Basically, the goal is to reduce the calories that I consume.
I used to drink a lot of regular soda, such as Coca Cola. A can of Coke has 140 calories, mostly sugar. I used to drink about 3 cans a day. That's a lot of calories I don't need. So I decided to try diet soda again. Yeah, if you're anything like me the idea of drinking diet pop is about as attractive as eating seaweed for breakfast. But, I heard from a friend that if you do it for more than a week, you'll get used to it and actually like it.
I did a taste test of a few diet sodas and found Coke Zero to be the best tasting. So, I have switched to that (and Diet Coke, Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet 7-Up, etc.) and just like my friend told me, I have gotten used to it. I just try to avoid regular soda at all costs now.
If I used to drink 3 cans a day, then I figure this is saving me almost 500 calories a day which means 3500 calories a week and I could lose a pound a week just because of this change. However, that seems too easy so I'll just lump this in with my diet in general, which is to reduce calories where possible.
Now about Aspartame. There is a lot of religion about this being bad for you, partly because of the shady method in which it originally got approved by the FDA, but the FDA now claims it is the most tested and studied food product they have every approved and there is no adverse affects of its consumption. So I have opted to ignore the religious beliefs (conspiracy theory) out there. Of course, water is always better than soda, and I am cutting back on the diet soda as well... I like to drink it with meals but if I finish my lunch and still have half a can remaining, I'll dump it and switch to water.
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- less junk food
- stop eating when near full
- gradually reduce calories to get body used to burning fat
- Weight loss plateau makes weight loss grind to a sudden halt