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Dry January but make it Pepsi edition. A couple of days before the new year, I randomly thought about Dry January (which I did think about doing, but I don’t drink enough alcohol a week for it to make a difference for me) and what I could give up for 2021. I thought the only thing that would be truly difficult for me would be to give up Pepsi.
I quit it cold turkey.
Now, if I’m being honest I have a terrible Pepsi addiction. On a good day, I was drinking up 3-4 cans of Pepsi… I know. This is with me drinking Pepsi every day, for every meal almost. The only time I was not drinking Pepsi was to drink the 32 oz of water I tried drinking every day or the meals where I would drink cocktails instead of Pepsi.
I’ve always had an on and off again addiction to soda. In middle school, it was Sundrop. In high school, if I wasn’t downing sweet tea, I was drinking Coke. From college to now I’ve been a Pepsi fan. It’s a terrible habit and I’ve always substituted Pepsi with sweet tea. I’m back on my “health” journey (I say health very lightly because life is all about indulgence in moderation) and I truly want to kick my craving for an everyday Pepsi. Keep reading to read about my results after a month!
So I decided to try Sparkling/Seltzer Water, Kombucha, Vitamin Water and just plain Water to drink throughout the day for 31 days. Here’s what I drank for the month of January 2021:
Spindrift
Spindrift was probably my favorite. I tried two flavors, the grapefruit and the orange mango. The grapefruit was amazing, but I wasn’t too much of an orange mango flavor fan. These will definitely be a part of my cocktail mixer rotations, as well!
Nutrition Facts:
Calories: 17
Total Fat: 0
Saturated Fat: 0
Carbohydrates: 4g
Sugars: 3g
Protein: 0
Zevia
I was SO excited to find the “cola” flavor of Zevia. I bought this well into the month, so I was more used to the seltzer waters at that point. I tried my first one and initially thought it was too sweet. Days passed and I was craving a Pepsi more than usual so I decided to try it again and actually liked it.
My fiance tried it himself and said it tasted like a flat soda lol.
Nutrition Facts:
Calories: 0
Total Fat: 0
Total Carbohydrates: 0
Sugars: 0
Protein: 0
Waterloo
Waterloo is great!! I got the grape flavor and I love it!
Nutrition Facts:
Calories: 0
Total Fat: 0
Total Carbohydrates: 0
Total Sugar: 0
Protein: 0
Health Ade Kombucha
I haven’t been much of a Kombucha fan but I loveeee Health Ade. As the month went on I didn’t drink it as much as I started not drinking my calories while eating in a calorie deficit. It’s still a great alternative and now I’ll usually sip through one throughout the day. Light and packed with flavor.
Nutrition Facts:
Calories: 80
Total Fat: 0
Total Carbohydrates: 18g
Total Sugars: 14g
Added Sugar: 18g
Protein: 0
Vitamin Water
Same with Vitamin Water. At the beginning I drank more of it because of the flavor was there. As the days passed, I didn’t want to drink that many calories so I cut back. After I finished drinking the ones I bought, I didn’t buy more. I can’t even tell you which flavors I enjoyed because this was short lived.
Nutrition Facts:
Calories: 100
Total Fat: 0
Total Carbohydrates: 27g
Total Sugar (includes 27% added sugars): 27g
Protein: 0
Trader Joe’s Strawberry & Rhubarb “Soda”
Delicious, sweets and 100% hits the spot. If you’re in Trader Joe’s and want a drink that’ll hit the spot, its this one.
Nutrition Facts:
Calories: 60Â
Total Fat: 0
Sodium: 5mg
Total Carbohydrate: 14g
Total Sugars (includes 13g added sugars): 13g
Protein: 0
Good and Gather
I love love love the mixed berry flavor of Good and Gather. Such a great flavor and super refreshing! Fun fact: The Good and Gather brand is a part of Target.
Nutrition Facts:
Calories: 0
Total Fat: 0
Total Carbohydrate: 0
Protein: 0
AHA
AHA more like EH? I was not impressed by the blueberry+pomegranate flavor, which led me to not trying other flavors. I still have the first case I bought for “emergencies” but our taste buds may differ and you may enjoy! I’m sure other flavors are great!
Nutrition Facts:
Calories: 0
Total Fat: 0
Total Sugar: 0
Protein: 0
Trader Joe’s Seltzer Water
This one. I hated this one the first time I got it. It tasted so weird to me, but as I continued to drink it I realized how natural and refreshing it tasted like. One thing that I keep buying when I go back to Trader Joe’s is this one.
Nutrition Facts:
Calories: 0
Total Fat: 0
Total Carbohydrates: 0
Total Sugars: 0
Protein: 0
So what were the effects of not drinking Pepsi for an entire month straight? Well, I don’t crave it anymore – which is exactly what I wanted. I didn’t go through too bad of a withdrawal so that’s good too. Overall, I did work-out 24 days out of the month, I ate in a calorie deficit for the majority of the month and from December 31st to January 31st, I lost 9 pounds. I believe most of that came from me cutting out Pepsi but working out helped a lot as well.
I’m looking forward to going into the rest of 2021 without my dependence on Pepsi and I feel great about it!
PIN IT!
