There’s no point in making grandiose announcements on a blogging account and then failing to follow them up so here is an update on my attempts to give up diet coke…
A success. I no longer drink diet Coke in the quantities that I used to (a litre and a half a day, ahem!). I have saved myself considerable money as, like many others addicted to the fizzy stuff, I insisted on the real thing and I liked to drink individual servings rather than buying it in big bottles. It’s “fresher” that way, if you can ever use words such as “fresh” to describe Diet Coke.
[EDITOR’S NOTE – “ER… NO???!!]
I lasted almost four weeks without any diet coke. I stopped having chewing gum at the same time so that I could limit my exposure to any kind of artificial sweetener entirely. After week four, I had one (a 500ml bottle). One a week. That lasted roughly four weeks and then it crept up to two, then three and then one a day.
Which is where I am now – a one-a-day girl. When I used to drink three of these 500ml bottles a day, it used to take a lot of willpower not to drink any more. That same willpower comes into effect with drinking just one a day. So it’s willpower that has had a lot of practice.
And the thing is… I LOVE Diet Coke, I really, really do – and I really enjoy that one a day, more than I enjoyed the three a day.
If you have ever made a study of willpower you will know that the experts tell you it is a finite resource. Not only is it being used to get you to stick to healthy eating, exercising and drinking less, but it’s needed for other issues, such as getting out of bed on a cold morning to go to work instead of ringing in and pretending to be sick – or worse, getting up when you don’t have a boss or sick pay (me), and not being rude to a really annoying colleague or neighbour.
So spending a huge amount of my valuable willpower on giving up diet coke feels like a bit of a waste of that willpower when it really needs to be used for the important things such as sticking to a healthy, low-carb diet to control my blood sugar levels and getting out of bed on a cold morning.
As I said in my last post about Diet Coke, the internet abounds with health horror stories about the stuff which are best taken with a pinch of salt (Himalayan, preferably). There are some things I believe – it’s not good for your teeth – and some things I don’t (the evils of sweeteners). I can live with that.
Cheers!
Diabetes Diet 
Can you substitute your craving with eg black coffee? Fizzy water? What do you think it is that you are craving? Caffeine? Cold fizzy stuff? Sweeteners? I’m a hot black tea junkie myself!
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I hate tea and coffee… (which is probably a good thing?) but yes, I do think it’s a combination of the fizz, sweetness and caffeine. Anyway, there’s always next time!
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Type 1 diabetes is usually called juvenile diabetes because patients identified
as having Diabetes Mellitus Type 1 are children. Patients on this type of diabetes lack insulin within their system which results to increased blood sugar and urine glucose.
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Thanks for visiting our blog and taking the time to comment. Katharine and I have plenty of experience of Type 1 diabetes (I have it myself and Katharine’s son has it) so we are all too familiar with its effects and the need for good blood sugar control. One of the reasons why we wrote The Diabetes Diet was to help other people with type 1 diabetes or who are using insulin and other medications to manage their diabetes achieve great blood sugar control and feel better!
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