Ceres's Weight Loss Journal

[The Moon of Ceres]

Hello.

I, Ceres, am going to use this journal to keep track of what the heck I'm doing.

This week, Nov. 8, 2009 to Nov. 14, 2009, all I will be doing is drinking more water instead of the sugary drinks I usually drink.

I say more because I'll be drinking 1.5-3 liters everyday.

Every week I'm going to eliminate one of my bad habits.

 

[ol_evil_eye_Riddle_box]

Hello, and welcome. Great idea, cutting out the bad stuff one at a time instead of all at once. It makes it easier. good luck with the weight loss. If u need anything, just ask.

 

[Tandahda]

Welcome! Good luck on your weight loss journey!  

[The Moon of Ceres]

Ahem, this sucks. Even though I drank 2 liters of water everyday, I still drank soda. Soda is awesome, and I get really irritated when I don't drink any of it.

 

[Tandahda]

It's not that soda is awesome my dear, it's that you've probably developed a dependence on the sugar. Have you been able to pay attention to when you drink soda the most often? Or when you *always* drink soda?

A good way to get carbonation without all the sugar would be to mix unsweetened fruit juice with sparkling water. That way your brain feels the fizz on your tongue and goes ahhhh... soooodaaaaaa... and calms down.

It might not work for you. What if you just cut it back to one can a day for now rather than trying to quit cold?  

[The Moon of Ceres]

Apparently they're trying to "cut down" because of my sister's high blood pressure. Which, of course, means going cold turkey on a lot of our favorite things. Like soda, steak, and ice cream.

 

[Tandahda]

Oh, well I'm sorry that cutting back gradually isn't going to cut it. But (and I'm sure you know but I'm mostly saying it because I'm surprised myself) it's very serious... *pets*

There are lots of things you can do to make your life healthier without really sacrificing too much. Frozen yogurt tubes are fantastic if you can find ones that aren't very sugary. Frozen yogurt cups are another one... delicious. : P

The best thing I can tell you is that once you cut things out cold turkey it *does* get better. Eventually you don't actually remember what these things taste like, or even better, you can remember and you don't care. I know.

If your sister's blood pressure is bad enough that you guys need to cut out things out of your entire family's diet, you should ask your mom or dad if they need any good recipes that are low fat without meat/cheese/sugar (you said cutting out steak, but eating less sugar and dairy can drastically improve blood pressure and cholesterol as well). It's really hard to do sometimes and a great recipe will really help, I can give you any tips/recipe ideas you want or you could give my email to the person that does the cooking.

Now! I'm not trying to convert you into a vegetarian or anything like that, it just sounds like you're going through a rough time and things that are easy and tasty but still healthy are important for you guys. I'm going into Dietetics as my major for exactly this reason. If you want *any* help at all I'm here and I'm always happy to give advice.  

[The Moon of Ceres]

Okay. If I drink even more water than I do now, will I stop wanting soda so much?

 

[Tandahda]

Do you love water? If you don't love it, then you probably won't. Tea gives a caffeine boost that will help with the caffeine cravings if you liked dark soda. Drinking more water though is very good for you. (though the whole eight glasses with no coffee or tea counting towards thing is a lie, it's eight glasses total with much of the eight glasses coming from the food you eat. It's still great to drink lots of water but not necessary.)  

[Iconised Ghost]

yeah i was going to say it could be the caffeine in soda that you are craving, so you could try to switch to tea. I find myself drinking soda when i'm bored as well, so that might be something to address. You could always try switching to diet soda at first, and then gradually work that out as well if you want to. I've also found that sometimes a cordial will work for me- i have a lemon/lime concentrate thinger, you know you jsut add water to about 1cm in the bottom of your glass, it adds taste to the water, and its around 10cal or something. Or you can always add real lemon juice if you want lol xD  

[Tandahda]

Fun fact, diet soda, actually worse. The sugar alternatives are so sugary that you actually develop a dependence on sugar even more than with regular soda.  

[Iconised Ghost]

wouldnt that be a dependence on the sugar alternatives?  

[Tandahda]

It's the same thing really, it would be a dependence on sugar alternatives if only sugar alternatives would fill the fix. But the extreme sweetness of the sugar alternatives alters what you think is sweet when you drink them. And so if you want sugar, you'll want more sugar. And we all want sugar fairly frequently because like oil and salt, sugar is something that people want pretty much by default.  

[__penguin__]

I dunno, drinking water is how I stopped drinking soda. I was never really addicted to soda in the first place, though... it was more, I was raised having a soda at every meal, so I just kept doing it. Then one day (probably around the time I joined this guild xd ) I was like, psh, soda isn't that great, I don't need it! And I started drinking more water every day instead. You get to a point where water is the only thing that really quenches your thirst. I still love (fresh squeezed) fruit juice, but the only thing I ever want to drink when I'm thirsty now is water (even though sometimes I used to go "I'm thirsty... ooh, soda!").

I recommend bringing a bottle of water with you to work/school/whatever every morning. If you drink it throughout the day I think it might keep you from wanting soda.  

[The Moon of Ceres]

Woah, this is weird... I drank three liters of water today, but my mouth still feels dry, and my lips are about to chap... what the heck?!