I’ve read more and more about how diet soda is really bad for us – it actually causes obesity rather than helps it. Unfortunately, I’m an addict. I love me my diet pepsi with lime. I usually have at least one diet soda a day – sometimes more. But I know that the aspartame just isn’t good for me – and others can feel differently but I feel like it’s contributed to my weight problems for sure. So I’m going to start curbing this habit. I always have a dozen cans in the fridge but yesterday when I was at the store, even knowing there were only 3 cans left in the fridge, I didn’t buy any.

I want to concentrate on more water intake and one of the ways to do that is to eliminate the soda at home – so I might still have one when I’m out but I won’t keep it at home anymore. I’m going to slowly wean myself off it. The problem of course is that I love the bubbles! And though I used to think years ago it was gross, I’m all about the sparkling water with lemon/lime like Perrier etc. So I’m going to try to drink more of that. I also have a water dispenser in my house with a giant 5 gallon jug of water on it – and I rarely use it! And I have a huge selection of teas that I tend to forget about so this morning I went through them and brought two boxes to work so that I would have a good selection at work to be taking in more water during the day.

I started tracking my food this week too. Truthfully. Which of course is always hard to do. Like the fact that I ate half a baguette yesterday. But the more I’m honest with myself and show myself what I’m eating and how far over the calories I should be taking in I am, the more I’ll be conscious of making better choices.

Also, I’m kind of loving this exercise ball. I leave it in the living room with some 3 lb weights and I’ve been watching tv while I hang out on it – move around, do some stuff. Last night I did a little 20 min upper body workout. It seems to be an excellent way of getting some exercise in while I watch tv. I need to get a tv down in the gym I set up downstairs – then I’d be likely to even get on the exercise bike ☺ And no, I don’t want it in the living room so it stays downstairs.

I’m gearing up – mentally that is. Gearing up to get some actual cardio exercise. I need to remind myself that I’m not where I was last year and I’m a million miles away from 4 years ago, so I need to accept my current fitness level and work in it and with it. I did quit smoking last summer so I wonder how well my cardio will improve this time compared to last time – don’t know if it will make a difference or not.

Oh! And contrary to what people tell you when you’re quitting smoking – like oh you’ll breath better, food will taste better, you’ll notice your clothes don’t stink – in my experience, it was all BS. I experienced none of that, I just miss the smoking. I loved smoking but I wasn’t really a nicotine addict so much as a habitual smoker so once I broke the habits of when I had one (with coffee, after dinner etc.) I don’t often find myself wanting one. I quit because I’m 36 and it’s a dumb thing to be doing. I’m already overweight – that’s enough risk factors for a million diseases, I don’t need to make it worse. And also because my stepmother fought (and so far has won) a battle with lung cancer after being a smoker for 40 years and I was literally lying to my family that I had quit smoking. It was like I was 16 and sneaking in smokes and putting on perfume before I saw them. All of this added up and I finally quit again (I had quit 4 years ago for a year but when my friend died I started again and smoked for another 3 years). Anyway, I still have one occasionally when I have a drink and bum one from someone, but I don’t go out drinking much so it’s not really a risk. And also, so few people smoke here now that there’s rarely even someone to bum one from. BC is down to 14% I think – one of the lowest percentage of smokers of a population anywhere. I guess we’re all a bunch of health nuts – either that or the government has made it so ridiculously expensive that people finally took the hint. I think a pack of cigarettes is now $11 or so? And of course all the non-smoking bylaws in place – banned from restaurants (in or out), parks, public places, outside doorways etc. All in all, I guess it’s a good thing. But I’m never going to be one of those ‘condescending ex-smokers’ – those people drive me nuts.

Anyway, I digress. It’s that kind of day…. Lol