Health experiment.

[jadedmusings]

I've cut soda out of my diet entirely. Back when I was taking care of Dad, I started drinking A&W root beer. I mean, I was drinking a lot of soda before then, but after Dad got sick, I was drinking almost nothing but root beer. I'd cut back some, but after a recent attempt to collect soda cans for school, I realized just how much root beer I was drinking, and it scared me. So, as of Sunday, there's no longer any soda in my house. Instead there's filtered water, milk, orange juice, apple juice, chocolate milk (really, only the kiddo drinks it as a treat), and there'll be the occasional pitcher of sweet tea sitting in the refrigerator (hey, I'm Southern, you can have my sweet tea when you pry it from my cold, dead hands).

I'm not going to deny myself the occasional root beer when I find myself on an outing to Aiken or Augusta, though usually when I'm out I treat myself to a pink lemonade if we stop off at a gas station, and when I go out to eat, I drink sweet tea. I do plan to work on cutting down a bit more on the tea consumption too, but I don't always make it at home because I'm lazy. I really ought to up my water drinking; I've never in my entire life drank the recommended amount of water. It sounds weird, but even as a kid, water had a tendency to make me feel a bit nauseous. I've noticed it's gotten better as I've gotten older, but I'm still working on forcing myself to drink water, and buying myself a Brita water pitcher has helped. I can taste a difference, even though I have well water out here that I know tastes fine. Eh, maybe it's a psychological thing?

I'm going to work on making more fresh foods and relying less on the processed stuff. So far, that's been the easiest adjustment to make because I actually love cooking real food (I could do without the dishes though). I only wish I had a better source of produce within a reasonable driving distance. There is a local produce market, but it's not very good. Mom and I usually stop at a little place on the way to Aiken/Augusta, but it's really far out of the way and so not worth the drive if we're not already heading out to Aiken/Augusta. He has the best sweet potatoes, onions, and slicing tomatoes (though I prefer Roma tomatoes for cooking), plus other assorted veggies/fruits that are in season. The red potatoes I get from there make my mouth water just thinking about them.

Enough rambling. We'll see how long I can keep this up, and I hope I'll start to notice a difference in a couple of weeks (once I've been off the root beer for a while). I know it plays hell with my body's chemistry and affects my moods. It's way past time for me to come off it.

And now, I go to bed.

Comments

[roogle.livejournal.com]

Good for you. An occasional root beer should be fine once you get used to not drinking it all the time. Was the one that you were drinking caffeine free?

[jadedissola.livejournal.com]

Actually, the only root beer I've been able to find around here with caffeine in it was Barq's, and I can't stand the taste of Barq's. Mug, A&W, etc. are all caffeine free, and even the specialty root beers made with cane sugar are naturally caffeine free.

I cut out a lot of caffeine in my diet when I was 16 at the reccomendation of a doctor since it seemed to trigger horrible stress headaches and borderline migraines. These days, I'll fix myself some coffee when the mood strikes, and I do get some caffeine from tea. Of course, there's also chocolate, but that's not an everyday thing either.

[lupabitch.livejournal.com]

*nods* I've never, ever liked soda, and that's one of those things that doctors have told me has been one of the best choices in my favor.

[jadedissola.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the one thing I've heard time and time again from everyone. I only had certain types of soda I'd drink, and it's blasphemous for me to say growing up so close to Georgia and all, but I can't stand Coca Cola anymore and haven't drank any since I was a small kid. Really, in the last 15 years or so, I've noticed even Sprite seems to have added more sugar and I'll only drink it if there's nothing else to drink I like, and for me to say that says something.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

When you say sweet tea, do you mean that stuff so sweet the spoon stands up in it without the benefit of leaning against the pitcher?

Because you could have the tea but cut way down on the sugar by making it yourself. Let me know if you want my recipe; it's easy.

[jadedissola.livejournal.com]

You'd probably consider my tea too sweet, yes. Tofu did back when I made it at home, and he's from Maine so it was definitely a cultural deal.

I'll take the recipe, though. I have planned to gradually cut it back bit by bit, but I'll take any other suggestions.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Two tea bags to one and a half litres of boiling water; let steep four minutes. Take the tea bags out and stir in sugar to taste; I use half a cup or thereabouts. Pour the hot tea over one tray's worth of ice in a heat-resistant pitcher. Add a quarter cup or so of lemon juice. Serve over more ice, because it's generally pretty strong when done like this.