Tip #4

Quit drinking soda and replace it with something healthy, such as water. Sweet tea does not count. Unsweet tea would be ok. Soda contains a TON of sugar,which is empty calories. A 12 oz can of soda contains 42 grams of sugar. There are 4 grams to a teaspoon, which means you have over 10 teaspoons of sugar in one can. There are 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon. So you've got roughly 3+ Tablespoons of sugar. That is almost 1/4 c of sugar in your can of soda. That is pretty much your DAILY allowance for sugar.

Before I started to make our drastic diet changes, I read that if you quit drinking soda for a year without replacing with an equally sugary drink, and did nothing else, you would lose 10 pounds. I must admit, I was skeptical. Well, I decided to give up soda. It was much easier than I anticipated. I replaced it with just plain water, or sometimes water with a little lemon. That was in January of 2006. That August, I had to have my appendix removed. After that ordeal had ended, I stepped on the scale. I was 7 pounds lighter than in January. (On a side note, your appendix is about as big as your pinkie finger, so that alone did not lighten me by 7 pounds.) At that point, I hadn't really made too many changes other than milling our wheat. When you look at the amount of sugar in a can of soda, it should make you think twice about drinking it.

Also, as my chiropractor so kindly pointed out, the phosphates found in soda are very hard on your bones, which can lead to osteoporosis, among other things. Your body is not properly able to process calcium. By giving up soda, not only was I able to drop some pounds, but I am strengthening my bones too.