The Dreaded Diet Cola Kick

I have the horrible habit of drinking can after can after bottle after fountain drink of diet or zero colas. For years I've had myself convinced that drinking them is OK and I've gotta have my caffeine somehow. Doesn't matter that I love hot tea and that if I limited my choices to tea drinking I'd have less of it a day. What matters is I USED to be a Mountain Dew addict and I'm not now.

Been wearing that "I no longer drink The Dew" badge around for so long that it's not only justified having zero calorie soft drinks, it's made me a goddamn super hero. But, while kicking Mtn. Dew was tough, I didn't totally let go of carbonated caffeine...so I didn't totally suffer....so I didn't overcome anything near world evil....so what was I thinking?

Using the excuse is what.

I'm smart enough to know deep down in my gut that drinking this stuff isn't any better for me (even if it doesn't threaten to fling me headlong into a Diabetic coma.) I'm honest enough to admit that I'd function better without it (even though I've convinced myself that I neeeeeed it.) And I'm swift enough to realize I will find even more elaborate excuses if I can't find a feasible way to kick my soda drinking habit.

What to do?

Copy my BFE - or at least his intention. We recently reset our lives by going through a process based on the book The Best Year Yet - something we practice annually now - and on his BYY plan, he wrote that he'd drink as much water as he does soda. That set the lightbulb over my head to "glow."

I don't know how he plans to account for it, but I know I can only drink so much in a day before I feel all sloshy. SLOSHY. It's a word now because I made it up. Anyway, I made a deal with myself on my own BYY plan to drink 1 glass of water for every 1 can/fountain drink/bottle of zero cola (or equivalent.) 

So every time I head to pour myself a sweet glass of caffeine a la phenylketonurics  en carbonate...I will pour myself a glass of water, too. And I can't get another diet drink til my water is gone. That's THE NEW DEAL.

We can talk about cold turkey quits later.  OK? Because this I can do.