The other night I had two people I’ve known my entire life, both men, casually mention my bad habits.
1. Drinking soda all day and 2. staying up too late at night – not getting enough sleep.
They brought them up in the context of me not being able to lose weight. Had I been talking to them about needing/wanting to lose weight? No. Did it come up randomly and take me by surprise? Uh, yes. Did it hurt a bit? Yes. But I know it was said out of love and luckily I can look at it from that perspective. They care for me and want to see me healthier.
So I am in the middle of day two without one sip of soda.
And doing pretty well.
I’m drinking lots of water and iced tea (plain, no sugar added) and getting by ok so far. Excedrin and Advil are helping too. And prayer for a good attitude in the midst of my cravings and strength to keep with it.
But talking to my mom yesterday she helped me hit the nail on the head about WHY I drink soda. Because it’s not all about the caffeine.
It’s my treat. And my treat has become a huge part of my routine each day.
Get up, get the kids dressed, make breakfast, pack lunches, do the school run and REWARD I get a soda. Get through the day, work, be mom, do chores, whatever, pick up Bailey at 3pm and REWARD I get a soda. Make dinner, do baths, read books, clean up, laundry, tuck kids in (all by myself each night since October since C coaches) and REWARD I usually get one last soda.
It was my perk. The thing I used to get through the tough parts of my day. The treat I could look forward to in the midst of the hard or stressful or mundane.
I don’t drink alcohol ever. And I know a lot of people that look forward to that glass of wine at the end of a long day. Or we have friends that are super social and they can get through the week knowing they have fun plans on Friday night. Or people that can get though a few hard weeks because they get to get away for the weekend at the end of the month. EVERYONE has to have something to look forward to I would imagine.
And the one thing I always look forward to is stopping at my favorite gas station to get my soda.
But to have so many people point out the obvious to me was alarming. And then, Bailey came home the other day with a little book she wrote called “My Mommy.” And that was the straw that broke the camels back.
My Mommy has curly hair. My Mommy is nice.
(notice that she colors herself with two different colored eyes. That is the coolest thing in the entire world.)
My Mommy takes walks with me. My Mommy has black hair. (when she read this to me she paused, looked at me and said, “I guess it’s more brown than black but I wanted to use the pen.” HA!)
And then here is the kicker…
My Mommy loves me. My Mommy says maybe because I want a soda.
Ok.
Do you see the picture on the left? That’s Chris and I holding our fountain sodas and there’s Imo’s pizza on the table. On the right it’s another Imo’s pizza and she’s asking for soda b/c sometimes on our movie nights we’ll let the kids drink root beer.
The fact that my sodas are such a huge part of my life that she drew one in my hand made me really sad. Kids don’t do as we say not as I do. They listen to what we say and watch very closely to see what we do. I don’t let the kids drink much juice anymore, I took away all the junk from the pantry, they aren’t allowed much candy, etc. And then what do I DO? Drink crap all day long. So of course they SEE me doing this and it effects them.
It just happened that this was the night those two men lectured me about my health. Double whammy.
So, once again, I’m quitting. But this time feels different. This time I WANT to do this for myself. I want to see if I actually feel better off soda. I’m not off caffeine b/c of the tea but I am off all that sugar and calories. And junk.
It just sucks that I haven’t figured out another treat for myself yet!
This one cracks me up! Parker was so tired before the evening even started she was dazed, Bailey was NERVOUS about her program and Gray was just being a total stinker but making me laugh!
