I am a regular lurker but I believe this is my first actual post. My wife evakatharina posts often. Anyway, this is a huge deal for me. I've resolved to phase soda out of my life. I think it's kind of insulting to people with serious problems to refer to things as addictions that really aren't, but I sometimes feel like I'm exhibiting addictive behavior when it comes to soda. I've scaled down a lot over the past few years, mostly in the name of mustachianism, but I still can't help loving soda. If I could drink as much as I wanted with no consequences, it would be a lot, like way WAY too much, particularly Coke.
At my peak, when we were living a not aggressively anti-mustachian lifestyle in New York but simply didn't know how to manage money, I could easily down 40-60 oz. of sugary beverages in a day just by walking across the street to our corner store. Now I'm down to basically 16-20 oz. per day, give or take, but I'll sometimes find myself in a gas station parking lot scrounging for change under my car seats or something pathetic. It's largely associated with food for very convoluted reasons, since I don't like to eat very much because I associate food with anxiety attacks. It's something a professional would need to untangle. In any case, meals are often staged merely as an excuse to enjoy a soda, so I do think I've gotten into the addict feedback loop where my reward centers are warped and demand soda anytime I've made a habit of drinking one in the past, a la cigarette smokers and coffee. Like I can't eat a potato chip without immediately desiring a soda.
I shudder to think what my habit does to my body. I am not overweight, in fact I am quite thin and always have been, no matter my lifestyle choices (I ate at McDonald's all the time in my teen and college years but am now a vegetarian). It's been hard to get motivated when much of the literature on soda deals with obesity, and I could literally drink a gallon of soda per day and not see one extra pound. I mainly have problems with my teeth. Despite reasonable care, I have way too many cavities for someone my age (27) and even had to have a molar pulled in my late teens. I do not want dentures someday, but that's the path I'm on.
I quit cold turkey for six weeks a few years ago but fell off the wagon even worse than before. I'm not sure of the best way to go about it, but my issue last time was that I didn't do the classic "take it one day at a time," saw some sodas in a store, and started wondering how I'd go the rest of my life without a Coca-Cola. My friend says he deals with it by just allowing himself one very rarely. Anyway, I'm posting this in share your badassity because it sounds silly but it is a big deal for me to even get to this point. Soda is sadly kind of tied up with my identity with my family, like I always have to have a Coke at gatherings or whatever, and I don't want it to be like that anymore. Thanks for listening, I would love any and all encouragement!
Oh, and the most obvious thing, I am disgusted at the amount of money I waste on a toxic substance that is harming my body. We've made GREAT progress in managing our finances, but this is one area I HAVE to tamp down on or I'll feel like I'm not a true mustachian no matter what else we do.
