Welcome to our Monthly Challenges
Did you know you subconsciously work harder when there’s an end date to your goals?
The shorter time frame keeps you actively putting effort in, particularly when it’s the end of the month.
Your Goal in May is: Stop Drinking Soda
The Challenge
For this challenge you will not consume any fruit juices, fizzy drinks, cordial or diet drinks. You should only drink water, coffee, tea and milk.
Soda drinks like Coke, Pepsi, Fanta, Dr Pepper and Mountain Dew are loaded with sugar, and are thought to be one of the leading causes of the obesity epidemic.
A bottle of soda can have 50-60 grams of sugar in. If a child had this every school day (180) in a year they’d have consumed 22lbs of sugar.
Fruit juices are just as bad in terms of sugar content. A 250ml bottle of orange juice contains 25 grams of sugar. This isn’t as healthy as you might think, as the healthy part of the fruit (the pulp) is often removed, leaving only fruit sugars.
If you had a 250ml glass of orange juice every morning, over a year you would consume 20lbs of sugar.
Why not diet soda? Ingredients like sucralose and aspartame haven’t had many longitudinal studies, but what is known is that they block the transmission of brain signals telling you to stop eating. Studies have shown that children who consume a diet soda with a meal will eat more than with other drinks.
Health Benefits
Unlike March’s Mindful Eating, where weight loss may be an indirect effect, you are likely to lose weight by switching out your sugary drinks with water.
That’s because you aren’t likely to take on those calories at meal times, so the net effect will be 100-200 fewer calories a day, which could add up to 1-2lbs over the month.
By reducing sugar intake you will be helping your Heart, Brain, Teeth and Bones. The full list of benefits can be found over at MedicalDaily.
Tips
- Buy a water filter from Brita (or another company) in order to filter tap water in your home
- Take bottled water with you to work, so you aren’t caught with nothing to drink
- Ask for still or sparkling water in restaurants to drink with your meal
- See if other people in the house will do the challenge with you. It’s much easier to succeed if you can remove all the soft drinks in the house.
- Read the label of your favourite soft drinks. You might be surprised that even things like Vitamin Water contain 30 grams of sugar.
- Remember that diet sodas are a better alternative, but still have potential effects due to the artificial sweeteners in use
- Be aware that these companies know the product isn’t healthy, but don’t care about your well being, only your money
Thanks for reading this article. Please share this with anyone you think is up for the challenge to stop drinking soda for a month!
