How Your Friends Make It Easy to be Healthy: Cutting Out Pop & Sweets
April: Quitting Soda Pop and Cutting Down on Sweets
This is a diary of the healthy lifestyle goals that my son, Chris, and I are making together each month…
Have you ever heard that if you work on forming a new habit for at least 21 days, it will stick? Well, Chris and I felt after 21 days of cutting down on pizza and wine that we had accomplished our goals. We had taken a step toward a healthier diet.
In March, I told you that our goal for April was for Chris to cut down on drinking soda pop to once a week and for me to cut down on sweets.
My Experience
Well, what I did exactly was to change my private rule. I have a parental voice in my head that guides me. My inner parent used to tell me that I was allowed to have one glass of wine each day and one serving of something sweet each day. Long ago, I used to have pop whenever I wanted until one day I realized that it counted as a sweet. Now, in April, my rule changed once again. My allowance was cut down to either a glass of wine or one serving of a sweet thing each day.
Chris’ Experience
Chris found that it wasn’t so hard to substitute alternative drinks. He didn’t have any pop at all for a month and a half, until one day he had a craving and gave in to it…but only for that one day! The way that he was able to totally quit his pop-drinking habit was through exercise.
Recently, Chris had begun to meet his friend, Sarah Jes, at the gym regularly. They do a heavy workout for an hour and a half. Since they started, Chris began to increase his time at the gym. Sometimes, he even goes for a run along the river. He’s been getting between an hour and a half to four hours of exercise every day! And that’s without making a deal with me! 😉
But there’s a thread here: he has a gym buddy. It’s like having a diet buddy. Reaching your goals is easier if you have someone to share it with.
When it was time to eat, Chris thought, “Why ruin all that hard work by eating unhealthy food?” It just didn’t feel worth it.
Chris and I have found that once we hit the 21-day mark, our new dietary habits are a done deal. Our daily diet is becoming permanently changed.
To be continued…
It’s so funny to hear Chris’ story. I was faced with the same dilema last night at a Football Game. I haven’t had pop in 3 months . There weren’t any other choices of drinks other than alcoholic beverages or a $5 bottle of Water. Me being cheap choice to give in to the temptation. Boy was that a mistake after not having pop for so long I could tell my body had gotten used to not having the bad stuff because before I could finish that bottle of pop I started feeling awful. My stomach was achy and I had the jitters like crazy. So like Chris I only gave in that one day. Today I was back to my water and green tea.
Great, Michelle! You’re inspiring me to drink more water and green tea. I think I feel another diet goal coming in the near future… 😉
Michelle, You are a good example for us all with your water and green tea! That’s going to have to be one of my health goals soon! 🙂