The sun is back after a rain-filled week…Hallelujah!
Eric and I took advantage of the nice weather to get outside for our first hike of the year.
We weren’t the only Canadians with Spring Fever! We could barely find a parking spot…
Ladies and Gents…meet Dwight K. Schrute! Or just Dwight for short. ;)
I picked myself up a Garmin Forerunner 305 at Costco this weekend!!
I have been wanting one for over a year now and my Polar RS200 has been broken for several months so I finally forked over the cash for a Garmin. Costco seems to have the best deal in Canada (aside from one sketchy website which I deemed was perhaps not the most reliable).
Eric couldn’t stop laughing at how HUGE the watch looks on my wrist. I had to explain to him that it’s a runner’s thing and I am PROUD to wear this beast!
If you are an Office fan you will understand where the Dwight name comes from. On the show, Dwight is known for wearing a huge calculator watch, which the Garmin kind of reminds me of. ;)
I can’t get over how many cool features this watch has. You can train or race against a ‘virtual partner’. This will be so motivational for me on solo runs. You can also upload all of your workouts and track/compare with the software. I still have half of a manual to read, but so far it has been quite easy to figure out! I can’t wait to use this on my 15km race this Sunday!
We tested out Dwight on the hike today. I set up the automatic pause feature, so the timer pauses every time I stop for a rest. At the end of the workout (or during) you can look at how much ‘rest time’ you had. It prevents the need to keep pausing and starting the watch each time you stop.
It was about 18C today and just perfect for a hike!
So peaceful.
Winter BE GONE!
We brought some of these on our walk for a snack:
Eric and I love going on hikes together because it gives us uninterrupted time to just talk about anything and everything…
We had one VERY interesting talk that I will be telling you about soon. :mrgreen: Oh, it’s a DOOZEY!!!!
We walked for an hour and covered 2.9 miles of hills, rocks, waterfalls, and rays…
We worked up appetites for lunch…
A protein packed spinach, lentil, hummus, and tomato Ezekiel wrap:
My breakfast this morning did an OK job of holding me over. Not as good as my first batch of vegan overnight oats for some reason (I may have just been extra hungry this morning though!).
An apple which was way too soft and not very good…(I like crunchy apples!)
and a handful of dried organic apricots and a dark chocolate:
I spent the afternoon organizing my bakery stock and taking inventory. It feels so good to get a jump start on the work week. This week is going to be VERY busy and EXCITING as I am training my first employee, meeting with the organic farmer’s market director, finalizing the new GF Glo Bar, and of course doing my regular orders!
In my last post, I told you that Eric is trying to kick something COLD TURKEY from his diet!
If you guessed COKE you were right!
And no, not the illegal kind of coke…this kind… ;)
Eric has been addicted to Coke since he was a young boy. In university, he often drank up to 6 cans a DAY as a way to be able to stay awake. He cut back a bit after university, but he still drank about 2 cans during the work day. I used to encourage him to drink healthier things, but he never showed ANY interest in stopping so I dropped it years ago.
Well, what does he do totally out of the blue last week??
He tells me that he decided to cut Coke (and all pop) COLD TURKEY out of his diet!!!!
He has not had a Coke since the beginning of our vacation in Florida, and not one sip at work. Apparently, his coworker bought him a Coke last week and set it in front of him and Eric didn’t even drink it after much teasing from his coworker. I was so proud when he told me this story I almost shed a tear! lol. I gave him a big, beaming bear hug because I am just so proud of him!
I asked him why he decided to do this all of a sudden and he said, ‘It is the one consistent thing in my diet that is bad for me and I realized that I could replace it with something healthier.’
When the craving strikes, he is trying to beat it by making tea or having 100% pure orange juice.
So far it has been working…BUT, he admitted to me this weekend that he is craving one REALLY BADLY and he is worried that he might crack and have one and then be hooked again.
I immediately thought of you guys and I knew that you could help Eric! I said, ‘MY AMAZING BLOG READERS CAN HELP YOU!!!!’ :mrgreen:
He needs the encouragement now more than ever and I was hoping that you guys could leave Eric a comment below and encourage him to stick with cutting Coke out of his life. Then he can read the comments when he is craving some. Actually, this could help ANYONE out there who is trying to cut something out of their diet. Eric REALLY wants to stick with it, but he is afraid that he is not strong enough!! Any encouragement you can offer is greatly appreciated. :) maybe those of you who are also trying to kick pop out of your life can offer each other support!
