Day 1 of Lent

OHMYFUCKINGGODIWANTAFUCKINGDIETCOKESODAMNBAD.



Last night a guy and I were talking about Lent and I mentioned giving up sodas and he asked why I would do that. The fact is, I go through phases with my soda. Much like everything else in my life, I will go MONTHS without having a sode (subsequently I'll also happen to be 15 lbs lighter) and then a night of debauchery that leads to bad decision making leads to post drinking diet coke. AHHHHHH morning diet cokes are the best.

Literally, like Pavlov's dog hearing the bell ring, I can hear a soda can open and immediately the craving begins. Ohhh the carbonation. MMMMMMMMM the taste.

So you can imagine how much I wanted to murder our intern yesterday when she opened a fucking Bart's Root Beer. The rest of the day I did nothing but snap at her because it was her fault for not giving up soda. Rude.

The worst part of the whole thing is staring into my work fridge and seeing all the soda. Caffeine free Diet Coke, regular Diet Coke, Coke, Sprite, Root Beer, Dr. Pepper, Diet Dr. Pepper. Grape soda for crying out loud.

In other news, yesterday I did 20 minutes of cardio (including a gluteal workout on the elliptical) and a 30 minute weight workout complete with squats, chest presses, lunges, bicep curls, crunches, planks, tricep dips and calf raises. I am fucking feeling it today.

How was your Wednesday? Did you give up anything for Lent?

Ohhhhh Needs...Wants...Whatever

Cravings.

Everyone has them. Lately, mine has been for Diet Coke. Like I'm in the desert and I need the last drop of water or I will just DIE. Except I need Diet Coke. I have no idea why I want it so bad. But I try to stay away from it and I want it more. Then I end up spending 75 cents at a damn vending machine for a can that is not worth that but damn...when it hits your lips...whoa....so good.

The thing is...I'm scared of Diet Coke. And not just because it makes me bloated.

ASPARTAME.

Even the name sounds scary, right? What is it? Well, its the fake surgar shit they pump into the drink to make it so damn delicious. Also known as the methyl ester of a phenylalanine/aspartic acid dipeptide. So I decided to look it up. Because people were making me feel like I might die from drinking Diet Coke (dude, this is not the same as TAB people).

According to Wikipedia:

The artificial sweetener aspartame has been the subject of several controversies and hoaxes since its initial approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1974. Critics allege that conflicts of interest marred the FDA's approval of aspartame, question the quality of the initial research supporting its safety,[40][41][42] and postulate that numerous health risks may be associated with aspartame.

The validity of these claims has been examined and dismissed.[43][44][45] In 1987, the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded that the food additive approval process had been followed properly for aspartame.[40][46] Aspartame has been found to be safe for human consumption by more than ninety countries worldwide,[47][48] with FDA officials describing aspartame as "one of the most thoroughly tested and studied food additives the agency has ever approved" and its safety as "clear cut".[49] The weight of existing scientific evidence indicates that aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption as a non-nutritive sweetener.[3]

So those rumors about aspartame being to blame for multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus, and methanol toxicity, causing "blindness, spasms, shooting pains, seizures, headaches, depression, anxiety, memory loss, birth defects" and death? Supposedly not true BUT the British government just launched a new study because people were claiming to have side effects from ingesting it. My question is how much fucking aspartame were they ingesting? I mean is a Diet Coke a day going to give me an inoperable brain tumor or the best fucking day of my life?

More links if you're interested and can read that scientific shit.

• Snopes
• DOR site (nice little conspiracy theory site)
• Aspartame Side Effects (from the creator of the Aspartame Detox program!)
• Aspartame Website (like the actual one...by the creators of Aspartame)
• Aspartame Kills! (Ummm and while I'm telling you about that, the guy who runs that site is looking for a good 4/4 violin for a young lady to play...what?!?!)

So, do you have things you just have to have? Have you ever looked up ingredients and stopped eating or drinking something because of something you learned?

Monday Musings

• They should have separate highways for people who have no fucking clue how to drive. I know they have the basic mechanics down (though I see little evidence of it) enough to have garnered a license from someone but they have no practical skills to speak of. Apparently, and age is not the issue, no matter how much or little time they have spent behind the wheel they still have no clue how to navigate rush hour traffic. Or a clue that anyone else might NEED to be somewhere and not out for a leisurely Sunday afternoon drive on Monday morning at 7:15 am. It’s called rush hour as in people are in a fucking RUSH to be somewhere.
• Eating oatmeal makes me feel like a small child and I have no idea why. Did anyone else used to put a drop or two of milk in theirs?
• My iPod died. I feel like I just lost a friend. And like when driving I might murder someone between idiots on the road and fucking commercials on the radio.
• It is amazing how guilt kicks in when you are older. In college, I did not give two shits who I offended with my stupid ass behavior. Now, I’m sneaking out of houses before anyone wakes up in hopes that no one will remember what a drunk, slutty mess I was the night before. Shame on me.
• I got the newest Dave Matthews Band cd for Christmas. Due to the iPod dying, I listened to it for the first time yesterday when I was driving home from Athens and I really, really like it. Download these songs: Baby Blue, You & Me, and Shake Me Like A Monkey. Click on the song titles to go to youtube and watch live performances.
• I’m dehydrated so water would be the obvious beverage to solve this. However, I have no interest in water right now. So I’m drinking Diet Coke. Which will just further dehydrate me. Whatever.
• I need to get back to the To Do List way of life. It really keeps me on track. And I actually get shit done. Which is kind of a big deal when trying to pull your life out of the puddle of stagnant water in the ditch of your life.
• I hate that when I delete something from gmail it doesn’t delete from my blackberry. So annoying to have to delete it twice.
• I went to a punk rock concert with my friend Krista this weekend in Athens. It was held at a place I had never been called Caledonia Lounge which had PBR for $2 so I was happy to be there. The band we went to see was called Burns Like Fire and they brought the 80s in their attire. It was awesome. I recommend giving them a listen. I was disappointed the songs I liked were not on the CD I bought. Bummer.
• I’m thinking maybe I am not meant to work in an corporate environment. This does not bode well for paying off my debts.
• I wonder where my federal tax refund is? I filed that shit a month ago…
• My health insurance costs too much. Time to look into an individual plan…
• I’m staying off twitter today. I have no reason for doing so. I just realized it’s 10:27 am and I haven’t tweeted since 4:50 this morning when I said Must. Get. Out. Of. Bed and then promptly went back to sleep until 6:41am.
• It annoys me when I log in and no one has commented on my blog. Makes me feel like no one read it. Then I get a text, email or tweet about it and I’m all like “WTF?” If you comment on the blog then I can generate conversation. Instead, you send it to me personally and no one else gets to enjoy my response. Think before you fail to comment.
• Blogging from my blackberry looks to be a pain in the ass. Which means you people are missing some gems in terms of posts because I compose posts during the day in my head in order to get through my day.