61. Stop drinking Diet Coke on a daily basis

Back when I was exercising (eons ago) I was doing a really good job of drinking one Diet Coke in the morning and then sticking to water the rest of the day. After my gallbladder surgery and starting 2 new jobs I stopped exercising, stopped drinking water, basically just went all to hell. :-) In the last 6 months I have gained back every ounce of weight that I had lost, my body has gotten all weak and flabby, and I feel horrible. While I was exercising one of the first things I noticed was that I didn't hate carrying in groceries any more. I could run down to the car 3 or 4 times to carry up bags whereas before I would make sure I carried as many bags as possible and sometimes would even leave nonperishables in the car so I didn't have to make another trip. (sad, eh?) I am a thinker rather than a doer -- shocking, I know! ;-) But while gaining all this weight and eating all this crap and drinking up to 12 cans of diet coke a day I have been doing a little bit of research about weight gain.

"Calorie-conscious consumers who opt for diet sodas may gain more weight than if they drank sugary drinks because of artificial sweeteners contained in the diet sodas, according to a new study.

A Purdue University study released Sunday in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience reported that rats on diets containing the artificial sweetener saccharin gained more weight than rats given sugary food, casting doubt on the benefits of low-calorie sweeteners." source: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=4271246&page=1

So I am going to try to stop using artificial sweeteners to the extent that I have been. (Like that nice ambiguous statement?) Diet Coke tends to be the greatest source of artificial sweetener - so by the end of my 1001 days I will no longer be drinking Diet Coke on a daily basis. I am hoping to develop a taste for water and green tea. Wish me luck! I started today -- I have only had 3 Diet Cokes in a 24 hour period. Not bad for a Diet Coke junkie!