I made it! I made it!

Whew! I cannot believe I made it to the end of my 30 day challenge!! I have been an everyday diet soda drinker for the last 16 yearss and I never thought I would be able to stop. I never even realized that my need for it every day was because it was a habit. I had become so used to drinking diet soda daily that it did, in fact, become habit. Of course, acknowledging that it was a habit also caused me to look at possible reasons it became a habit. Was it because of the caffeine? Or since it was only diet soda I would drink, was it because of the artificial sweeteners?

Now that I am at the end of my 30 day challenge, and having succeeded, I can't help but continue to wonder. I was able to stop cold turkey and not give in, yet it was very, very hard to do. However, I also did experience some withdrawal symptoms. Was it because of the caffeine? I did find myself going from one cup of coffee a day to two cups. Or was it because of the artificial sweeteners? I don't know if I am entirely sure. One of the ways I thought I would be able to tell would be my weight at the beginning and at the end. I thought about this as a way to measure because I know that artificial sweeteners can cause our body to end up thinking it needs more calories so we eat more. I learned this, thanks to our English class essay assignment. So, I weighed myself at the beginning and at the end and while I won't give the exact weight, I can tell you that I did lose 4 pounds. Of course, who knows if it is because I stayed away from artificial sweeteners and limited my sugar intake, or not. I do know that I do feel different, and it is in a good way.

So that brings me to the final question, and that is whether or not I am going to continue to drink diet soda so religiously. I have proved to myself that I can, in fact, survive without it. I am also 30 days "clean" from diet soda. Thanks to my English class, I have found an alternative to my diet soda. I have discovered that I can drink sparkling water and I my favorite is the mid-priced one, which is cheaper than diet soda. Which is all just enough convincing evidence for me to come to the conclusion that while I can't say I will never have a diet soda again, I can say that I will continue to keep my habit "broken" and stay away from it as much as possible. Which I never thought would happen!