Okay, all you naysayers and scoffers!
Apparently, I’ve been a bad BAD person since I was 17… half a century almost! Well, at least to most of my friends, my family and doctors over the years. Since I was old enough to make my own money, I rarely drank anything but soda. NO milk. NO juice. Definitely NO coffee or tea. And water? Ohhh puhhleease!!! I know what fish do in water!!!
To be fair, when I go to someone else’s home for a meal or a visit, I always bring my own drink. Mostly because I thought, as a guest in someone else’s home, saying, “Oh, I only drink…. (whatever soda I liked at the time).” How rude!
I started out drinking Coke. My aunt Evelyn got me started on that when I was very young. The only time we got to taste that wonderful brew was when she came to visit, much to mother’s disapproval. Evelyn let me sneak sips out of her cup like an older kid would’ve slurped beer or alcohol out of glasses at a party. I loved sitting next to Evelyn on tv nights.
Then I decided to become more calorie conscious but could not go to Tab – which was the diet Coke back in “the day” and tasted awful to me. I tried Diet Dr. Pepper… which eventually got me to my beloved Diet Pepsi (DP). (Scoff if you will. It’s my favorite.)
Decaffeinated is awful. Tastes like vaguely flavored water… water! (See above).
My late husband’s late mother used to say she could tell where we were in the world by looking at product sales growth and decline around the map. She wasn’t wrong! When I lived in Australia, I wrote a letter to the Pepsi company complaining about the “skunky” taste of the Diet Pepsi in the area. (I didn’t know about the effect of heat on the artificial sweetener they were using at the time.) Three weeks after I mailed the letter, a Pepsi truck drove up to my front door and dropped ten cases off. I was impressed! And, of course, became an even more diehard fan.
All this time, people have been telling me how unhealthy drinking all that soda was. (By the way, I was going through about a six pack a day without counting fountain drinks if we went out to lunch or dinner.) They said I’d sleep better if I stopped DP … and drank water. Everyone was certain I’d lose weight just by switching water for the DP. They tried to convince me I’d have more energy, concentrate better, thinking more clearly and I’d feel better in general – all if I just stopped drinking my delicious, refreshing beloved DP!
I changed my drinking habits on January 15th of this year. That is, as of today, 16 weeks ago. I did keep my morning DP. But I have stopped drinking soda after 11 AM EVERY day. I went from drinking about 80 to 100 oz. of DP a day to 20 oz. and added 64 to 80 oz. of (Bleck!) water.
Did I lose weight? NO!
Do I sleep better? NO!!
Do I feel better? NO!!!
Is my thinking, energy, concentration better? No appreciable difference. (Warning! TMI!) Also, none of my bodily functions have changed in any way. I probably won’t go back to drinking as much DP as I used to. I love my DP and the lovely liquid apparently loves me. Thanks for being concerned, all you well-meaning folks. But we and my DP aren’t definitely one size fits all – we just don’t fit the normal mold!
And that’s OK with me!