Not Gonna ‘Dew’ It!

Today marks the third consecutive day that I have been on the wagon. As part of the dental work that I am getting done I am in the midst of a tooth-whitening program that runs 14 days. I had to go in and get molds of my teeth, which I fill with a whitening agent each night and place in my mouth while I sleep. The instructions given to me with the bleach indicate that for the agent to work, I cannot consume coffee or soda pop during the treatment. The coffee part is easy for me, since I don’t drink it. I knew that I was dependent on cold caffeine long ago, but never thought about how hard it would be to kick it. I usually have a Coke to get things rolling in the morning, and then a Mountain Dew in the afternoon to keep momentum up. On the weekends it is even worse. When I am up past midnight doing homework or updating my blog (as I am now) I take the Dr. Pepper intravenously.

I can handle the lack of caffeine from the standpoint of being drowsy. At work I can usually get up and walk away when I get tired. And I have been downing great amounts of water, which keeps my bladder full and helps me stay awake. What kills me is the headaches. Tylenol has helped to offset that.

I know that getting away from soda pop is good for me in more than one way. I have heard thousands of lectures about what soda does to your teeth. I have also witnessed what soda consumption does when you are trying to train for a marathon. I have also heard people testify that they have dropped weight just from laying off of the soda pop. Not that I am concerned about that.

In another eleven days my program will be over, and I will have endured the exile from the pop. By then the headaches will be gone, and my system will be clean. By then I will believe that I do not need caffeine to function. I also know that I am too weak to stay off of the junk forever. But hey, all things in moderation, right?