I have been a coke addict since high school. As soon as I was old enough to buy it for myself whenever I wanted, I was buying it. I even bought an Extreme Gulp travel mug from 7-11 that is 52oz, yano like construction workers drink out of. I would fill it up at the 7-11 on my way to school and then keep it in my locker so I had a drink all day. Sometimes I would just put water in it at home, but most of the time it had Coke or Dr. Pepper. It was a problem.

In college I drank it to stay awake. I was busy. I worked two jobs and went to school full time, I had a boyfriend and three roommates to hang out with, a family to see, and sleep was obviously low on my list of priorities. I used a mini fridge instead of a side table in my apartment, because it held lots of coke, water bottles, and snacks, plus a lamp and an alarm clock.

After I graduated college I figured I would stop drinking coke to stay awake, I'd get one full time job and wouldn't be going to school. I got married nine months after graduation and then I was only living with one person to distract me from sleep, which he did/does... but I don't I mind. Only work is early, and farther than school was from my student apartment. And traffic is nuts, and students are CRAZY. So I kept drinking coke not only for the caffeine but for the comfort, I love Coke right? How could I turn my back on it?

So last week I started cutting back on Coke, I didn't drink any at work and with the exception of Monday I didn't drink it at home. I had one can of Coke Monday (before I decided not to drink it at home or work), I had one Dr. Pepper Wednesday when I went out to eat with my family, and Coke Friday when I went out with Amber, this weekend my family celebrated my brother's birthday twice Sunday and again last night so I had some coke over the weekend while we were out.

In place of Coke I've been bringing orange juice, half caffeinated tea, and water to work and I bought some Simply lemonade in case I wanted something else fun and flavory. So as I'm drinking this lemonade at work yesterday I realized how sweet it was and decided to look up the nutrition information.... Simply lemonade has more sugar and more calories per oz than Coke. Now I realize that coke still has more sodium and can take rust off a bumper and lemonade probably doesn't, but how in the world does Coke have less sugar and calories than lemonade. So I won't be buying lemonade again anytime soon.

So yesterday I had half of a large cherry Coke from Publix (I had a coupon for a sub if I bought a drink..) and a lemonade, in addition to my water. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up. I'd really like to keep my teeth as long as possibly, and my insides are pretty important to me, I don't want to take any more changes of Coke eating a hole through them.