Diet-Coke-Free Month Results & Other Food Paranoia

When I decided to give up Diet Coke (and all soda) for a month, it was an experiment. Here are the results.

Do I feel amazing/more healthy/purer/etc?

Ehh. Not really in a dramatic sense, but I know it's been good for me to drink so much water and get some of those sketchy chemicals out of my system.

How did my body react to the dramatic loss of caffeine?

I had a few headaches for the first couple days, but I was expecting that. I was not expecting how exhausted I would be for the first week. I guess I thought my body was just kind of immune to the caffeine, but apparently not. After a week though, I leveled back out. (Of course, it's summer and I'm not working, so my sleep and activity schedule have been a lot more flexible than it will be during the school year.)

Did I save money?

Yes, for sure. I wish I had kept track, but I know I've saved a dollar or two each time I've eaten out and just ordered water and I haven't had to lug home any 12 packs from the grocery store either.

Did I drink more water and stay more hydrated?

Definitely. Besides half a cup of lemonade and the occasional (how should I say?) fermented or brewed drink, it's been just glass after glass of water. I don't know if it's just because it's so hot too, but I crave it more too. It's not unusual now for me to fill a glass and then drink it right there at the sink or Brita filter so I can refill it before I walk away.

Did I lose weight/bloat less?

Nope. I thought I ate more when I drink Diet Coke, but apparently that's not really the case.

Did I miss it?

Yep- almost every day. Isn't that sad? There are just some foods that are better with a soda.

Am I running back into the arms of Diet Coke now?

Possibly? I know a lot of people kinda lose a taste for it after not having it for a while, so when I try (probably later today...) I'll see. I do want to limit myself to one a day or less and I think that won't be a problem now that I'm weaned.

The issue is that the more research I do, the more paranoid I get about Diet Coke, oh, and pretty much everything else. (Start googling "BPA" and you'll be terrified of half the stuff in your kitchen, not just the food- but the packaging, your tupperware, the whole nine yards.) It seems like you have two choices- go all natural/organic/whole foods and stop trusting anything in the mainstream food culture, or throw up your hands and say, "Oh well, you can't get away from it, it'll be alright." Right now, I find myself straddling these two ideas and since I live 161 miles from the nearest Whole Foods, I think I'm going to just have to stay somewhere in the middle. At least we have a farmers market!

What about y'all? How food-paranoid are you? Do you lay awake at night wondering if the FDA is a big conspiracy? Or do you just keep rolling and not stress about it?