Giving it up. For reals this time

I've made a lot of changes in what I eat over the last several years. Good changes, I think. But there's a couple of food habits I have found nearly impossible to break. Sweets, I don't know if I want to. But I have cut back quite a bit on that. The other?

Pop. Soda. Coke (even if it's not Coca-Cola). Whatever you might call it, that sweet bubbly stuff I just have not been able to do without.

But.

Last Thursday I had some surgery (nothing major and not related to my breast cancer; that's about all you really need to know). As usual, I was instructed not to eat or drink anything past midnight. I had some cookies and milk about 10 pm Wednesday night, and a glass of water between 11:30 and midnight.

Mom and I got to the hospital about 9:30, well before my check-in time of 10 a.m. Thursday, and they put me in the surgical prep area right away. And then we waited. And waited. I didn't get in for surgery until noon. Of course I had a hunger headache by now. The doctor had told me the procedure would take maybe a half hour and I should be good to go home about 2:30.

I remember talking with the anesthesiologist about my name in the surgery room, then nothing til I woke up back in the surgical prep area. I was pretty groggy, obviously, but I do remember throwing up, probably because they gave me 2 tablets of loratab and I usually only take a HALF a tablet on my own. Maybe that's why we didn't get home until almost 5 pm.

Of course, I was tired and went right to bed. Mom came back to my house later that evening and made me some chicken soup. I didn't keep that down, either. I just went to sleep after that. So now it's been about 24 hours plus without any real food.

In the morning, Mom made me a scrambled egg, which I did keep down, thankfully. But the rest of the day, I didn't really eat much, just slept. Oddly enough, that evening, I wasn't really hungry, but I was looking forward to eating. So I ordered a small pizza from the local pizza place and a bottle of Pepsi. I ate the whole pizza and drank most of the Pepsi.

And when I went to bed that night, I couldn't sleep. My heart kind of raced, and when I did sleep, I had really weird dreams. I've had those kinds of nights before when I've had too much pop to drink, and I think the sudden infusion of caffeine after having no food in my body for nearly 48 hours was too much. Even the next day, I felt like I was still coming down from it.

So I haven't had any pop since Friday night. And I'd like to see how long I can go.

But I'm going over to Mom & Dad's for a Mother's Day pizza dinner. And I always have Pepsi with pizza. But I'm determined not to tonight. So I've got an alternative.

The last time I tried to give up pop, I realized that what really drew me to it is the taste. There's just not a lot out of alternative out there that have a big, bold taste like soda. Lemonade is one.

I had some meyer lemons I needed to use up, so I juiced those (the rinds from one went in my garbage disposal to clean it; the rest are in two mason jars with vinegar to make some cleaner), added some water and will add a little simple syrup I made this afternoon for a lemonade.

I had mom get me some groceries Friday, including a pint of strawberries. Seems like I never eat them all before they go bad, so this time I juiced them and poured the juice in an ice cube tray. So now I could add a cube or two to my lemonade, or my water bottle, or some tea ...

I pinned a few things to my Drink Up Pinterest board the other day, too, that I'd like to try. As long as I can find things that have a bold taste to them, I think I can finally do this.