One Week Sans Diet Coke.

I'm fairly certain that before Ross and I were married, Diet Coke was my boyfriend. My one true love.

Anyway, with this move and crazy schedules and my alter-ego "psycho woman" popping up more often than usual, my diet coke habit went from bad, to REALLY bad. I hate to admit it, but the caffeinated divine soda turned into my own personal nicotine. And I used it like one would a cigarette. It was a huge problem.

Mind you, I'm also attempting to train for a marathon. I say attempt because schedules have been crazy and I haven't been able to lace up my shoes as often as I'd like. Not only did my beverage and exercise habits go down the toilet, but my nutrition did, too. I needed serious help.

Thankfully one of my girl friends is a dietician. Or nutritionist. I'm not such which they prefer to be called. And more thankfully she's also my neighbor. We'll call her Shannon since she doesn't know I'm writing this, and she did me a HUgE favor.

I started asking her questions a while ago and she graciously offered to give me a free consult. About a week ago she came over with a ton of forms and information for me specifically. Formulas for me and my goals.

I usually read labels at the grocery store, but I had no idea I was looking for the wrong things in the labels. She spent a good couple hours at my house. She taught me a lot and gave me specific directions on what I need to be eating to achieve my goals. She even went through the food in my house. As embarrassing and humiliating as it was to open my habits up as honestly as possible to a friend, I'm glad I did.

She took the time to run through all of the information and forms, teaching me as much as she could, like she would with any one of her patients. I cant thank her enough for taking all of that time to talk to me and she'll probably know how much she helped me that night. At the end, I made some specific goals with her. Nixing the diet coke was one of them.

With that, it's been one week. Seven days. I got one today to see if I'd still feel the same way about it and if I still NEEDED it. It didn't taste as good as I remembered and I probably won't get another for a while. I was thinking of going until my birthday without any soda, but couldn't think of a reward for myself. It's a lot easier to stick to something that's difficult if you have something to work towards.

This week was HARD. It was full of inconsolable headaches, exhaustion, and unsatisfied cravings. I'm sure being sick didn't help either. I didn't even get a drink for my drive to or from Park City for Black Friday shopping. I was really impressed with myself.

I've decided to go ahead and continue sans diet coke until my birthday, but until I think of a reward, the reward will be myself. I once went a year without chocolate and noticed a change in my body. I'm curious what my body can do with a half of a year without my own personal nicotine. Maybe I can even line up a skinny shopping escapade and count it as my birthday present, too. I don't know what's more motivating than a shopping trip for a new body. Except maybe a pony. We live pretty much across the street from Sonic, and our new house will be 1.2 miles from a Sonic as well. Bring on the Powerade Slushies.