The War Begins: Me vs Caffeine
This is not a personal finance post. I am posting this here to hold myself accountable.
As I get older, I become more and more conscious about the foods and drinks I consume. For the most part, I have done very well. I have cut back on chips, cookies, ice cream, and many other tasty but unhealthy snacks. My arch nemesis, though, has been soda (or pop to my Wisconsin friends). There is just something about flavored carbonated water that leaves me craving it day after day.
When I was in college, I drank upwards of five per day. Today, I drink only two, but just two sodas contains 300 calories, 60 milligrams of sodium, and 84 grams of sugar. It’s a slow poison, and it is one I intend to weed out of my life.
The trigger for my decision was a post over at Finance is Personal called The True Cost of a Mountain Dew Addiction. It was a painful reminder of the additional cost I am incurring by being addicted to caffeine. Dental costs and restless sleep are just a couple of the “hidden” costs.
Today, I declare war on Coca Cola and Pepsi. It will be a tough fight, but I feel I will come out victorious.
Don’t keep them in the fridge. If I have beer or soda in the fridge, I cannot stop. If I don’t have them, I am too lazy to go out so I ended up drinking cold water. Same thing with all other junk foods, don’t keep them at home (or work)
Good luck with this war on soda. It has been a long time since I have had regular soda as we only buy diet soda in our house.
While you did not intend this as a personal finance post, depending on your habits you can save a nice chunk of money by eliminating soda.
[...] is addicted to crack–I mean, caffeine. Good luck; it’s a hard habit to [...]
I’m glad I was able to have a real tanginble affect on your life. Good luck in your bout! You can read about my bout with caffeiene addiction in an article that I wrote late last year:
http://www.financeispersonal.com/2006/12/say-no-to-soda.html
[...] I get to my favorite posts for the week, thank you to everyone who is wishing me luck in my war on caffeine. So far so good, but it has only been 1 [...]
I really can’t seem to kick the diet coke habit.
BTW . . . I’m from WA and we say pop too. I once saw a map that labeled the states as soda or pop states.
Robyn, I remember seeing something like that as well. Although I think there were also “Coke” states where people use the term generically to refer to all soda/pop.
[...] at Financial Dominance begins his war on caffeine. I have fought this war several times. At the moment, I am winning, but it is a short road to [...]
good luck. seeing something like this in print always lights a fire under my butt.
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