Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The Unhealthy Habit I Cannot Kick

I hit up an enormous deal at my C-Town this weekend, 99cent FAGE yogurt.  This is awesome because I got delicious and nutritious Greek yogurt for about a third of the usual price, but horrible because now I know how unparalleled and perfect the texture and flavor of this exhorbitant-ly  priced yogurt is and I will be tempted to purchase it at it's full price (which is around $3) when I go back to that sneaky sneaky grocery store. Sigh.

Anyhow, I had one of the offending (and oh so marvelous) FAGE yogurt's today with about a 1/3 cup of granola and some fresh blueberries thrown in there.  I didn't take any pictures because there's a new crop of interns in my office and they're already eying me like I'm a nut so.... ya know.  However, I assure you it looked as elegant as this image from their website.



Lunch was rice and beans (cheese free version), (I would have taken a picture of that too, but I think I've shown you enough photos of rice and beans to feed a virtual village so I'll refrain) with carrots and Sunchips.  Dinner is on the run today as well, and it's going to be a  tuna sandwich on whole wheat with a bed of mixed greens in there.  I make my tuna with mustard instead of mayo, which gives it a hell of a lot more flavor and heck of a lot less calories - win win.  But I didn't come here to talk about food.  I want to talk about beverages,  and not the kind you're thinking, I am in full support of my drinking habits in that department (healthy moderation is my jam).  I want to talk about diet soda.

Sigh.  The ever powerful call of the mid afternoon bubbly caffeine indulgence with a side of aspartame.  I CAN NOT KICK THE HABIT.  I have tried again and again and again, and for some months I will switch to just seltzer, or nab the beast altogether, but I always go back.  Now I realize that right now isn't the right time to try and go cold turkey (you mean working full time, going to school full time, training for a marathon and applying for long term gainful employment require all of available my willpower?) but I want to quit eventually. I would like to cut the daily dose of harmful chemicals out of my life, but I think I need a healthy substitute in this situation; something to keep me going back to the beast.

Are there healthy alternatives to diet soda?  Is there something I can drink in the mid-afternoon when I'm starting to fade and have 8 more functional hours in my day?  Something with caffeine and bubbles?  Maybe something a little sweet that feels like dessert? 

3 comments:

  1. I wish I had a suggestion... Iced coffee with Sweet & Low is pretty much nutritionally identical to your diet soda, and my drug of choice. :(

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  2. I was going through the same dilemma last summer. I really wanted to give up diet sodas since obviously it's like putting water and a bunch of unpronouncable chemicals down your throat. The weird taste in my mouth afterwards should actually have been enough to get me off it but I still couldn't kick the habit.
    The solution for me was Kombucha! I really needed the fizzyness to make me feel refreshed and the Kombucha with it's fizzy, sweet taste totally did it for me. Also, placebo effect or not, I just had that feeling of energy after drinking it.
    So the new drug of choice for me is the Synergie Raw Kombucha and only the hefty price tag ( I think it's 4$ at WF and 5$ at my local Inwood bodega )keeps me from drinking it multiple times a day. It's not 100% calorie free, I think one bottle has 50cals but it really makes me feel better. If my boyfriends wasn't so stubborn I would make it myself in our apartment... someday :-)

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  3. I think they're making sodas with stevia now? I went to seltzer or carbonated mineral water. Definitely acquired tastes, lol. I found I just wanted the burn of the bubbles, ha ha ha.

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