I tried my first soft drink. It was sodalicious

Today begins Lent.  In years past, I’ve done various things; giving up giving up, chocolate (that seems inspired by my mom), random acts of kindness……but this year as a whole, I’ve started to focus more on improving myself and slowly making small changes for the betterment of me.  One thing that has been hanging over my head has been my love of soda.

This is one obsession that I certainly cannot blame my parents on.  My sister and I grew up drinking Kool-aid and iced tea.  At one point, my mom relented and we were given a six pack of flavored seltzer water (the vanilla was my favorite) which we had to savor over the course of a week (3 each).  I can remember my mom and I came back from a trip to my grandparents, and brought back some sprite.  I poured the last of it in my glass, got distracted and accidentally poured it down the sink.  I thought my heart would break, I was so sad.  I can remember crying because I poured my soda down the sink and I didn’t have any left.

It must have been my late teens when soda was stocked in the house for me.  I did have Pepsi dreams, where I would wake up and couldn’t go back to sleep until I had a drink of Pepsi.  After college, I switched to diet Pepsi (I was always very sure of being a Pepsi person.  No surprise, my sister was a Coke person.  That gives you a lot of background into our childhood!).  Sometime between 2000 and now, I find myself ridiculously attached to Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi.

I found a lot of inspiration lately on improving myself.  My sister, in her blog (that’s right, she couldn’t make me write one without realizing she needed to do it too!) inspired me in her post about making this a year to thrive.  As we’re approaching the end of the first quarter, I find I’m keeping a lot of the goals I set for myself this year.  I’m still enjoying a healthy smoothie each morning.  I’m keeping up with making and incorporating bone broth into our meals.  This morning on the treadmill, I did the majority of the time almost at the pace that I used to bump it up to do a quick run.

But one thing that hangs over my head is my love of Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi.  My sister-in-law is laying off soda for a while and that encouraged me to want to give up soda for lent.  This makes me really sad, because I really find a lot of enjoyment with it.  When I was 15, we moved from one state to another, which was a really hard transition for me.  After school each day, I have really great memories sitting down with my mom with a glass of Pepsi, grapes and cheddar cheese and her listening to the struggles of me adapting.

So, here goes.  I’ve stocked up with plain seltzer water which I can add to fruit juice or tea.  I have some really lovely teas to try out.  Here goes 40 days, with the hopes that it really can be forever.