I Started Drinking Soda At Age 2

When working with new clients, they're often intimidated or have trouble imagining themselves at the end goal. It's hard to picture what life would be like when you see other people who appear to have it all figured out. They don't struggle with cravings, they have fit bodies, they aren't dealing with the addictive nature of foods.

I can't stress enough, though, how we all start in the same place. So here's a little piece of my story..

When I was 2-years-old, I was with my dad while he was building a shed in our backyard. He drank Coca-Cola regularly and I began grabbing for his drink. So he decided that if I could drink it out of the straw, I could have some.

Now I don't tell this story to say that my parents did something wrong. We know now that soda isn't exactly a health food, but they were doing the best with what they knew. My parents are wonderful and would never do anything to hurt me - it was the 90's and fat was bad, not sugar. 

So I began drinking soda from then on. In our household, soda was the beverage of choice. To my mom's benefit, she encouraged me to drink water a lot. I always refused because "it tasted bad." Can you blame me? Sugar water versus regular water. No contest. 

I would essentially have a soda before school (remembering this particularly through high school) and when I would get home and immediately have a soda because I was so thirsty. The only time I remember having water was during gym class, otherwise it was some sugary Sobe juice thing, chocolate milk, or soda at lunch time. I should also mention that when I got home from school I would religiously inhale some Little Debbie's Swiss rolls and hot dogs. 

I didn't eat vegetables. In fact, my mom at one point made a point to start having us eat more veggies. We hated it. We were "picky eaters." I was always hungry and more times than not, I would reach for something sweet.

In high school, I had so many migraines that I visited the doctor to see what was up. I was missing 2-3 mornings per week because of these nasty migraines that would leave me nauseous, light sensitive, and basically disabled for hours without medication. After talking to the doctor, we realized that many of the things I was eating regularly (aka the only things I was really eating) were a lot of processed foods - black olives, bologna, hot dogs, Little Debbie's everything, and so on. I had to cut back on some of these things in order to feel better, and I did once I took some of those things out of my diet. 

When I went to college, I started to get rid of soda from my daily routine. I can't remember if I did this because I wanted to be healthier (spoiler: drinking so much soda had led to some extra weight gain over the years) or because I was a college kid who didn't have expensive soda in their budget. I started drinking more water, lemonade, and flavored water to try to adjust. 

But I will never forget the withdrawals. Cutting all of the sugar and caffeine from my diet suddenly was a huge shock to my system. I had consistent headaches, I was exhausted, and I felt sick. I felt like a drug addict. For a few weeks anyways, and then I began to normalize. I felt much better and cutting soda out improved the way I felt all the time. 

Now, this was before I ever even contemplated the thought of exercising regularly. In college, I can count on one hand how many times I went to the gym - and I was on the elliptical because I didn't know how to do anything with the machines. Later on I started to shift my diet as I got into yoga and keeping my body healthy to live a long life - which is still my ultimate goal (not to have abs). 

After I started doing CrossFit, and even after I was coaching and had gone through various nutrition programs (paleo, Whole30, Zone, clean eating, etc) I noticed something else was up. I was still getting really terrible mood and energy crashes. I was on a road trip once and someone noticed that my mood had drastically taken a turn for the worst, and once we stopped for food I was fine. They suggested that I may be hypoglycemic and it really hit home. 

After that, I became fascinated with blood sugar, insulin resistance and how it can effect your body - and your brain. At the time, I was nowhere near ready but I eventually began coaching nutrition full time to help other people with similar experiences. 

Cravings suck.
Withdrawals suck.
Mood swings suck.
Feeling exhausted by 2pm sucks.
Eating crappy sucks.
Gaining body fat sucks.
Feeling alone in your journey sucks.

But we've all been there. We all started somewhere and you can get where you're going one step at a time and with a little help.