How I kicked the Soda Habit

Hey everyone. It's FRIDAY! This weekend hopes to be a relatively relaxing one as I see no plans in it! Yes....for attempting to sleep in.....well see, relaxing and writing thank you cards from our birthday party. Yes I know I need to write the post still, but I just got the photos and they need a little work before they are blog worthy!

So anyways, you guys it's been two months since the hubby and I stopped drinking soda. We haven't bought a 12-pack in over 10 weeks either. This is a huge accomplishment to both of us if you knew how much we were drinking.I am not saying that we haven't had any, for example on Wednesday the hubby met me for lunch and we went and had wings. Now you can't have water with wings, neither of us like iced tea, and you can't really have a cocktail in the middle of the work day without a little raised eyebrow....so we each ordered a diet soda. It was gross.

Here's how we did it:

1. Remove temptation. We made sure that there was absolutely no temptation around us. Don't buy, don't have it in the house.
2. Have an acceptable alternative. We have had Sparklett's water delivery for years, but this time we upgraded our service to get (3) 5-gallon bottles a month instead of one. Also with our Costco membership we are actually saving money, because they offer a discount to Costco members. 1 bottle plus cooler rental before $25. 3 bottles and a free cooler rental $18. Not a ton of savings, but were getting so much more water. Also, since water can be boring we decided to buy some water enhancers...like Mio. We tried to find something that didn't have aspartame (the major reason to cut out soda) but these still have artificial sweeteners in them. Next step cut out those! Also I like to mix it up and use different flavors like the Market Pantry brand (Target), Crystal Light liquid (the powder has aspartame in it) and Essential brands.

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3. Have breakfast with protein. The problem I was having was my breakfast didn't have enough protein to wake me up, thus needing the caffeine to jolt me out of bed. Oatmeal and fruit are great, but I needed that extra oomph in the morning to get me up. When my sister-in-law introduced us to these protein shakes, we knew we found something that could work for us. They give us loads of energy and the added low glycemic index helps keep your blood sugar level, which is great for my hubby being diabetic.

Benefits of not having soda. We both have so much more energy its astounding to us. The need for it is gone and we both feel great. I have heard that your supposed to have clearer skin when you drink more water, well that I haven't noticed, but I have noticed that when I do get a blemish they don't stick around long. Also we have stopped eating out as much at fast food restaurants because the food just tastes gross without the distraction in taste from the soda!

I think that this is something that everyone should do. Cut that garbage out of your diet!

Note: All opinions are my own. I was not compensated in any way for this post. 

A look into my habits and all about the Mom's weekend!

So the girls behind Coffee and Conversations opened up the topics to all the readers to submit questions for the discussion. A while back I submitted three or four questions and this week they are featuring one of my questions for the discussion. Unfortunately, it was the one question that I was least prepared to answer! What's the habit your most proud of breaking? So, I have a bad habit (pun intended) of starting a goal and not always following it through, so I thought that I would put down a couple of my biggies in an attempt to start really focusing on them and working them through.

1. I want to cut the soda out of my life. Diet cola is so bad for you, but since I am not really a coffee drinker I get my caffeine jolt from my daily Diet Pepsi. This has been an especially hard thing for me. I have cut it way back and usually only have one in the morning to have my pick me up and have water the rest of the day. However, there are those weeks when I am out of the office all week, having to get take out for lunch and I fall back into the soda habit and the cycle continues. My hubby, who had a worse addiction to the stuff has almost entirely cut it out, with the exception of one 12oz can a day! That's something to be proud of and I really want to be right there with him! Working on it!

2. I am a face picker/toucher! It's awful and I always have breakouts because of it! Then I pick the scab and make the ugly blemish worse! I have tried desperately to keep my hands off of my face as of late and have seen an slight improvement in my skin, but when I am stressed I go right back to rubbing and picking! SLAP! Stop it!

3. I over analyze EVERY situation. Anything that I can stew over for months at a time I usually will. If it happened I am probably still harping over it! It is really bad and not good for my psyche! I also over analyze situations that haven't happened! I will stress out over something that I think might happen, that actually never does! Sigh. Why do I do this to myself?!!?? I know this has been an ongoing lesson to myself and a major thing that I need to work on. I continue to grow within this aspect, but I still need to continue to work on this aspect of my life, and probably will have to for the rest of my life. Another area, that is along the same lines is going above and beyond to make others happy. Sometimes I go overboard when trying to help someone that I get over-involved and am left feeling under appreciated. I don't do things to get recognition, but when I am left feeling used and abused it really hurts me. I have stopped doing things for people who don't appreciate what I have done for them and try to only do the things that I want and would make my life better and happier. I love helping people and it does make me happy when someone asks for my input, or assistance. I love to give, but have learned to not give so much that my happiness is taken away from me.

Well I hope that was a good response, because honestly I haven't "broken" any habits yet, but continue to grow with each one and take a step further in the right direction. Lauren and Kalyn have decided to make this link up every other week, so my next post won't be until May 27th and the question in the pipeline is: How would you describe modesty for the modern woman & why is (or isn't) it important in today's world? 

And NOW, a recap of the weekend! We all know it was Mother's Day yesterday. A couple of years ago I made this little triptych as a tribute to the three wonderful women I have the privilege of calling mom. My own mom on the left, my step mom in the middle and my M.I.L. on the right. All these women are great people to have in my life and are people that I can talk to when I need to vent, ask for advice or just want to spend time with!

Anyways, lets go in order.....Friday was our typical night to spend time with friends and just hang out. We went over to our friend's Mr. L's for a celebration that his roommate has tolerated the craziness for an entire year! Go S! We had a lot of laughs, some good food, drinks and conversation! Always a blast!

Saturday, I drug my slightly hungover bootay out of bed and met my wonderful mom in Palmdale to treat her to lunch and some shopping. We both got some great comfy summer dresses and I can't wait to wear mine next weekend to all the parties that are going on! Whoop! We had a nice lunch at the Olive Garden and then wandered around the mall for hours. It was good because we got an unusual heat wave this weekend and temps soared to over 100° and it was sweltering outside ! I re-found my favorite conditioner at one of the salons! Off to stock up! Once we said our goodbyes, and I got her part of our gift for the shower, I made my way back home cooked us up some dinner and we caught up on some Game of Thrones Ssn 2! Oh how I missed it!

Sunday I awoke really early, because it was just so hot. I got up and continued to work on an upcoming project! It's starting to look good! Stay tuned for that bad boy! Patriotic and glittery, can we say of course!! We called my step mom and chatted with her for a bit, then the hubby and I got cleaned up and made our way over to his parents to celebrate with his mom. He cooked up some mean steaks and corn on the cob, and I made the salad and the rest of the sides. We toasted a good glass of wine and ended the meal with strawberry shortcake. We had great conversation and a lovely time.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend! Linking up!