Now, there’s even more reason to stop – and this time, to stop for good.  A recent infographic has shown up on the Internet showing the various organs in the human body that the ingredients of soda can negatively affect.  Some of these I already knew about.  Some of them are new.

Although it’s been claimed that this infographic is from “the insurance industry,” that’s not the case.  It’s from a site called TermInsurance.org, a domain which according to a WhoIs search,  is registered in the Grand Cayman Islands.  From what I could see, it looks like an affiliate site.  However, don’t let the apparent lack of authority of the website detract from the information on the infographic.  

The health problems listed on the infographic supposedly come from reputable sources and can include things like:

• Increased Tooth Decay
• Asthma Attack
• Heart Disease
• Kidney Disease
• Reproductive Issues
• Sugar Overload
• Obesity
• Diabetes

Check out the original article here, where you can get a larger image of the graphic that you can read and/or print out.

IDEA TIP: this would be a great graphic to print out and tape to your refrigerator door. If that doesn’t make you think twice about reaching for another soda, I don’t know what will!

The empty calories coming from the high amounts of high fructose corn syrup sending your insulin levels sky-high is reason enough to stop drinking — or at least significantly reduce — your soda consumption.  This infographic should convince you the rest of the way.

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach andPersonal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – no email, no cookies, no catch.  Download and enjoy!

Technorati Tags: soda, coke, corn syrup, fructose, heart, disease, health, fitness, diet, nutrition, diabetes, obesity, calories, sugar, kidney

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3. How to Break Any Habit in 30 Days

I finally hit upon a method that enabled me to finally break the habit for good.  You can use this method for any “bad” habit you want to get rid of (like reducing your caffeine or sugar intake) or for any “good” habit you want to make permanent (like exercising).

Here’s how it works:

First, raid your piggy-bank and get a handful of coins (or get a roll of coins from your bank).  It really doesn’t matter if they’re nickels, dimes, or quarters.  You’ll need at least 30 of them.  As you can see from the picture, I went with dimes so I got $3.00 worth.

Second, get yourself some kind of empty container to put them in.  Since I was trying to quit drinking soft drinks, it was natural for me to use an empty soda bottle.  This was pretty symbolic of the habit I was trying to break.  It also helps if the container is clear so you can gauge your progress by seeing the coins inside.

Third, number the first couple of coins.  I used a Magic-Marker to number the coins in sequence.  There’s no need to number all 30 at once since you’ll have a hard time finding the coin with the next number once you put them all together.  I’d usually number 2 or 3 at a time and had them sitting on my dresser ready for use.

Fourth, get started working on your habit.  For each complete day that you successfully work on what you want to do (either stopping a bad behavior or increasing a good behavior), drop a coin in your container.  In my case, each day that I went without drinking any kind of soda, I’d drop a numbered coin in my “symbolic” container.  Each coin in your container represents a successful day where you achieved your goal.

Fifth, celebrate each day of victory.  In the beginning, I really struggled to make it through the entire day without a soft drink.  Drinking a Dr. Pepper or a Mr. Pibb was my daily afternoon ritual (I don’t drink coffee – I always drank soft drinks).  However, I really wanted to shed the 200-300 empty calories per day these drinks represented, not to mention the “high fructose corn syrup” they were pumping into my body.  So each day that I completed, I dropped in my numbered coin, shook the coins up and down to make them rattle, stared at the container and said, “That’s another day without a soft drink.  You don’t have control over me any more!”  Make sure you celebrate each time you drop in a numbered coin.

Sixth, no backsliding.  If you backslide, and most of us do at some point or another, start over.  Take your container and hold it up so you can see it clearly.  Take a close look at all the coins inside representing your progress.  Now dump out all the coins and start over.  If you backslide, go back and find coin #1 and start over.  There’s no need to beat yourself up over “falling off the wagon.”  Believe me, hearing all your progress and hard work come rattling out of the container and spill out on the table top is painful enough — but it will also make you more determined.  So if you backslide, simply resolve to go a little bit further next time and start again.

Seventh, continue until you have at least 30 coins in your container.  It takes at least 30 days of consistently doing something before it becomes a habit that you no longer have to think about.  To break an existing habit, it takes at least 30 days of not doing it in order to break its hold on you.  Make sure you continue this ritual every single day until at least 30 coins are in your container.

Finally, “cash in.”  Once you’ve either established a good habit or broken a bad one, take your “winnings” out of your container and buy yourself something to celebrate your victory.  Whether you buy something large or small doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that you experience that wonderful feeling that comes from having “gone the distance.”  You’ve earned it and believe me, listening to those coins jingle out of the container after 30 days is going to sound like a jackpot in Las Vegas!  Does this method work using marbles or pebbles instead of coins?  Sure it does – but you can’t spend marbles or pebbles!

