Drink of Champions!

I have never been one of those people who drinks diet soda. I remember working at the Paramount Theatre in Abilene (concession stand - whoohoo!) and shuddering when people ordered a large buttered popcorn and then a small diet soda. I was like, what's the point??!! Besides, diet drinks taste terrible. Maybe in other countries, where they have different kinds of sweeteners, it's not so bad, but here in the US of A, it is pretty awful.

However, as many of you may know (if you are my TRUE friend) that I found out that I have high cholesterol. So I've been dieting and exercising and trying to bring that down. I don't drink lots of soda every day, but I do enjoy it. Coke is my drink of choice, followed extremely closely by Pepsi. For those of you who are die-hard one or the other, we won't get into that right now. I like both, so deal with it. Dr. Pepper is perfectly fine if that is all there is. Same with Sprite. The occasional fruit-flavored soda is okay (Fanta, Squirt, etc.)

However, all of those lovely drinks have what I like to call Calories with a CAPITAL C (not the little c!). Since I'm trying to lose weight, I've been increasingly turning to diet sodas to quench my thirst, so I've pretty much run the whole gauntlet. Diet Coke...eh. I can get used to it, I guess. For a while, Diet Dr. Pepper wasn't bad...but then I got sick of it pretty fast. Of course, there is the ever-popular citrus drink with zero calories (whose name is maddeningly alluding me at the moment)- I'm sure you all know what I'm referring to. Yet, something was missing. None of these drinks were the same as a real, calorie-rich Coke.

Until one fateful day this past summer. It was a calm day, my family was at the beach in Alabama, and I was in the kitchen of the condo we all rent searching for a drink to go with my sandwich for lunch. Mom, a diet soda drinker for years now, had brought along a small bottled six-pack of Diet Pepsi. With a sigh, I reached for one and sat down. I opened it, took a sip...and was in heaven. It was sweet, light, refreshing...and no nasty aftertaste! Finally, this was what I had been searching for. A diet drink that doesn't taste like a diet drink! I was amazed. I drank the rest (not that day) and before the week was up we had to get some more for my newly-formed habit.

Since that day I have been faithfully drinking Diet Pepsi whenever possible. Most restaurants I've noticed only serve Coke products, so I usually (grudgingly) get a Diet Coke with lime or lemon (that's the only way I can stomach that stuff). However, I keep some Diet Pepsi in the fridge most of the time, and luckily UTSA has a deal with Pepsi (as does ACU, I believe, kids!), so the vending machines will happily dispense the stuff all day long.

In short, Diet Pepsi is one of the few things that I like on this diet. It's not to say that I don't sporadically drink a real Coke - I do. Just not as much anymore. I've found my replacement!