My Head Is Pounding, I Can Barely Move, But My Body Will THANK Me!! I Hope...

So if things around here have been a bit quiet over the past couple of days, there is good reason. Today marks Day 3 of being 100% caffeine free. That's right. I have quit my horrid soda addiction. (Or is it Pop? I am from Ohio where they call it pop, but have lived in the south long enough to call it soda,lol) As anyone who knows me in real life can attest, you would NEVER see me without Dr. Pepper. Never. Not even at 5:00 AM. I was drinking soda like it was water. As a matter of fact, soda was ALL I was drinking. No water...No milk...No juice...Just SODA. Which is admittedly absolutely horrible for my health.

I was watching a TV show the other night with Dan that had to do with peoples' unhealthy addictions and the consequences it can have on one's overall well-being, and it kind of scared me! There was one man who has been eating nothing but pizza for something like 20 years, and he was actually developing an intolerance to the lactose in the cheese and it was making him really sick. Luckily, I can EASILY get all-pizza'ed-out. We have pizza maybe once a month, and that's more than enough for me.

But there was also a woman who at 25 was on the fast track to diabetes because of her soda consumption. Various medical tests and blood work confirmed she was pre-diabetic, all because of something that she drinks like crazy. Well, this definitely hit home for me. I have had a MAJOR soda and caffeine addiction since I was a teen. It started out with Mountain Dew and has graduated to Dr. Pepper. I quit the Mountain Dew when I gave up soda a few years ago. It lasted for about 3 months. Now, if I even TASTE the Dew, I will vomit.

So 3 days ago, I decided to STOP drinking soda. Period. At least for a little while. I have to kick the caffeine addiction first and foremost. After I have made it a week or so without the Dr. Pepper, I MIGHT consider trying diet sodas that are caffeine free. In the meantime, I am fooling my body. I am drinking the carbonated flavored waters that I find at my local WalMart. They're actually really good, and have 0 sugars, 0 calories, 0 sodium, and 0 caffeine. And they're still fizzy! I cannot stomach just plain water. It just won't work. If I drink plain water, I feel ucky...Baby steps, lol...I plan to start drinking plain old H20 at some point soon, but for now, I am just focused on getting past the monkey on my back that is soda. This sparkling water tastes and acts enough like soda that I have not been having too many cravings.

So far, I have been doing well. I have not had ANY soda at all in 72 hours. (Any friends in real life know this is HUGE for me!) I have even spontaneously dropped 5lbs in the past 3 days, and have had no change in my diet other than the elimination of soda. I am thrilled to say that instead of my scale being STUCK around 147-150, I am now barely 142lbs. I guess that's no big surprise, considering the fact that a 2 liter of soda has around 1000 calories! (Yes, I was drinking that much in a day, sometimes more!) So apparently cutting out all the empty calories and sugars has gotten me past my plateau as far as my weight loss efforts go. (Knock on wood!)

The part that really, really stinks is the physical withdrawl. I am SOOOOO tired that I can barely move half the time, and I have had a POUNDING headache for the past 3 days. I know that this will pass, but it doesn't make things easy on me right now. I'm going to stick it out and fight it. But for the next few days, I may not be able to post as much as I'd like, because looking at the screen of my laptop literally hurts right now. I will still try to do at least one post per day, but until the physical PAIN aspect of being caffeine free wears off, I don't know that I can manage 3 or 4 posts per day. Please bear with me! I have some awesome reviews and giveaways scheduled in the very near future. If I seem cranky over the next few days, please know that it's because I am breaking my caffeine dependence once and for all!

Did you ever struggle with an addiction? What did you do to overcome it? I would love to hear about it and get some pointr