Here are a couple of other tips that will help you break a bad habit:

1. Once you quit, quit for good. My failing was that I was always able to convince myself that I could “have just one” or that “just one won’t hurt.”  That’s total BS.  There’s no such thing as  “just one” and yes, just having one really does hurt.  I had to keep saying “I do NOT drink soda” and then keep working and dropping coins into my container until that statement really became true.  Afterward, you wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve been tempted.  However, every time I am, the phrase “I do NOT drink soda” automatically pops into my head and I’m able to move on past the soda dispensers and grab a bottle of water instead.
2. Don’t substitute. I used to substitute drinking Sprite or 7Up for Dr. Pepper.  Although Spite and 7Up don’t have the caffeine, they have just as many empty calories.  Go back to tip # 1.  If you’re going to quit, quit for good.  I know this goes against most advice but I didn’t want a “step-down” approach and using substitutes had never worked for me before.  Besides, I always saw it as substituting one bad habit for another.  Even though the substitute might be “less bad” than the original habit, it was still bad.  If you’re going to quit something, get yourself determined to quit it completely and for good.
3. Use rituals. It sounds corny but I turned breaking my soda habit into an epic battle between good and evil, a fight between me and that empty soda bottle in the picture.  I carried that bottle in my car for over a month stuck down between the seat and the door so that it poked me in the butt every time I got in or out.  I turned it into a constant reminder that I was in a real fight for my health.  Each time I dropped in a coin and heard it clink, I felt like I was striking another blow for my freedom.  Before I’d get out of my car at the end of the day, I’d stare at the Mr. Pibb label and literally say “You don’t have control over me anymore” out loud.  I’d shake the bottle of coins up and down in order to hear how full it was.  More and more it represented my increasing success and momentum.  I literally got my entire body into the ritual by using visual cues, sounds, and body movements to reinforce my determination.

Got a habit you’re trying to break?  Whether it’s sugar, caffeine, or anything else, give this method a try.  Make it fun.  Get all your senses involved each time you drop in a coin.  Before you know it, you’ll be at coin # 30 and your bad habit will be history!

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – for a limited time.  Just click on the title to be taken to the download page.  Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: soda, coke, soft drinks, sugar, caffeine, habit, ritual, Mr. Pibb

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I’ve mentioned before in several posts how addictive caffeine is.  Like refined sugar, the energy “boost” you get from a cup of coffee is short lived – and the subsequent energy “crash” leaves you craving another cup.  As you can imagine, putting your body through this constant up-and-down energy cycle is really hard on your health.

Those of you that regularly follow my blog know that I don’t drink coffee.  I’ve never liked the taste of it so I never developed the habit (and addiction) of drinking it every morning.  But before you say, “What a hypocrite!  It’s easy to advise people to give up something you don’t drink yourself!” let me remind you of my own “caffeine cross:”  Dr. Pepper soft drinks.

A typical cup of coffee contains about 100 mg of caffeine with most cola-based soft drinks (including Dr. Pepper) containing around half that amount (40-50 mg per 12 oz).  As a reference point, a Red Bull contains 80 mg in an 8 oz can and most tea (iced or hot) comes in around 40 mg per serving.  Even a cup of hot cocoa or a glass of chocolate milk is going to contain caffeine (5-10 mg).

So what’s the big deal with a little caffeine?  If it’s in just about everything we drink, what’s the harm?  Well, first off there’s the psychological harm.  Caffeinated drinks are addictive, and any addiction, even a “small” one like caffeine, takes a psychological toll.

The Psychological Toll

Like I mentioned, my addiction is drinking Dr. Pepper (I like his “buddy” Mr. Pibb even better!) and even though I’ve quit drinking them several times before, I can still be occasionally caught drinking one or two.  It’s like they “call” to me, doing everything they can to convince me how good they’ll taste and how wonderful they’ll feel going down my throat – cool, sweet, delicious.  They “tell” me that I can have just one – that just one won’t do any harm.

So what happens when I succumb to the temptation?  I feel guilty and angry at myself.  I criticize myself for being weak.  I beat myself up.

Sounds exactly like a junkie craving their next “fix” or an alcoholic trying to resist taking that next drink, doesn’t it?  That’s my point – it’s exactly the same kind of addiction, and like any addiction, it takes a toll on your psyche, on your self-image and on your feelings of self-worth.

