Quitting diet soda: Aspartame withdrawals

A good side effect of changing to a real food way of eating is that I end up wanting to change a lot more than just switching to eating grass-fed meat & dairy and getting in tons more probiotics and bone broths and not eating any fake food. I want to stop drinking fake liquids, too. A few days ago I decided I was sick of spending a chunk of money each week on Diet Coke, money that could go to buying more real food goodies, and decided it was time to quit.

Like it would let me off that easily. Hmph.

I hadn’t been drinking a lot of it, compared to some people I know. And every glass I poured, I drank maybe half of it. So overall, I didn’t drink that much. But apparently, the actual amount consumed doesn’t really matter much. The crap is still going to fight dirty when you decide to oust it from your body.

Two nights ago, I had a really bad headache set in that I just considered a random event triggered by who knows what. I rarely, very rarely, get headaches, so when the stray one does comes along, I’m a total baby about it. The “Owwwww it huuuuuurts!!!” kind of baby. And since I don’t like taking pills if I don’t really need them, I don’t consider a “mere” headache a “need” for pills, so I just deal with the pain (whining helps). So the other night, I just massaged my head and tried to remember that pulse point on my hand where, if you pinch it just right, it kills a headache. My headache only got a flesh wound, but that was better than nothing. By morning, I was ok.

Yesterday, early evening, I had some actual cravings for Diet Coke. Enough that prodded me out of my chair and into the kitchen to roam, knowing I wasn’t going to have any soda, but laughing to my roommate about how I’d love to have one. I felt almost ashamed; if I didn’t want the stuff, then just don’t drink it. It’s not hard!

But it is, apparently.

Then a bit later on, another bad headache set in. This time I realized it must be tied to the lack of soda, given the cravings earlier in the night. I usually had more soda at night than early in the day. The headache was bad enough that I gave in an popped some generic ibuprofen. I also ate some sugar (leftover holiday fudge), because I was still having a bit of a craving for something sweet. It made a twisted sort of sense; I wasn’t craving sugar per se, since Diet Coke doesn’t have any real sugar in it, but my body was used to getting a pretend-sugar kick in the evening. So I gave it a couple of hits of real sugar, and that did seem to help the craving.

These headaches came on in the evenings, but right now is early afternoon and I think I feel the beginnings of one. They seem to be getting worse, and I’m afraid before the full detox is over I’m going to end up in the fetal position and whimpering (part of the whole “big baby” thing). Please, oh please, let this not drag on for a long time!

I titled this post “Aspartame withdrawal” because I know that’s what’s causing this. The caffeine might be contributing, but I get more caffeine each day from coffee, and I’ve not changed my coffee consumption at all. But I will say this: no matter how bad this detox becomes, I will never touch diet soda (or any soda) again. When I think of what it has been doing to my body for so  many years…oh man. I’m not mad at myself (and you shouldn’t be, either, if you’re going through this or will go through it), because I just didn’t know any better before. Oh sure, I’ve heard for a long time that sodas are bad for me, but lots of things are bad for me but I wasn’t ready to change. Now I am.

And knowing how our bodies are such amazing healing machines, I know that once the poison is gone from my system (well, this one, anyway), which according to different sources can take awhile, my body can heal from it. And from now on, no more of that crap is passing my lips. Bleah.

Tonight the headache will get Reiki’d (I always forget to Reiki myself!), and I’ve still got some fudge if cravings hit. I’m gonna go whine to Bast (my kitty) now…at least she can’t roll her eyes at me.