My Food Revolution: Soda Be Gone?

"I gave up soda." - Me
"Yeah, I heard you gave up on life too." - Coworker
"You mean my natural foods movement?" - Me
"Yeah, giving up everything that is good in life is basically giving up on life." - Coworker

I love soda, more specifically I love a good Mountain Dew or Coca Cola after a long hard day of work. A Coke goes perfectly with pizza, and a Mountain Dew tastes great with a burger. What I don't love about soda is this: high fructose corn syrup. And I've tried Mountain Dew throwback, I wasn't a fan, too sugary. Now Coca Cola with sugar in the glass bottle, I'm a sucker for every single time. My sister has always told my mother and me that we shouldn't drink our calories. When you think of all the other wonderful tasty foods you could have instead of soda her advice is sound. When you think of how much sugar is in one can, it can make you sick to your stomach. So what can we do? Should we eliminate soda entirely from our diets? Is that realistic?

I've done a lot of thinking about this, I finished my last Mountain Dew on Friday, April 15, 2011. I told myself two weeks free from soda would do me some good, and I truly believe removing soda from my diet would do some good. First, I usually get soda with fast food, and since I pledged on April 16, 2011 to remove fast food from my diet, removing something that I get with fast food could only help me. I didn't want to taste a soda and think, man I wish I was having (fill in the blank) right now. So I came to an agreement with myself. I will limit soda from my diet. First, when I drink soda I usually don't drink the necessary water for that day. Second, it costs money that I could be using on better food: farmers market produce and free range, grass fed meat. The money I would be saving by removing this from my diet could be used towards picking higher quality products up.

Now everyone knows that when you have a goal, it's easier to stick by if you have rewards. When I am just getting into a new work out regime, I bribe myself. Stick with it for two months and you get a pedicure. Why can't the same be true for a new eating lifestyle? I don't think soda is the end of the world, but I do think limiting soda is important. So instead of completely banning I have decided that one soda every two weeks will be my reward for eating healthy. And more specifically, Coca Cola from the glass bottle with real sugar. Why? Not only does it taste better, but something about drinking it from an ice cold glass bottle makes me savor it more. This way I can still enjoy a treat, which is what soda should be viewed as, a treat to have intermittently instead of a part of our every day diet. If you don't know, you can purchase Coca Cola in the glass bottle with real sugar from Costco.