On diet pop and treat days

So today is going to be my first full day in a long time without any Diet Pepsi. Like a true addict I felt like I should allow myself to finish what was left in my fridge. (I should have rationed them better!) I am already having cravings….it might be a long day.

So far my eating has been going ok. My work has a monthly treat day, where different teams of my co-workers host, choose a theme, and bring in delicious treats. Since treat day also falls on my late night to work, I don’t bring anything for dinner and just snack on what’s there. Yesterday was Hawaiian themed, and I did indulge. I had a lot more cheese and macadamia nuts than I should have…also there was a delicious cake. Was anything there technically “clean”? Maybe the fruit? Everything else wasn’t, so why did I join in? If there’s anything I learned about dieting and changing eating habits, it’s that if you are too strict…you’re not going to stick with it, especially at first. I have also learned that events happen a lot, where there is treats, sugar etc. So if I can eat well when I am at home, then I feel like I am ok to indulge a little bit at social events etc. Hopefully there will come a point when I don’t want to indulge at all. (does that ever happen??)

 The author of the 100daysofrealfoodblog takes this approach as well. I like how she approaches things with her kids. At home they eat real food, if they have treats they make it themselves. However if they are at birthday parties, eating at someone else’s house, she allows them to have whatever they want. I like this. There are plenty of opportunities for kids to eat junk food (probably too many)…so why provide it at home? And this way they still get to have to occasional treat, while eating healthy probably more than 90% of the time. I feel like if we are too strict with food, it can come back to bite us in the butt, which is why I like this approach so much.

There is one product I recently discovered that I wanted to mention. It’s called Crio Bru. www.criobru.ca I stumbled across it while reading another clean eating blog one day. It is a hot drink, made of 100% ground cocoa beans. Caleb (my husband) loves tea. He loves drinks that aren’t sweet. (he waters down juice like crazy) He is working on a PhD right now and I thought this sounded like something he would really love. Something to drink/keep him awake while he works that isn’t sugary. It’s apparently chock full of antioxidants, (cocoa has the highest concentration of antioxidants than any other food) It has a natural stimulant in it called theobromine, and apparently it helps curb your appetite if you are looking to loose weight. I think it only has about 10 calories per cup. I was about to order some from the website, but then saw you could order it for pick up in Calgary. I clicked on pick up and it turns out the store that is a supplier is literally two blocks from my work. (Community) So I headed down on my lunch break and they had it in stock.

Caleb was surprised when he got a little coffee maker on Christmas. He was excited to try it out. It’s actually really quite good. Think grown up hot chocolate. It is not sweet…but I wouldn’t say it’s too bitter. You could add a little sugar or honey to sweeten it. Caleb is already drinking it all day, he loves it. I am going to get a little coffee maker for my office so I can have it available to me during the day as well. It’s not necessarily a replacement for my carbonation fix, but it will give me something to drink that is amazingly healthy for me. I recommend checking it out!

I feel like this post has been all over the place!! There have been others that mentioned they are ready to give up pop as well. How have you been doing??