In high school I joined a group called Teen Action Trainers, and this group would plan lessons and then travel to the elementary schools in our district to talk to kids about the dangers of smoking and drug use. This is by far one of my proudest achievements from high school. Not only did I get to skip school for a day and travel to the different elementary schools and get free pizza for lunch, but I was able to help influence children about a very serious issue, and it was an issue that I was very passionate about.
All throughout my childhood, high school included, I never could quite understand why someone one would choose to smoke when they knew the dangers and downsides of smoking. And now-a-days especially with a pack of cigarettes costing close to $10! In my eyes, people who chose to smoke, were basically paying (with their hard earned money) to make themselves sick and to end their life sooner than intended!
But... I kind of get it now (kind of being the operative word). Not only is it a habit that you don't even have to think about, it becomes part of who you are. In your group of family and friends you are known to them as several things such a friend, a family member, a worker for XYZ company, a liker of XYZ music, and a smoker. A lot of people do not like change, and continuing to smoke is something that you can control, and in attempts to avoid change, you keep smoking. And of course there is the undeniable addiction that your body has to cigarettes. Like I said, it is a habit, and without it your body freaks out.
Believe it or not, the main point of this post is actually not about my stance on smoking, but instead about my relationship with diet coke.
Let me explain...
For anyone who doesn't know: I am addicted to diet coke, well mostly addicted. If it is not around, I can usually get by without feeling the need to rush out to buy some, but if I happened to have a bought a 12-pack while it was on sale, it will be gone within a week (if not sooner). And 98% of the time when I go out to eat with friends, or just stop someplace quick for lunch, or even do a quick run to the grocery store, I will spend the extra $2 for a beverage with my meal, or a 20 oz bottle of diet coke to go.
I am a daughter, I am a baker, I am a runner, I am a kayker, I am a biomedical engineering graduate, I am a best friend, and I am a diet coke drinker.
I sort of, kind of knew that soda was bad for you and it that it led to things such as obesity and diabetes, and that diet soda containing aspartame had all sorts of negative side effects including leading to diseases with loss of muscle control. But that kind of stuff wouldn't happen to me of course! Well luckily none of that stuff has happened to me yet, but it isn't going to happen either, at least not from soda because I am officially quitting soda. As of Saturday October 12th, I Christa Staudy will no longer drink soda.
I had been toying with the idea of quitting for a while, but I never really followed through with it. On Friday night however, I went to see the movie Gravity (which is an amazing film, I HIGHLY recommend seeing it in theaters) and ordered a medium diet coke, which in reality was like a 32 oz cup or something ridiculous like that. I, being the diet coke lover that I am, drank the entire vessel of diet coke. After I was home from the movie, I wanted to go bed right away because I had to be up early on Saturday to go to the Pumpkin Farm with family and friends. It was about 11:15 by the time I crawled into bed after my nightly rituals, and was ready to fall asleep so that I could awake well rested for the next day's adventures.
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I didn't fall asleep until 3:30/4:00 in the morning...
After I got home from the Pumpkin Farm on Saturday, I had a cRaZy night and stayed in and watched the documentary Hungry For Change. I highly recommend watching this film. I thought parts of this documentary were slightly repetitive, but overall it is a good documentary with a GREAT message and it is available on Netflix. Watching this documentary only solidified my choice to no longer drink soda. Being healthy is always something I have been interested in, and am always searching for ways in which I can obtain better health. I love staying active by running, biking, yoga, P90x, or anything that gets me up and moving. I also love finding healthy recipes and expanding my cooking skills. Despite these efforts, controlling my health so often seems so far out of my control. But I can control it, and I am starting with controlling the soda that will no longer enter my body, because every effort counts.