life changes
So today is the 500th day of me quitting smoking. It actually doesn't bother me so much that I keep active track of it, but I keep a widget on my desktop that tells me so. It's a good way of giving me a sense of passive achievement.
I quit drinking regular soda a while ago because I figured I didn't need the tons of extra calories. So I switched to diet. I have a bitching caffeine/sugar addiction. However, I haven't really lost any weight at all switching to diet soda. I figured that some of it had to do with the quitting smoking, slower metabolism and all that... I also figured that my only real sacrifice would be in dental health, and that was low on my priority list...
Then I read this....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/nutrition/05symp.html?ref=health
and realized that a lot of the abdominal fat I'm trying to shed is probably related. So, I've decided, slightly grudgingly, that my next big life change is to give up/drastically reduce my soda intake (currently rated at a LOT daily).
More than with cigarettes or anything else, I dread the withdrawal. I figured I could switch to coffee... since I've started drinking that lately too... but I normally take it with two sugar packets.
Does anyone know anything about this? Would switching exclusively to coffee with sugar help eliminate the abdominal fat (assuming that I exercise 2-3 times a week currently regardless of other factors)? Is it just a bloating thing too? Would the real sugar in the coffee offset the benefit of the fake sugar in the diet soda? Do I just need to start drinking black coffee and eliminate all the sugar?
Thoughts? Opinions?
I quit drinking regular soda a while ago because I figured I didn't need the tons of extra calories. So I switched to diet. I have a bitching caffeine/sugar addiction. However, I haven't really lost any weight at all switching to diet soda. I figured that some of it had to do with the quitting smoking, slower metabolism and all that... I also figured that my only real sacrifice would be in dental health, and that was low on my priority list...
Then I read this....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/nutrition/05symp.html?ref=health
and realized that a lot of the abdominal fat I'm trying to shed is probably related. So, I've decided, slightly grudgingly, that my next big life change is to give up/drastically reduce my soda intake (currently rated at a LOT daily).
More than with cigarettes or anything else, I dread the withdrawal. I figured I could switch to coffee... since I've started drinking that lately too... but I normally take it with two sugar packets.
Does anyone know anything about this? Would switching exclusively to coffee with sugar help eliminate the abdominal fat (assuming that I exercise 2-3 times a week currently regardless of other factors)? Is it just a bloating thing too? Would the real sugar in the coffee offset the benefit of the fake sugar in the diet soda? Do I just need to start drinking black coffee and eliminate all the sugar?
Thoughts? Opinions?