Today’s question- Do you have a story to share about pop/soda? Do you like it and have you ever tried to cut back? What about diet pop?
My story with pop is a simple one- I always disliked pop since I was a very young child. I have never been a fan of carbonated drinks for some reason! The only pop I ever drank was the orange or pink stuff…and I drank it very rarely because I always preferred juice as opposed to carbonated drinks. I know a lot of women who are addicted to diet pop…they drink about 6-8 cans a day and can’t kick the habit.
Dear Eric,
I was TOTALLY addicted to Diet Coke for years and years and years. Like you, I knew it was part of my diet that could use some help and could be replaced, although I had many fits and starts with trying to give it up. Then, I finally made up my mind. I haven’t had a diet coke since December 31, 2008! About a year and 3 months! The first few weeks were hard– as they will be for you too since COke has the SUGAR factor. But stick with it. Every day you will grow more and more proud of yourself! I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still want a diet coke to some degree for about the first year! But, Now, it doesn’t even phase me. YOU CAN DO IT!
Congrats!
I wish the US Costco had the Garmin :( I really want one, especially now that I’m doing longer distance running. Oh well.
Congrats to Eric for deciding to quit Coke! :P I used to love soda, including diet, but it was too spendy when I was a student to keep up that kind of habit! So I switched to crystal lite for awhile because I didn’t like plain water, and then eventually to water. Now I drink tons of water all day long. I have a diet coke now and then when I go out to eat, but not often.
I heard good things about PCNATION.COM in the US!!! Very low price!
Thanks Angela! I’ll look into that. :D
That is so great that he is giving up coke. As a kid I used to drink 3-4 Mountain Dews every single day after school.
If he craves having something with a lot of flavor, Crystal Light really worked for me. If he craves the carbonation, a flavored carbonated water would work well. Good luck! It may not be easy just stay away from it as much as possible and things will go well :)
I’m not a fan of the soda flavors so giving up soda was pretty easy but I find water to get very boring! I understand sometimes it just isn’t refreshing enough so I stick to seltzer water with lemon and lime squeezed in. It might not be the healthiest thing considering water isn’t meant to have carbonation in it but it keeps me from running to the aspartame sweetened carbonated waters!
YOU CAN DO IT! :)
Take it from a guy who drank 4 litres of pop EVERYDAY……GET OFF THE POP!!! I’ve been off it again since the start of the year and once I got through the cravings it’s been a breeze. You save money and you’re not a slave to pop.
Another note: my Dad in the last 3 years or so has had kidney stones and the doc said they can be caused by pop! and he was a big pop drinker too. Kidney stones are painful from what I hear…closest thing to giving birth a guy can get :-)
Wow GO YOU!!!
I’ve been soda free for a few months and have been seriously cutting back before only having 1 a week or so. It was a little hard at first, focusing on the money savings was a huge driver for me. Now I don’t crave it at all.
GO ERIC! You can do this, no prob. Easy-peasy.
Here’s something you can do to inspire yourself.
Take an old crummy dirty penny and soak it in some coke. When you take it out it’ll be all shiny and looking brand new! Do you really want to have that corrosive power working on your stomach?
I won’t lie I don’t like soda but loved diet coke until recently a health problem changed my taste buds and now I can’t stand it! So kicking the habit was easy for me.
Good luck to your hubby! I stopped drinking soda during high school, only to pick up the habit again briefly during my freshman year because soda was the only way I could get down the heavy booze, haha. Needless to say, I have some pretty bad memories associated with carbonated beverages now, and can’t imagine drinking one for the heck of it :)
Also, a celebratory “woohoo!” for the first hike of the season! I love spring!
I can’t believe that Eric is trying to do something positive and here an adult has to taunt him -kudos to Eric on not caving in and having the coke. Anyway maybe a better organic type of pop would help him get through that coke craving – even kombuca might help it has that fizzy taste of soda. Keep up the good work Eric.
I JUST did this… Well, I drank Diet but that’s worse. I gave it up for lent and decided to continue.
What saved me was seltzer. I made tons of “chia fizz” drinks (seltzer water, fresh mint leaves and chia seeds). I also would just flavor it with a slice of lemon, orange, etc. I realized that what I really loved was the carbonation more so than the actual soda. I hope that helps!
