Soda Addiction - Part II

It is now Day 3 without Dr. Pepper. Here are some of the side effects experienced and how I have dealt with them.

Headache:

The headaches are caused by the caffeine withdrawals. When the headaches get really bad, I take a single diet pill. I took Zantrex-3, because that’s what I have around the house. Each capsule has about 160mg of caffeine. I take them like aspirin; if the headache gets bad, then I take the pill. The first day I took about 3 capsules; yesterday I took 2. I’ve seen on other posts were people have taken Excedrin, which has a caffeine in it too. The goal is to take fewer and fewer tablets until the headaches are gone. Just don’t get addicted to diet pills or Excedrin.

Moodiness:

This hasn’t been too bad, but it does seem like it’s easier to push my buttons. My wife tells me that I seem distant. I think I’m staying away from interactions that might cause me to get uptight. I am hiding out a little.

Sleep:

I couldn’t get to sleep the first night. I finally got to bed at 5:00 AM. The 2^nd night I slept fine, but it was REALLY hard to get out of bed. I ended up being 45 minutes late to work. This sleep behavior wouldn’t be too unusual for me anyways, but I think it’s compounded by the caffeine withdrawal.

Hunger:

I’m Hungry all the time. I never gained any weight drinking Dr. Pepper, so that means that my body was burning those 800 calories a day as fuel. I have to replace those calories with something. I bought a box of energy bars to eat when I get hungry. I find that I’m eating a bar midmorning and a few hours after lunch. This seems to help out quite a bit. I’m also eating larger meals when I do eat. My body seems to know that it needs more caloric intake.

Loss of Energy:

I do at least 45 minutes of cardio workout every day. I usually do this in the evening before I go to bed. The workouts are going well, and my distance/rate/times are the same as before. However, my body feels weighted down. Again, I think this is due to the fact that I have much less sugar in my bloodstream. I ate a small meal about 30 minutes before yesterday’s workout. That seemed to help out a lot.

Fuzzy Thinking:

On top of the headaches, it seems like my thinking is a little slower. That may not make much sense, but it seem like I’m just not as quick on my feet as usual. In High School, I used to drink a Mt. Dew right before a test. I was told that this would help my test scores, and in fact it did. Caffeine must do something to put your brain in high gear. I’m not sure that there is anything I can do about this. I know that there are natural supplements that claim to do the same thing. I’ll look around and give something a try.

Soda vs. Pop

I was thinking that my previous post shows that I'm not from Kentucky. I was raised in Northern Arizona saying Soda or Soda Pop. My Grandma came from Oklahoma, where she calls everything Coke. Statistics show that most people in Kentucky would just say Coke too, but I couldn't label the post Coke Addiction, now could I?

Soda Addiction

I decided last week to stop drinking Dr. Pepper. I have not had a Dr. Pepper for 24 hours now. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is a real accomplishment. Last week I had cut down to just 2 or 3 cans a day. Prior to that, I was drinking a 6-pack a day. That has been my normal intake of Dr. Pepper for 6 years now. Here are some numbers to consider on my own soda addiction:

Calories:

1 can = 150 calories

6 cans = 900 calories of soda consumed a day

900 calories X 7 days a week = 6300 calories a week

6300 calories X 52 weeks = 327600 calories

One pound of body weight = 3500 calories. If my metabolism wasn’t so off the charts, then I would have gained 93 lbs. this year by drinking this amount of soda.

If I wanted to drop a few pounds by stopping the soda intake; I could loose 1.8 lbs a week.

Quantity:

1 gallon = 128 oz

1 can = 12 oz

((12oz x 6 cans) x 356 days)/128 oz = 200 gallons of soda a year.

I can’t believe I was drinking 200 gallons a year. I’m no Doctor, but I’m really surprised I have not become diabetic.

Soda manufactures are creating enough soda so that every man woman and child can consume 56 gallons of soda each year. I was way over the average.

Goals:

Before I quit, I had to come up with good reasons to quit. Here are my reasons:

1. I currently have 15% body fat (BFI). My goal is to have 8%. This will be impossible to obtain by continuing my soda intake.
2. I want to improve my image. At work, I’m always carrying a can of Dr. Pepper. I don’t want to be the guy that always has a Dr. Pepper in his hand. I think this image is about as attractive as the chain smoker.
3. I want whiter teeth.
4. I want to be in control of my moods. I really think that the caffeine intake has a negative impact on my general mood.

Well, I just thought that I would share this. I will update this throughout the week.