I could see the swelling disappear around my eyes. I could start to see some definition in the end of my nose. My cheeks began to show my cheekbones again. And, here’s a really good one. I had actually started to get the red porous nose that alcoholics have – and it started to go away. It’s almost gone.
Here is a picture from before giving up soda. here is a picture now. .

Here’s another really interesting thing. I started to have sugar crashes all the time. I had started testing my blood sugar to see if what I was experienced was a true sugar crash and it was. It was always a couple hours after having carb foods with soda. My blood sugar would go down in the 70’s. I think the sweet taste of the soda was actually triggering in my body like real sugar would and it was overworking my pancreas making me more susceptible to pre-diabetes. After I stopped drinking soda – no more sugar crashes – none.

My memory has not been very good for about a year. It’s embarrassing how bad it is sometimes. It got so bad that I would make jokes about it to get myself out of a sticky situation where I was acting like an 80-yr old. I didn’t want to talk about it to my doctor because I was embarrassed. I finally asked him and he suggested Folic Acid. I tried it and it works GREAT. Also, my mood seems more buoyant.

Kick the diet soda, grab the folic acid!