The No Soda Diet...

Been on a no soda diet for 7.5 years, and yet to shed any pounds. Has had the opposite effect on me, that I gained weight over this period of time.

Some days I think I should start smoking cigarettes, crack, and drinking soda, just to lose weight.

Hate looking at my fat ass in the mirror.

Good luck with yours, hope it works!

 

A bunch of people are trying the NO FACTS diet. They're holding a convention in Boston this week.

 

Well I don't eat a lot either, though I could eat better if I tried, and I really should. However, I find that (don't know if its genetic or not), that my metabolism is much worse than people my age.

All my friends eat hot dogs/burgers/chips/popcorn all day, and they are all fit, and skinny.

Then you got me, fat, bloated, slob!

I need some bigger friends to make me feel better about myself!

That caffeine stuff never did anything for my sleep, so thats not a worry.

 

If you eat a few smaller meals throughout the day it may boost your metabolism a bit. Thats what I have always been told anyway.

 

Blatantly partisan, but still... I LOL'ed

 

Therein lies your problem. When you eat only once or twice a day, you're putting your body into survival/starvation mode for the rest of it. Your body is afraid that it won't have the constant nutrients it needs and stores more of the food it does recieve as fat. Eat a MINIMUM of 5 times a day. Doesn't have to be big, a burger by itself, maybe a salad with oil and vinegar, some fruit ... small things, but have them often. Your body will adjust your metabolism to suit, and since you won't feel as hungry as you would when you're only eating twice a day ... you won't be eating anywhere near as much per meal. Try, if at all possible, to eat a fat, a carb, and a protein with each little meal. Balancing your diet is essential

Same goes for water ... people who feel bloated after drinking a lot of water aren't drinking it often enough. Your body stores water to help cool the skin when it gets hot, it stores more water if it's not seeing it regularly. Drink before you get thirsty, take a couple of swigs from a water bottle every 15 - 30 minutes wherever you are. On hot days, make it more than a few swigs. Yes, you're going to pee like a faucet ... but if weight loss is your goal, it's one way to do it.

This doesn't have to be expensive ... refill a water bottle at a water fountain, don't buy a new one each day. Buy Nutrigrain bars in bulk at a place like Costco or BJ's ... if you're eating 6 times a day a bar will be a meal by itself. Get a little fridge to keep at work where you can store a copule of heads of iceburg lettuce, keep some vinegar and oil in your drawers. Cans of tuna can be cheap and make a great lunch, if you have to have mayo like I do, keep it in the fridge.

Eat Healthier:

Shop at Whole Foods or other stores that sell organic foods that are free of pesticides and steroids. Contrary to popular opinion, (non-organic) chicken is the least healthy protein you can eat because of the accepted industry standard of using steroids on the birds to help them grow larger. Studies have shown that the white blood cell count (white blood cells are what your body produces to fight off infection/disease/bad-things) of an average person triples compared to what the body would normally produce when fighting off a common cold. This goes for microwaved food as well, as the micro radiation is actually left on the food. Do we wonder why we have one of the highest cancer rates in the world?

Making these kinds of changes aren't easy. I have parents who've been smoking weed once a day for as long as I've been alive (I'd like to think that not while my mother was pregnant however) so I grew up around nothing but crackers, cookies, potato chips, chocolate, ice cream, and soda .... lots and lots of soda. The house they live in now has a walk-in pantry that we call the snack closet .... as they're nothing in their but snacks. Changing my eating habits around has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life, but I'm already seeing benefits of it and I know that 20 years from now, I'm really going to appreciate the effort I'm putting in now.

