my week without artificial sweetener...

Well, yesterday finished my week without artificial sweetener. I did it! I made it!! I really didn't think I could do it. But I did!!!

I cut out all artificial sweeteners in everything I eat and drink. The hardest part was the drink. I have always had an aversion to plain ole water. It's always made me upset to my stomach. So being as I have to have at least 100 ounces of water a day (based on the theory that you should drink half of your weight in ounces every day) there was no way I could do it unless I put something sweet in it. So, I added Crystal Light to my water bottles before I drank my 6 bottles of water a day.

So on Saturday, I walked the 5K MS walk with my coworkers and friends and no Chrystal Light. Boy was that hard. I got so dehydrated. I only drank a half a bottle during the whole walk. And it was like drinking poison. I had a hard time swallowing.

That's how most of Saturday, Sunday and Monday went. I'll bet I drank a combined 6 bottles those three days. I missed my Chrystal Light SOOOOO bad. By Tuesday, I tried adding fruit concentrate to my water to try and take the edge of the taste of the plain ole water in my stomach. That was worse. I had to find a fruit concentrate that was low in sugar and had no artificial sweeteners in it. The only thing I could find was pineapple juice. And it really wasn't all that good. Though i normally LOVE pineapple juice. I even tried Limeade. And although it was yummy, it still wasn't all that great. It was no Chrystal Light!!

So then by Thursday, I went cold turkey and just drank water.


And then, something really weird happened. I started enjoying drinking plain ole water. I actually started craving it. I couldn't get enough of the stuff. I'll bet I drank 8 to 10 bottles a day. It was almost like I was constantly dehydrated or something because I couldn't get enough of it.

So, now, I can honestly say, I've kicked the Chrystal Light habit.

In looking back, I think what I was really craving was something sweet, not the Chrystal Light at all. In the artificial sweetener study I blogged about earlier, they said that what artificial sweetener can do is make your body crave sweets because it's being fooled into thinking that it's getting sugar but it's really not. So unbeknownst to me I was perpetually making myself addicted to Chrystal Light and all sweets for that matter. So I think the study is right. I remember craving Chrystal Light after every meal. I thought I was craving some sort of sweet dessert and I would grab a Chrystal Light to satisfy the urge. But now I see I was just enabling the habit. The addiction to sweets.

Ugh!! I can't believe I was doing that to myself. As if this whole weight loss thing isn't hard enough as it is. Then on top of that, I was sabotaging myself!!!

Well, now that's over. I vow never to have another Chrystal Light the rest of my days. I'm sure you'll see the stock prices in Chrystal Light drop from here on out. But sorry, guys. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to lose weight!

As for the other foods that I eat with artificial sweetener in them, I think I'm just going to limit my intake and watch the label for aspartame and avoid that one at all costs. I don't think it will be an issue, though, because now that I don't crave sweets I won't be eating much of them anyway.

Now I'm going to have to work on the quality of my water. I just read the label of the Nestle Pure Life water I've been drinking for months (maybe years) and it says that portions of the water come from public water sources. And it has been purified, which I don't know a whole lot about the process so I'll have to look into that as well. And then there's the whole "recycled plastic" issue that's been bugging me for a while.

But hey, baby steps, right?