Small Change

There are a lot of ways a person can change his or her life. Some changes are momentous, but some changes are small. Even the smallest changes can have a lot of good effects on many parts of life. I recently made a decision that seems almost laughably small, but to me it was as difficult to do as another person might find it to stop taking a drug to which he or she was addicted. I decided to stop drinking soda!

These days, it is so easy to become addicted to soda. We start drinking it when we are young. We get hooked on the caffeine and the sugar rush, and we begin to crave it. For me, it is the first thing I want in the morning, and it is the last thing I want at night. I love the feel of the carbonation on my tongue, and I cannot imagine such foods as pizza or nachos without it. It is so easily obtained, and some brands are so inexpensive.

For a while, I tried drinking diet soda. I managed to do without the sugar, since I still had the carbonation and the caffeine. However, I found that I was craving candy much more since I was not getting it in the half cube of Diet Mountain Dew that I was drinking in a day. Drinking diet soda did not help me to lose weight the way I had hoped it would. It does no good to remove sugar in one form if you are just going to replace it in another way. Besides, once I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I was told that aspartame aggravated the condition. I did not research this. I was only too happy to have an excuse to go back to regular soda. However, I can say that my symptoms seemed to be less severe once I stopped consuming aspartame. That is just my own observation.

Still, I was consuming a ridiculous amount of soda in a day. I would complain about how tired I was as I chugged my wonderful, caffeinated beverage, then I would wonder why I could not get enough sleep at night. Um....duh? "No," I would say, "caffeine does not have that effect on me. I'm tired whether I drink it, or not." Well, no wonder! I was getting less than four hours of sleep per night. Is it any wonder the chronic pain and fatigue of fibromyalgia were driving me insane?

Thankfully, I decided to go on a bit of a health kick. Since soda is loaded with preservatives, as well as carbonation and sugar, I decided I should drink tea. Since I was trying to cut back on sugar, too, I decided to look at various alternative sweeteners. I found a natural sweetener at the health food store called Stevia. I buy the liquid drops, and it tastes better than aspartame and sucralose to me. I do not have to use very much, so this works for my budget. I do have to watch myself to keep from trying to replace the sugar in my diet, but since I have reached an age where I am more concerned about things like diabetes, my will power is getting better.

I have to say that I do not miss soda that much. I do occasionally have one, if I just feel the need. However, I am no longer a slave to it. My tea has a lot less caffeine than soda, and I am getting by without the constant stream of sugar in my system. I have found that when I do have a soda, I no longer enjoy the carbonation, so much. I have fewer problems sleeping, and that has been a big help with my fibromyalgia. I have lost some weight, too. It is amazing to me how such a small thing as removing one item from my daily life and making it an occasional treat can have such a huge effect, but I am sure enjoying the benefits!