Understanding the “why” when setting your goals

It’s interesting how a bad habit starts. But when you finally decide to make a change for the better, it’s important to understand the “why” because the likelihood of your success may depend on it.

Growing up, soda was a special treat only allowed on Friday or Saturday nights alongside pizza or summertime BBQ. Occasionally, soda made its way into our grocery carts during winter ski vacations in Vermont and summertime vacations on our boat in Ontario, Canada.  

When I started university, Pepsi was my go-to drink when studying - I never liked the taste of coffee so my caffeine came in an ice cold can, none of that fountain stuff thank you very much! It wasn’t until a routine dentist visit at the end of my sophomore year revealed 2 cavities that I switched to diet soda. It’s diet, no sugar, so it must be better for me. Right?

Diet Coke slowly replaced Diet Pepsi (strictly a taste thing), but I still was only moderately consuming, maybe 1 or 2 cans per week with a slight uptick during exams. The big shift happened when I started a very restrictive (medically supervised) ketosis diet that my diet soda habit ramped up significantly. On this diet, I was “allowed” to drink Caffeine-Free Diet Coke and since it made me feel full I thought “why not drink this every day so that I eat less?”. Oh yeah, that made total sense. I don’t want to get too into the details as this could be triggering for some, but needless to say, I drank A LOT of diet soda.

Fast forward 20 years later and I was drinking 1 can (or sometimes a small bottle) of Diet Dr. Pepper or Coke Zero (both tastier than Diet Coke IMO) EVERY SINGLE DAY. On weekends I often doubled up my servings. I always had at least 1 case in the house with a few in the fridge so that they were ready and waiting for me to consume, usually before 12pm. I knew that drinking soda was not the best way to hydrate, nor did it contribute any nutritional value, but it was just so cold and refreshing when I was driving around for work. And when I found myself craving something sweet-tasting at home, it always hit the spot. 

But here’s the dilemma I was starting to uncover: I didn’t want to rely on something artificial to satisfy my thirst or food cravings.  

Coincidentally (or maybe this is the universe doing its sneaky business), around the same time that I was considering kickin’ my diet soda habit, the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) published a report, classifying aspartame (ingredient in diet soda and many other diet products) as possibly carcinogenic to humans. YIKES! Following this report, more info came out from the W.H.O., stating that it was still safe to consume up to 40 mg of aspartame per kg of body weight, which for a 150 lb person would be the equivalent of ~12 cans of soda. Granted, that's a lot of soda, but the timing of this report and where my mind was headed was just weird…in a good way.  

So, here’s where I found myself. In the past, I knew that I “should” quit drinking diet soda because my brain was telling me that it was bad for me. But now I knew that I “wanted” to quit my habit.  

In Health Coaching, when you are designing goal-setting steps for new actions that will most effectively lead to results, recognizing “want” and “should” is critical to overall success. If you “want” to make a change, you are more likely to perform those small steps to reach your goal. Whether it's meditating 3x/week, adding more veggies into your diet or quitting diet soda, if your motivation is that you “want” to reach a goal, you are more likely to be successful. On the other hand, if you are taking action steps to reach a goal because you feel like it's something you “should” be doing like drinking more water or adding more movement into your life, your motivation is elsewhere and you are less likely to follow through when you hit an obstacle or road-block, potentially throwing in the towel, not reaching your goal, and finding yourself back where you started.

As I laid out my plan of wanting to quit soda, I prepped and set myself up for success:

• I rid the kitchen of the last few cans of Diet Dr. Pepper so I would not be tempted

• I shared my goal with my husband so that he could support me if I needed it

• I made sure I had cold, fresh fruit in the fridge to meet my sweet cravings

And then I started.  

Every day I took small steps to reach my goal. And as the days passed by, I noticed a change. I noticed that I didn’t feel sluggish in the afternoon when my caffeine levels used to drop after peaking from caffeine overload. I was still enjoying my morning tea (with caffeine), but I wasn't going straight to the fridge at 11am to grab a soda as soon as my cup was empty, my body just didn’t want it. I walked right past the cases of soda in the grocery aisles without a craving, and didn’t waver at the check-out line, standing next to the small fridges with their cold bottles of my favorite drink. But most importantly, I noticed how I felt; my mind was clearer, my energy was higher, and I was just so damn proud of myself for finally facing this bad habit head on, taking the small, actionable steps to reach my goal of saying goodbye to diet soda for good.

As I approach the end of my first month, I know I have a ways to go, and that’s ok. Small steps, so long as you are taking them, will get you to your goal, you just need to start. Stay tuned for more updates!

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