Kicking the habit.

You guys.  I think I may have actually done it.  For real this time.

I haven't had a Diet Coke in 16 days.  That's more than two weeks.  That's more than half of a month!  I have no idea when the last time was that I went so long without cracking open a shiny, silver and red can of aspartame.  I've half-heartedly tried to quit before, but this time it's for real.  I spent a full week dealing with headaches and honest-to-god withdrawls.  I'm over the hump now- there's no turning back.

http://www.nataliedee.com/index.php?date=050610

I've read plenty of articles and studies about how addictive diet soda can be.  I've always heard that it's bad for you.  I recently read this article, which states that "Women who drank up to 500 milliliters (about 12 ounces) of artificially sweetened beverages per week were 33 percent more likely to develop diabetes, and women who drank about 600 milliliters (about 20 ounces) per week had a 66 percent increase in risk."  The sad thing is, for the last decade or more, I've been drinking (quite a bit) more than 20 ounces of Diet Coke per day.  Great odds, right?

I finally reached a point where I decided to start caring.  So I finished off the last diet soda in the fridge and I forbade Josh from buying any more.  I think I may actually try to calculate how much money I'm going to save this year by not buying soda- surely it's got to be a sadly huge number.  My recycling bin is going to be a lot less full as well... so not only am I saving my future health and saving money, but I'm saving the environment too!  I guess that makes up for the daily lack-of-caffeine headaches I'm still adjusting to.