Good luck Eric!!! You can do it!!
to answer your question – I gave up diet coke. it used to be my lunch back at the height of my eating dissorder. While in a treatment program, I decided that the only reason I drank it was because it was filling (carbonation!) gave me the energy I so desperately lacked, and had no calories or fat. Sounds like an E.D. crutch to me! So that was the end of Diet Coke.
Oh, and if Eric needs a visual,I once used coke in a plugged g-tube!! The acidity ate away at the blockage. Worked like a charm. It’s like draino for g-tubes. Nasty.
Ugh the trouble of Coke…I myself find this a struggle every once in a while (with Diet Coke). Here are my suggestions for satisfying the craving. 1st off – for me, when I want pop, in order to satify the craving, the replacement beverage must either be carbonated or sweet with a chocolate or vanilla flavor. My suggestions: Homemade iced coffee or iced tea mixed with stevia or agave and creamer (silk soy vanilla creamer is awesome). (Tip, make ‘ice’ cubes of tea or coffee so your drink doesn’t become watered down.) The other drink is a combo of iced tea with a carbonated drink like soda water and squeeze some lemon in.
Not sure if you’ve seen this and it is extrememly gross, but I sure couldn’t lift a soda to my lips after watching it. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjXXkEWqXWY&NR=1
Congrats to your hubbie!!!!! I stopped drinking soda a year or so ago and i’ve NEVER looked back! I feel amazingly better.. it’s unbelievable! And you will stop craving it. Now, I can’t stand it!
Wow, thanks everyone for the support. To tell you the truth, the main reasons I wanted to quit coke were:
1) Expensive – especially if you buy from vending machines
2) I hated that everyday at 3:00pm I felt a major loss of energy and felt like I required one.
3) Its just not good for you…
I can’t say that I feel any better around 3:00pm, but I have been trying other things. Tea or Orange Juice seem to work best for me. Tea is good but I never drink hot drinks on hot days, so for the summer it is no good. The Cafeteria at my work sells Orange Juice for $2.60 for a small little bottle, so I’ll have to buy some and bring it in. I have noticed getting headaches a lot more frequent, which I assume is the caffeine withdrawl. I’m not sure if tea is the best substitue though since I don’t like having to depend on something, also I still put quite a bit of sugar in my tea, but I’m taking baby steps here. =) I think someone else mentioned Fruit, that helps also.
The only hard part of kicking the habbit is being at work, my co-worker calls Coke the “Lifeforce”. He drinks anywhere from 3-6 cans a day, but I think I’m getting to him as he recently talked about cutting back.
Anyhow, here’s hoping! Thanks again everyone for the encouragement!
I used to be a pop monster. seriously! I drank tons of diet pop and it made me feel so gross. I gave up drinking pop (and a few other not-so-good foods) almost a year ago and feel better then I ever have! I dropped so much weight, am running my first half marathon in 2 weeks and have soo much energy! Stick with it and lose the pop cravings man! You will feel FANTASTIC!
Diet Coke addict here, although I am proud to say that after many years of drinking up to 4 cans daily I’m down to 1-2 a week now (on the weekends). I gave up other sodas and other artificial sugary drinks years ago (other then the very very occasional mixed drink at a bar) and feel so much better not drinking junk all the time.
What really helped me with breaking the daily Diet Coke habit (I was stuck on 1 a day for quite some time) was giving yourself something else you enjoy that will help with the cravings so you don’t ever feel deprived… in my case, I used tea, and the slight caffeine boost I got there was enough to ward off the worst of the cravings. Plus, there are so many kinds of teas, I had fun trying out a bunch to see what I liked. Also: If you’re craving the carbonation, maybe mixing fruit juice with carbonated water might also be helpful?
GOOD LUCK ERIC! Just think of all the better things to drink out there. :)
Great Job Eric!!
My tip is every time you want a coke, channel that energy into getting angry that it even exists. I know this sounds weird, but it’s true- isn’t kind of unfair that a company tries to get you to drink something BAD for you just to make money? They don’t deserve your support :)
You guys are such a cute couple BTW!
Eric, you can definitely kick the habit! When I started college 3 years ago I made a decision to give up coke and all soda. It was very hard at first but I decided that I am doing this for my body. I want to be strong and healthy and drinking a can of coke or soda isn’t helping me in any way. It has been 3 years and I have not had a sip of coke. It’s possible but you have to believe that YOU CAN DO THIS!