March Madness Challenge

I decided I need to make changes in my life. After reading a lot of blogs and spending hours on YouTube, I learned in order to look and feel healthier there is one thing holding me back. This thing I reach for instantly when I wake up. I consume it every day with almost every meal, and in some instances it is the only thing I drink all day. It is my perfect snack. Something I've never left a Wawa without. This crutch that I have given myself over the years is Coca-Cola.

I live and breathe the white wave on the front of every bottle. I love the polar bears and own the plush versions of them in two out of the three sizes. I collect Mycokerewards from roommates, friends, family and coworkers. I can rattle off random information about the soda and the company as a whole. My dream kitchen has a retro feel with Coca-Cola accents. And the Coca-Cola Santa is the real Santa.

I am an addict. I am addicted to the carbonation tickling my tongue and giving me the everlasting joy I seek in a beverage. A little over the top? Maybe, but when you are about to attempt to give up the one thing you drink on a daily basis it makes you feel a little nutty.

The decision to challenge myself to cut soda from my diet is something I have been contemplating for the past few months. Although it seemed like a last minute decision to friends and family that I told the day before my challenge began, it is something that I am not taking lightly. In order to hydrate myself and feel better day to day water is the answer. On every blog and channel this is the one consistent thing in a beauty routine; Drink lots of water. So my challenge is to not only eliminate soda from my diet for the month of March, I am replacing it with water and lots of it.

My goal has been set at 142 ounces of water each day which equates to approximately 18 glasses of water. This goal may seem excessive, however the standard 8 glasses of water per day is the average. There are many sites you can visit to give you the exact amount of water you should be consuming by factoring in your height and weight.

As I said before, I started this March Madness Challenge on March 1, 2015. The first two days I was drinking so much water at work that I didn't even realize I had gone without my usual Coke. I had one craving on day 1 at dinner with my boyfriend, Nick, who had his drink a little too close to my placemat for comfort. Yesterday, day 3, was the worst so far. I live in PA and was stuck in traffic on 202 due to the inclement weather that struck in the middle of the day. I left work early and it still took me 2 and a half hours to get home when it normally takes 30 minutes during normal weekday traffic at 6:30. About an hour in, I stopped for snacks at Wawa and went right to the soda case out of pure habit. Once I had the soda in my hand, it hit me, I was about to cave. Only 3 days in and I was doubting how serious I was going to take this. The rest of the night I kept asking to have a sip of Nick's drink. I even asked if I could swish it around in my mouth for a little just to get the bubbles and sweet taste. Without fail he was supporting and talked me off of the ledge.

So here I am, day 4, half way through my 5^th refill of my 20 oz. glass water bottle filled with black berries and pineapples, happy that I didn’t let the Coke get to me. Here’s to another 27 days and another 3,834 ounces of water. I really think I am going to get through this!