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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 30 April 2007 10:28 pm |
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If you don't know the importance of drinking water, be sure to read tutorial topic Drinking Water Is Important for Weight Loss.
I created Peter's April 2007 Water Challenge to get in the habit of drinking more water. It was such a success, I've decided to continue.
But as successful as it was, I realized that my habit of drinking diet soda all day long was getting in the way. How could I ever have an appetite for water when I was always sipping on something else?
So I've decided that as I continue working on increasing my consumption of water, I need to work on decreasing my consumption of diet soda.
Baby steps really work for me, so I'm going to begin the month continuing with my now daily routine of five glasses of water. That will be the minimum; when I drink more I won't bother noting it.
Only I'm now also going to account for the cans of diet soda I drink, and I'm going to limit them to three a day. Yes, three will be a reduction!
When I feel comfortable with my five glasses of water and three cans of diet soda, I'll switch to six and two.
I must say that as I type this I feel embarrassed that I will be sharing about such a trivial thing as how much water and diet soda I will be drinking in May. There are much bigger problems in the world!
But I'm so tired of fighting with this issue -- having given up diet soda more times than I can count -- that I'm ready to try anything.
Also, I feel blessed to be only worrying about diet soda and water at this stage of my life. You can see what it was once like for me in My Story.
Bottoms up!
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Peter
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morbidlemon
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 30 April 2007 10:53 pm |
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Good luck Peter! Diet Soda isn't all that great... really 
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clarinetgurl
Moderator
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Posted: 30 April 2007 11:26 pm |
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Last edited on 8 May 2007 11:42 pm by clarinetgurl
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 30 April 2007 11:40 pm |
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Whatever helps YOU!
You know, I meant to say something about diet soda.
On one hand, I think it's a bad habit. Look at the ingredients. Need I say more?
And I don't like being hooked on the caffeine. It helps keep me working on this website late at night, but that only means I can't get up early to work the next morning.
And as I've learned, it keeps me from drinking water which is important for both health and weight loss.
On the other hand, it's been a great aid! I can't imagine how many times it provided something sweet to the taste when I might have otherwise turned to junk food with calories.
I guess it's kind of a crutch, but not all bad. It's been my "friend" for so many years. But I think it's time to move on.
Peter
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 5 May 2007 09:27 am |
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The pleasant surprise of limiting my diet soda is that I'm actually thirsty sometimes and it makes it much easier to drink the water!
Most days I'm actually drinking more than the five glasses I'm keeping tabs on.
Peter
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 5 May 2007 05:58 pm |
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I am drinking all of my water from my gym water bottle. That way I can count the water I drink at the gym towards my target. Thus bottle  is 650 or 660ml so as long as I drink 3 of them per day I hit my minimum target of 2 litres. I try to get it over with a few hours before bedtime to ensure it won't bug me while I'm sleeping.
I'm going to the Sauna  a bit more - seems like a great incentive to unscrew the top of the bottle and drink lots of water, when I'm in such a hot environment  .
It has been surprisingly easy to hit my water target so far. On May 15th I have a blood test and I can't wait to see if the extra water has made a difference to those elevated-concentration numbers.
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fsahurie
Senior Member
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Posted: 5 May 2007 07:03 pm |
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I am addicted to Diet Coke, guilty as charged!!! I tried going a couple of days without it, but I couldnt manage the pressure, it was like coke was calling my name to drink it! Oh well, one day I ll leave it and move on as Peter is doing, but for now I need something to reward my weight loss efforts, and Diet Coke is the perfect gimmick!
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 5 May 2007 07:37 pm |
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fsahurie,
Once I quit "cold turkey" and was almost sick from three days of headaches. I gave up after 2-1/2. Now I always stop slowly when I quit. I just always start up again!
Hopefully posting here will help keep it permanent.
Peter
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 7 May 2007 08:21 am |
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I guess you know you're addicted when you can't go to the supermarket without your diet soda in hand. Of course I go there for hours at a time and spent most of a couple days last week in supermarkets.
Still, it kinda hit home when my can fell over and spilled all over my Red Cross cell phone and pager, my voice recorder I use to record nutrition data, and my Excel spreadsheet printouts of data I'd already collected.
It will be nice to give up this habit. Even spilling water would have been better!
Peter
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 7 May 2007 12:15 pm |
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| The image of you drinking your own pepsi in the supermarket reminds me of longer visits to supermarkets which sometimes have me bringing my own tupperware containers full of salad, and small plastic bags containing servings of meat, fish or cooked legumes.
