Facing the not so sweet truth

For months, I have had a lingering guilt about some of the things that go into my mouth. More specifically, my daily habit of drinking sugar free beverages has had me worried.

Crystal Light, and other similar drinks, have been a very happy addition to my life as I continue my attempts to shrink myself. These are sweet and satisfying and make water so easy to drink in large quantities. Sometimes when I want something sweet, I can satisfy that urge with a yummy passion-fruit drink or with my all time favorite half tea/half lemonade Wyler's drink. MMmmmmm.

But as I have learned more and made attempts to eat healthier over the past two years, my guilt about these drinks has deepened. I know they aren't healthy. I see in the list of ingredients all the chemicals that I cannot pronounce. The list is long and those weird unpronounceable ingredients cannot be doing my body any good.

I have tried in so many areas of my life to curb the unnatural. We buy almost all organic fruits and vegetables and the processed foods we do buy have less or no soy or corn additives. This is HARD to do sometimes as the kids have what they like and I have what I like and this country doesn't produce many foods on our grocery shelves that DO NOT have these ingredients! When possible, those processed foods are also organic. While this endeavor is expensive, my hope is that it saves us money on health care in the long run (especially for my girls).

The natural alternatives to artificial sweeteners, like the Splenda I love in my coffee include honey, stevia, coconut palm sugar, and a few others. These are expensive and don't all work well in coffee or tea, two of my favorite "sweet" drinks.

So why have I been so unwilling to shake this beverage habit? Honestly, I have been scared. I enjoy my routine and it is part of my routine. I am a creature of habit and wen something works, it is hard to "fix" it. I know myself and know I have a terrible sweet tooth. These drinks have tempered it and kept me satisfied. My weight loss has been so great and I am scared of going backwards. That is a very real fear in my mind since it has been such a long and slow road to where I find myself now.

Regardless, I have committed to myself just a few days ago to STOP, cold turkey. I knew if I tapered it off, I was KNOWINGLY continuing to poison myself. After I hopped on Facebook and read this article, I knew that I really had to stop ignoring this bad habit and bite the bullet!

I committed--that day--to NOT drink anymore artificially sweetened drinks. This meant no more Wyler's, Crystal Light, Zero brand colas (like Coke Zero, my absolute favorite soda), and no more Splenda in my tea and coffee. That last one is a toughie since artificial sweeteners are found anywhere you buy coffee and natural alternatives are not.

So far so good. It has only been four days, but it has been a challenging time. I bought some tea infused with Stevia and some plain tea to brew and have on hand at home, a habit I abandoned years ago that I need to get back to. I have been making homemade lemonade for the girls with honey as a sweetner, but that won't do for me as the calories are too high. I can sweeten my drinks with the Stevia I bought and tried. It has a little aftertaste that I am getting used to, but it does sweeten quite well. I have been having it in my coffee and drinking the tea with nothing added thus far. I have been drinking more plain water, but will be changing that as soon as I go buy another pitcher.

Two days ago I went for a much needed massage and was given a glass of water to drink. It was SO GOOD. I asked what was in it, and was told it was infused with lemon and orange. It was SO delicious and sweet! I guess it depends on the fruit you use, but I am going to start to make spa water for myself at home. I need to buy another pitcher for this and will be trying the lemon/orange combo myself since that is the best fruit infused water I have ever tried! I am not a fan of watermelon and never really appreciated cucumber or herb infused water. This citrus was delicious, however, and I am looking forward to having it on hand.

So the moral of the story is that change can be hard but we don't know what we are capable of until we try. We all know this, but taking the first step can be hard and intimidating. Making all the right changes at once is too hard and sometimes sets us up for failure, but taking baby steps makes it slightly more doable. We can improve ourselves at any age, with a little bit of effort, and some improvising and good old fashioned problem solving. You find alternatives and find new ways to treat yourself.

For me, this sweetener piece of the puzzle was one that I ignored and tried to avoid for a long time. I have been putting so many other healthy habits into my daily routine and mastering them one at a time, so this change was just the next in a long list of changes I have been making. Had I tried to start exercising, cut back on portions, avoid sweets AND artificial sweeteners, avoid processed foods, become a vegetarian (mostly), and switch to organics (while bringing my kids along for this ride at the same time), it very well may have proved to be too much at once.

The changes have been gradual and many of them are second nature now. I cannot imagine life without these changes in place and know that I am better for them. There are more yet to make, but if I keep putting one foot in front of the other, and not punishing myself for moments of weakness, it is just a matter of time before I am happier and healthier for it!