Oh, and you've heard this a million times before, but quit smoking. Stop the excuses, stop the bullsheet, just quit. Don't have "one last one for the road", just chuck everyone you've got in the garbage and fight the cravings. Ever wonder why every single ingestible product sold in the US is madated to have a list of ingredients but cigarettes don't?? You know that there's tar in each smoke ... but have you ever looked into what makes up tar?? Aside from the tar, you are inhaling ammonia each time you take a puff ... ammonia has been linked to skin cancer in people who've used it as part of their job for many years like custodian ... and all they did was touch it, you're sucking it into you. Your appearance will deteriorate about 50% faster than non-smoking peers, everything from the wrinkles in your skin to the decaying of your teeth. You'll not breath as well as others which will reduce your energy and you're ability to maintain a certain level of fitness .... in other words, your weight will suffer (and is now). I'm not talking about exercise breathing or endurance, I'm talking simple about your lungs ability to breath in regular, normal breaths. The extra body weight will put more strain on your heart, the tar-coated lungs and esophagus will put strain on your lungs, and you will develop heart disease, lung disease, or a form of cancer if you're not luckly. You will die early. Early doesn't mean tomorrow, it doesn't mean by age 40, but you will die early. It might mean the difference between not ever knowing one of your grandchildren ... and attending all of your grand children's marriages. You will die early, I'm sorry to tell you that. Even before you die, your kids will detest the smell and won't want to come near you while you're smoking, they certainly won't want to kiss you. I don't even have kids yet and thought alone would be enough to scare me off anything at all forever. You'll reduce the number of people interested in buying a car or a house from you if either smells like a bar, 1 in 3 Americans smoke so in general, 2/3rds of the women you'd like to date will be turned off by your habit. It might mean the difference in a future job opportunity as studies have shown smokers work on average 17% less than non-smoking peers ... there are already some movements in this direction. (http://www.no-smoking.org/dec97/12-28-97-1.html). We won't even get into the 190+ BILLION dollars the US had to dish out in 2003 for healthcare of preventative illnesses. It's not just the number, but the thought that a whole lot of people needed a whole lotta care because of something they did to themselves (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5076921/)

Sorry to preach, but if you want to lose weight .... this is how you do it.

Bill in Brooklyn

 

Bravo Bill. Points well made (and I know you could've gone on for much, much more). Question is whether Carbon has the mettle and resolve to make a change.

--Dan

 

According to a few of my friends that teach (at a prestigious university that I will not name), sodas contain a from of sugar derived from corn syrup. This form of sugar takes about 6 years to leave the human body once it has entered. So say you drank some Cherry Coke when you were 35. The sugar from that soda was still present in your system when you were 40.

I have stayed away from Sodas for about a year now. There is no tremendous difference in weight but I think it will take a longer time for the weight reduction to happen.

 

yuck! you drink soda? nastiness.

just say no.

water is your friend. caffeine is not. fresh fruit juice if you have to (you're better off just to eat fruit and get all the benefits).

doody.

 

On soda by itself .... did anyone here see "Supersize Me"? That documentary by the NYC college student who went on a McDonalds only diet for 30 days?? After 22 days a blood test showed that his liver was entering stages of cirrhosis (a condition that directly turns living organ tissue into dead scar tissue, eventually killing the organ and the host that relies on that organ to live) and my wife and I were just astounded after seeing that film. Aside from the almost cirrhosis, he was depressed, had severe sexual dysfunction, and was addicted to the food (felt a "high" when eating which was replaced with more depression shortly thereafter). Anyway, I read an article that never made it to widespread press coverage about another NYC girl that did the same thing the "Supersize Me" kid did, but she cut the soda out and went light on the fries. Her physical condition stayed exactly where it was before she started the diet. Basically the sugar in that soda (they tallied it up and by the end of 30 days he'd consumed 30 pounds of sugar) had caused roughly 85+% of his problems. Notice how the people you associate with being addicted to coffee are also the same people who consistantly put 3 or more packets of sugar in each cup ... think about it.

Bill in Brooklyn

 

It's called "High Fructose Corn Syrup" and you'll see it in a lot of the products you have in your cabinets. It's basically a nasty form of cheap sugar. It's in a lot of things so it's tough finding a way around it, but I tend to like ketchup and found that Heinz makes "Organic Ketchup" which sounds nasty, but it's basically just organic tomatoes (no pesticies) and no high fructose corn syrup, they use pure cane sugar instead which is better for you. Like I said, sounds nasty, but IMO tastes better than the original and is only about $0.20 more per 32oz bottle than the regular stuff.

Bill in Brooklyn

 

I know exactly what you are talking about. The same thing was told to me by the two friends that are professors at the univesity. I have stayed away from Sodas for about a year now and will move in the direction of avoiding "High Fructose Corn Syrup". I know that this is put in products to cut costs.

So it is true that "High Fructose Corn Syrup" or sugar derived from it takes about 6 years to leave our system?

 

If it's true that it take 6 years to leave your body, I'd guess Carbon has consumed enough of it that it will still be hovering around his dust filled casket in 3062.

 

Interesting post.