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 12 May 2007 07:45 am |
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Now that I'm not drinking so much diet soda, I actually feel like drinking water with meals. So getting my water for the day is much less a burden.
I'm contemplating lowering my diet soda allowance to two a day next week. We'll see. Three is so much less than I was having before, but my goal is zero so I've got to take the next step sometime.
Peter
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Fatale
New Member
| Joined: | 9 April 2007 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 133 |
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Posted: 14 May 2007 07:39 pm |
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I had to lower my caffein intake when I was pregnant! After I had the baby, I just didn't start with coke and pepsi again. I don't even have coffee in the mornings - maybe once the week.
I drink lots of water, at least 80 oz a day. I used to drink the carbonated, flavored water, but then I heard about carbonation being bad for your teeth and I now only drink plain water. I have milk for breakfast and try to drink milk at night too, but I don't really like milk, so ... I think I challange myself to drink at least two glasses of milk every day! :)
Good luck with your challenge! :)
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 15 May 2007 08:57 pm |
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Last night at 11 pm I knew I had another two or three hours of rushed Red Cross work to do and decided to have another diet soda for the caffeine... and maybe for the company.
No big deal, but I had to report it!
Peter
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 21 May 2007 02:14 am |
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The last two nights I watched movies and really gave some thought to having an extra diet soda. But it only made me think what an obsession it is for me, and that I'm not even making progress with my three a day. Though that's a lot less than I was having before.
So I've decided to cut it down to two starting tomorrow. It would be really hard not to have my evening soda when I sit down to my PC after dinner, so I'll try to have just one during the day and see how it goes.
Peter
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clarinetgurl
Moderator
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Posted: 21 May 2007 04:31 pm |
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Good luck Peter!!
clar
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 25 May 2007 11:30 pm |
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I had headaches a couple mornings this week and it's hard to believe that would be from just cutting back from 3 to 2 diet sodas, but I suppose it's possible. I almost never get them otherwise.
Anyway, it caused me to have thoughts about just giving up and drinking all the soda I wanted. But on second thought, it made me more determined to give up the stupid habit and be free of it.
My second diet soda for today will come in the theater watching Pirates!
Arrg!
Peter
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Sassykat
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 31 May 2007 09:44 pm |
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How are you doing with your goal Peter?
I have been wanting to give up soda also. I have read too many articles stating how bad it is for you. I was tempted to buy some more this weekend, but after reading this, you have inspired me to strengthen my resolve. Tea is suppose to be very healthy, so sometimes I drink iced tea. I do have my doubts about the canned iced tea being as healthy, what do you think?
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 31 May 2007 10:04 pm |
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I'm doing fine with it, thanks. I just updated my counts.
Yesterday I was thinking this was all pretty silly. But then I got to thinking:
1. How many times I've quit quickly before and it didn't last. Maybe this will help.
2. How easily it's been only having two diet sodas a day whereas before I started it was four or more.
But going on and on with two is pointless. I'm tentatively planning on dropping down to one this coming Monday. Then none the Monday after that -- five days before my trip to visit my older daughter and family.
That will be a shocker as I've got my whole family "trained" to keep plenty of Diet Pepsi on hand for me!
Sorry, I don't drink coffee or ice tea and so don't know about that.
Peter
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fsahurie
Senior Member
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Posted: 1 June 2007 11:51 pm |
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Ive decided to quit Diet Coke, I wont risk losing my teeth, bones, chance of developing brain tumors and having my liver destroyd , since today I have not and will never drink Diet Coke again, Ill keep everyone posted on the progress, good luck everyone!
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 2 June 2007 12:04 am |
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That's great!
I did well in May and now I'm thinking about what commitment I'm going to make for June. Still thinking it over...
Peter
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Waterthrush
Senior Member
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Posted: 2 June 2007 03:29 pm |
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I generally do not use the AC at home, even when it's very hot and humid - I don't like the noise, don't like being cut off from the outdoors, and I actually like warmth and humidity (winter is hard for me!)
But, I got a reminder last night that I need to up my water intake during summer. I went to bed feeling rather sick and headachy and nauseous. I think now that I was mildly dehydrated last night. I'm upping my water intake in weather like this to more than 8 glasses a day if I can remember it. Yesterday I had far less than that.
And, I too have been using diet soda as a diet aid. Not ever day, but lately I seem to be having a bottle to get me through the afternoon. I'd like to get rid of doing that, but I may not try until after I've reached my desired weight.
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