DeathscytheX

I never liked the sparkling waters.  They always tasted like they were trying to be something but always fell short of good.  My love of pop (we'd call it pop in Ohio when I was a kid and everyone in NY calls it soda) faded for me years ago. I hit 190 something pounds back in 2013 and back then I was drinking 2 cans of soda a day along with 3 cups of coffee (with cream and sugar) and alot of water. I wanted to lose weight and soda is biggest offender with all the easy to drink calories. Its been really gradual over the years of changing my drinks, but I'd say its been about 5 years now since I've switched over to having only 1 soda a week on the weekends, usually with some fast food (the one day a week I eat some fast food and I'm getting burned out on that, been visiting lady's dad in the hospital and theres not much of a choice in eating out lately). Aside from that every day I drink 4-5 cups of coffee at home, dunkin donuts brand I buy from walmart, we mix it half regular, half decaf, 1-2 tablespoons of sugar and a small splash of french vanilla creamer. I understand that high blood pressure Strider, Lady has it too which is why we do the half decaf coffee. That smaller amount of caffeine is also why I end up drinking 2-3 cups in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Shes on a statin med that brought her numbers back down to normal with no real side effects, surprised the hell out of us how well it worked.

Aside from coffee I drink "squirt drinks"  Its those Mio and Walmart brand water flavor enhancers. They're like $2-3 a bottle sold in the juice aisle. I drink the hell out of these. Zero calories to so it doesn't affect my calorie count. I really like the blue raspberry walmart brand. A couple decent sized squirts into a glass of ice water and thats a tasty beverage for me. Theres also a black cherry walmart/Mio that has caffeine that I'll have 1-2 drinks of a day too for the extra little caffeine. Its still not as much caffeine as a soda or coffee, but its a nice little boost. I have like 5-6 different flavors of these going on in my kitchen next to my fridge right now.  The fruit punch is great flavor too and the lemonade one tastes just like Country Time lemonade, but sugar free and no calories.. I swear it tastes exactly like it. Stay away from the Orange flavor squirt drink.. that tasted like ass.  Some people say, "those have artificial sweeteners in them, its not healthy!" And they'll say that while chugging down 10 cans of diet soda a day. Yeah, its the diet soda thats not healthy.  I also drink alot of plain water and once a day in the morning after exercise I'll drink a half blender bottle of water mixed with one scoop of Body Fortress protein isolate powder (gotta be isolate, the regular whey powder has large cholesterol in it you have to change your diet around for and is more for weight gain and increasing overall body mass). I use that myfitnesspal app for the past year and its a real eye opener, my macros showed protein was way too low even though I was just trying to lose weight and not put on muscle. Screw food pyramid, circle macro thing in this app should be taught in schools.

The longer I've gone without soda the less I crave it. I've noticed that with alot of food I've stopped eating. Like half the fast food commercials I see now look disgusting to me. Alot of fried foods look blah and that KFC commercial with the fried chicken sandwich with two donuts as a bun looks vile.  But I'll see a commercial for a Panera Bread salad and I'm like... Mmmmmm.... But its a salad, I'll just go to the store and buy some and make it myself. 

Coffee is amazing Strider, but only when mixed with the right amount of sugar and cream or flavored cream. With high blood pressure, try a decaf at dunkin donuts or tim hortons with 3 sugar packs and little single serving tub of hazelnut or french vanilla creamer. Its like a gateway drug once you find a coffee you like.   Plain black coffee is disgusting.  no sugar in your coffee DX and dark roast!? wtf. ewww.  Then again a couple years ago if I told myself I'd be drinking half decaf I'd have said ewwww then too.  

Edit:

On a side note, In hindsight, I wish I didn't drink all that soda when I was a kid. I don't think my teeth will every be actually white again unless I pay a dentist for some procedure. Really strong teeth whiteners seem to leave your teeth super sensitive so I've been hesitant to try those strong strips and gels.

You might as well pour that into hot chocolate when you disgrace the taste of coffee with these vile flavors. coffeemate is just chilled flavored glue. When that strong bold coffee flavor hits me, it wakes me up more than the caffeine probably. Mmmmm boiled dirt.

The only time I like sweetened coffee is if its iced or one of those canned coffee drinks for a caffeine boost. STOK made a really good one with protein in it, but they discontinued it I think.

Oh god not coffeemate. That's disgusting. International Delight is the only creamer brand I'll use. My younger brother actually likes putting french vanilla creamer in his hot chocolate.

Here's a pic of my squirt drinks. Lol.

The blue one has electrolytes like Gatorade and the black ones are caffeinated.