Artificial sweeteners? Uh, no thanks!

As I lay in bed last night at 7PM! all cramped up with stomach pains, I thought to myself, ‘Maybe this new plan isn’t working.’

Uh, yeah. Drinking Crystal Light all day, made with its artificial sweeteners, is just not gonna work. Nope.

So I’m back to Sprite, although I’ll try to go easy on it.

I’m going to stick with the black coffee, though. It actually seems to feel better than coffee with sugar, tummy and indigestion-wise, I wonder if there’s anything to that. Hmm…

Oh, yeah – and also, one slight correction – I do NOT walk down the stairs to hook the dog up at 5 in the morning. No way! So, no – I don’t take the stairs every time.

Black coffee – no more sodas!

That’s it! I’m puffy today and I cannot take it! I think I am going through full-fledged menopause now, because I keep getting puffy, just like my mother used to complain about. I had thought I was in menopause already, but, now I’m thinking that I just experienced hellatious peri-menopause – because so many different things are going on with me recently. One of those things is the fucking puffy attacks! I’ll be going along just fine, exercising a bit, watching what I’m eating, jeans are fitting better, etc and then BLAMMO!!!! PUFF!!! Dammit!!!!

My freaking legs are sore EVERY DAY because I am making myself move around so much, walking with the dog, walking with the kids, and every single time I take Puppy outside, I make sure to go down the stairs to hook him up, instead of lazily hooking him up at the top of the stairs – basically, I am taking every opportunity to take the stairs – and we have two sets of stairs in the house, so that is not hard.

I was getting dressed this morning, though, and I could barely get my jeans on – and embarassment of all embarassments – I was pulling them on with the belt loops – and I broke a belt loop!!! With my unsupportive husband in the damn room! Shit! And a whole bunch of other ugly cusswords, too! It made a little hole in my jeans, too. I know I am having the ‘puffy issue’, though, because my ankles are puffy!

Once in a while, like once every two weeks, when the kids miss the bus, and I have to take them to school – I stop on the way back and get a vanilla yogurt with nuts. And then we had cake from Easter in the house, too. So hubby says, “it’s too much yogurt and cake!” Uh yeah, thanks, but, I don’t think yogurt and cake make your ankles swell! UGH!! I love supportive people! And then I was telling Puppy that he has ugly lips, and hubby goes, “Well, you have a weight problem!”

This is so hard because my body is against me, in terms of age, and early menopause brought on by a hysterectomy, and hubby, unknowingly – is against me – with his sucky ass attitude. Funny thing is, he is the one that is so ‘against fatness’ – but, sometimes I think he is the one keeping me fat! Well, that’s a sick dynamic to allow myself to be dragged into, isn’t it? Yep. If that is somehow what his subconscious is causing him to do, I certainly do NOT have to give into it. No way.

I have to separate myself and especially my weight loss – from him and his crap. Or I will be stuck overweight forever.

This sucks, I’m so disappointed today, and I just needed some support, not crap!

I have decided to switch from sugar in my coffee and Sprite – to black coffee and Crystal Light. I’m a little bit afraid that this is kind of a step backwards, since my big thing was getting off of the artificial sweeteners, but, I’m just going to try it for a while and see what happens.

This is so hard.

Goodbye pretty pink packets!

Yep – I did it! I went off the artificial sweeteners. I was mostly having them in my coffee (I’m pretty much an all-day drinker…we might need to work on that one) and in many, many diet Coke’s per day!

I also drink Sprite – often mixing the two..mmmm! Well, one day I just decided to drop the pink packets altogether!

I knew that meant I would be ingesting a lot more sugar, as I drink soda and coffee all day long, but, I also know that the stuff is really bad for you – so it would be well worth it.

I also knew that as I trudge along this road, I will be seeking to replace more and more of my bad habits (like all-day coffee) with good habits (like all-day water, perhaps). So although, a funny step in the right direction, I knew it was the way to go.

And what is really funny is that something I’ve always heard and never fully believed happened.

I’ve always heard that people who ingest artificial sweeteners have a tendency to be overweight, and when quitting the evil-cancer-producing-oh-so-deceptive-pretty-pink-packet – they lose weight!

Well, I had sort of noticed some weight loss since we have been out here in Alabama, but, not a whole lot. When I kicked the pink packets out – in a week, I swear! A week! I noticed a difference in my weight loss!

Simply amazing! They weren’t lying to me all those years.

It really felt so bassackwards when I did it, you know, because I want to be moving in a positive direction with my health. And ingesting more sugar doesn’t exactly seem positive. But I could just feel it – that it was the right thing to do.

Funny how life is like that sometimes.