My first personal challenge is something I  actually did start at the beginning of this year. More to the point, I wanted to start it after I got back from my Culebra vacation which happened to be on New Year’s Eve. I want to detox myself from sugary, caffeinated beverages or just “Cokes” as we say in the South.

I  purposely use the word detox as I am not necessarily trying to remove Cokes from my diet permanently but to break the habit I have of all drinking Cokes from my lunches, dinners and snacks. I would sit down, especially at a restaurant, and it begin salivating at the idea of a sweet soft drink. I loved them, and darn it, they loved me.

However, my body was changing and I could not afford to keep pumping in the 180 calorie per 16oz can  into my body which was seeing its metabolism slow down each year. I figured I was consuming between 750-1000 calories a day from them. I also knew my weight had slowly been creeping up over the last few years. I thought running 3-times/week would get me to drop the weight but it really just slowed the weight gain down. If I rid myself of those Coke calories or at least significantly reduced them, it would been a significant impact to my health.

So starting on January 1st, I decided to stop drinking Cokes cold turkey. Once I felt I broke my habit and physiological craving for them, I could let me begin drinking them again albeit in moderation. I told my 2 weeks and reevaluate. I went 16 days without a Coke. I then let me myself have a can of Sprite with a pizza but finished the meal with water. Now on January 22nd, that is the only Coke I have had. It actually has been a little easier than I thought it would be. A couple of times I really had a craving when I sat down to eat, but it was able to pass fairly quickly. Now, I like drinking water, and it is not too hard to turn up a Coke.

So far I have lost approximately 9 pounds. If a pound of fat was 3500 calories, and say I removed 1000 calories from my daily diet, that is “only” a little over 6 pounds you would expect to loose by just removing Cokes from my diet. A side benefit is that by switching to water I snack far less than before and my snacks were generally sweet, high calorie content as well.

I of course am very pleased, and my wife has been incredibly encouraging and proud of me through this process. You can always relapse into old habits, but I feel good about my Coke detox. I am confident I won’t fall back into drinking them at every meal, and I don’t worry about drinking a few soft drinks with the right meal. It has been a very health lifestyle change and one that will continue to provide benefits long into my future.