I replaced all of my sodas with diet sodas, to reduce the unnecessary intake of sugars couple of years ago. Also, drinking heavily sweetened sodas (diet sodas to a lesser extent) seems to dull my taste buds, creating a negative effect on my diet. (makes eating more subtle foods less pleasant/enjoyable...)

Now, I am getting concerned about the artificial sweetners. Just curious if there any informed opinions as to how safe these things are. (are we going to be seeing artifical sweetner mfgs. getting sued in 50 yrs like tobacco companies are now?)

I should cut out all sodas from my diet, but old habits die hard...

-art

 

Yep, artificial sweeteners are just as bad as high fructose corn syrup. Fresh squeezed juices with no additives whatsoever, goat milk, and water are great for you. Cow milk is ok but they eat pesticide laced grass most of the time and it's not as healthy for you as goat milk. Everything else does really bad things.

Don't even get me started on Fluoride (found in tooth paste and drinking water).

Bill in Brooklyn

 

How about Soy Milk? I love the stuff and I'm hoping that it is as good as I think it is.

 

I stopped drinking soda about six months ago. No weight loss, but my frequency of headaches has gone down greatly.
I used to have a few headaches every week, now seldom at all. Must have been the caffiene.

 

soy milk is very good for you. like all such stuff, the more organic the better - generally speaking. if you're specifically looking to up your soy intake though, soy milk is a relatively inefficient way to do so as compared to the hard forms - tofu, etc. something like 2-1 or 3-1 comparatively for the nutritional benefits.

but WAY better for you than cow's milk ever will be.

doody.

 

In related news....

 

I do not think you will see any weight difference for a long time. I have had a no soda diet for about a year. I did not lose any significant weight from that for a long time.

 

Hey NNO

I have had a soda drinking problem for years. Every day of my life since about freshman year of high school I consumed 15 to 20+ Coke's a day!

I have quit a few times with very little results in the weight loss category. Every time I quit the soda I replaced it with drinks and juices that contained tons of sugar.(mostly lemonade and Gator aid ).

In April I gave up drinking soda and only drink water and unsweetened ice tea.
I now drink about 12 bottles of water everyday and it has been OK.
Without changing any other eating habits I have lost 17 pounds. I went from 205 and a now 187. I am hoping to quit for life!

You can lose weight if you stay of the juice!

Good Luck
Vernon

 

Soda is a weird thing; when you are into drinking it, its like nothing else will satisfy that craving. (Its the same thing going on with the fast food addiction in SuperSize Me). But when you get off it and start drinking water, don't you feel dehydrated? I mean, you need more water than ever to replentish the fluids, but somehow the Coke gave you that extra kick that water, even iced tea (mostly made with decaf these days anyway), can't feed.
I'll drink an iced-cold in the glass bottle Coca-Cola every once in a while, and i see where the pull is; not just the sugar rush, or even the caffeine rush- i really prefer the buzz from Greek or Turkish coffee, thank-you, but this "i need to drink more to satisfy a craving that the soda is actually creating" kind of feeling. Dunno what the science behind that is, but i suspect it is the same as the voodoo in McD's, and other prepared foods. If its fat you are concerned about, dropping the soda, alone, won't do it and you already knew that.
When you get back in touch with your body, you realize how out of synch your eating and drinking habits are; i hate to eat when i get up, but you absolutely should, to stoke the engine; i'll delay lunch, and drink coffee to keep going, when i really need nourishment, not caffeine. And, while sometimes, i still have a man-sized hunger, i find if i am eating clean stuff, i'm not raking the plate for more. But, to do it is to deny yourself stuff you like to slam into your gullet, for taste, for flavor, for texture, for some kind of buzz.
Everybody at the mall today (yes, i went there) was FAT!
But, if no bread ( i love bread), very little pasta and potatoes (love really good French Fries of a certain size and crispness, not those scrawny things sold as pomme frite), and stay away from desserts (fruit, maybe, but even that's got sugar), you'll be at fighting weight in NNo time. Problem is, you gotta do that the rest of your life, or you gain it right back, and then some.
So, you do have to do a major rethink, maybe one that doesn't deny you everything you love (or find some substitutes that are a bit better); otherwise, you will feel deprived, and that's no good. (I know people that are fascists to themselves about their diet, and that's pointless too. You have to eat; you are allowed to enjoy it, within limits.) One other thing: i find when i am not a big fat pig, its because i'm not making food the most important thing in my day. Think about that...