The Physiological Toll

Second, there’s the harm caffeine is doing to your body, the physiological damage.  Caffeinated drinks tend to be very acidic with cola-type soft drinks having a pH of 2.5 (about the same as vinegar – yikes!) and coffee a pH level of 5.  A pH of 7 is considered neutral and anything lower than a 7 is considered to be “acidic.”  Obviously, a diet with a high acidic content isn’t very good for your teeth or digestive system.  Besides, all you have to do is to take a look at the residue inside your coffee maker and just imagine what’s being left inside your body.

However, much more damaging to your body is the effect caffeine has on your adrenal gland, the gland that’s responsible for producing adrenaline.  Getting a shot of adrenaline into the blood stream is what gives you that feeling of alertness and energy.  But keeping your body in this “fight-or-flight” state is extremely exhausting to your body.  In fact, Stephen Cherniske in his book, Caffeine Blues, calls this constant state of alertness “caffeinism.”  He goes on to state that, “After prolonged ‘caffeinism,’ your body enters a state of adrenal exhaustion. Your caffeine consumption has simply pushed your adrenal glands so much that they’ve burned out.”

In the book, Herbal Defense, author Ralph T. Golan, ND, states that, “Caffeine forces your glands to secrete when they don’t have much left to give, and they have to keep digging deeper and deeper, making you more and more tired over time. And over the years, it takes more and more coffee to get the same result. Some people reach the point of drinking half a dozen or more cups of coffee to get the same result and it’s barely keeping them awake. That’s severe adrenal depletion.”

In Active Wellness, by Gayle Reichler MS, RD, CDN, she notes that, “Within five minutes after you drink your morning coffee, the caffeine begins to stimulate your central nervous system, triggering the release of stress hormones in your body, causing a stress (“fight or flight” ) response. The stress hormones are useful if you need to prepare yourself to fight or flee a dangerous situation, but if you are simply sitting at your desk you may feel a short charge of alertness, quickly followed by feelings of agitation. Within the next hour or so, after the stress response dissipates, you will probably feel more tired and hungry. At these low-energy times, many people reach for another cup of coffee, or eat a snack that is often high in sugar to “pep up” and stay alert. However, both caffeine and sugar only give you temporary feelings of increased energy, which quickly dissipate. For some people, this cycle of low energy followed by an infusion of caffeine or food continues the entire day — leaving them feeling exhausted and unable to focus by 3:00 p.m. because they are drained from the ups and downs in energy their body endured throughout the day.”

By the way, I found a great article by Dani Veracity that contains excerpts from quite a few books (including the previous three) on the effects of caffeine on the body.  Rather than try to reproduce them all here, you can read the entire article at:  http://www.naturalnews.com/012352.html

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that caffeine has no part to play in a healthy lifestyle.  That’s it.  You really can’t come to any other conclusion once you know how caffeine effects the body.

Fighting the Beast

So how do you get this monkey off  your back?  How do you fight the “caffeine beast?”  Good question – and if I could honestly say that I never touched another Dr. Pepper after I swore I’d never drink them again, I might have some answers for you.  But I can’t make that claim.  I’ve slid backwards just like everybody else.  But I have made a few distinctions that do help:

• Every day, your battle begins again. There’s no such thing as “I’ve kicked the habit for good and now I’ll never crave caffeine again.”  There’s always going to be a stressful situation, or a deadline, or what seems to be a perfect reason for a quick burst of energy.  These are simply excuses and before you know it, you’re back to several cups (or cans) per day.  Fighting the “caffeine beast” is a constant moment-to-moment, day-to-day battle.
• There’s no such thing as “just one.” Either you control caffeine or it controls you.  There’s no middle ground.  It’s like trying to quit anything – if you have “just one,” then you haven’t really quit.  If you tell yourself, “I can handle it,” you’re just kidding yourself.
• It’s painful. There’s no headache worse than a caffeine headache.  Your head pounds and your entire body aches.  You literally feel like you have the flu – in fact, having the flu is more fun.  But like any physical addiction, your body will react painfully when the drug is removed.  You’ve got to be prepared for this, have strategies to help you deal with it, and be determined to work through it.
• It’s worth it. You don’t realize how much energy caffeine is robbing from you body until you break your addiction from it.  The inevitable energy “crash” that follows the initial adrenaline burst doesn’t bring you back down to “zero” – it falls below that point so after a while, it takes more and more effort just to function.  Breaking the caffeine addiction frees up all this energy for more productive activities.

And what if you backslide?  Don’t beat yourself up over it.  Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and then begin the process again with a little more grit and determination.  It’s a daily battle, but I’m right there fighting along side you!

Hiram

The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: coffee, coke, dr pepper, mr pibb, cola, caffeine, caffeinated, adrenaline, jitters, energy, red bull, jolt, addiction, addict

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