Fall 7 times, stand up 8: more soda talk

Hi, sorry to drop off for 3 days in the middle of my own blogging challenge! 😆 These last few days ended up being quite a whirlwind of activities, highs and lows, and an emotional rollercoaster.

My mom was here since last Tuesday, and my dad arrived Friday. Ethan had Conference tennis both Friday and Saturday downtown (their team won Conference, and Ethan and his doubles partner won their division! And Ethan was named 1st Team All Conference!).

Asher attended junior prom on Saturday night (as a sophomore).

I ended up spending much of Saturday on a very fun (but HOT) impromptu “tour of Madison” with my parents (mostly due to needing to kill time between Ethan’s tennis + then being back downtown for Asher’s prom pictures.)

There were a couple of stressful unbloggables in the weekend mix.

Also, we ended up seriously looking at a new construction condo here in town with my parents (for them); I’ve mentioned before they’ve given some thought to moving our way now as they get older. (They currently live 1 hr 15 min away with zero other family nearby.) However, this is a BIG DECISION for them….but this place we found seems like a pretty perfect set up to pass up. Brand new, on a pond, spacious, amazing location.

We ended up doing two separate self-tours of the property and spent hours there deliberating and generating pros and cons lists. Cue pandemonium for my parents who are not great with change or making big decisions. (And have also lived in their current area for over 50 years now and also really love their current, highly customized condo.)

Anyway…stay tuned on the decision. I think we’ll know by tomorrow what they’re going do. I can probably write a whole post on all of this, but frankly my brain is tired of talking about it and thinking about it right now after this long weekend, so I’ll circle back to that another time.

---

SODA

What I actually really wanted to write about today is my QUITTING SODA journey. Again.

Long-time readers know the saga. For anyone new, the short version is: I have had a long-standing “soda addiction” (to regular Dr. Pepper or Coca Cola, mostly). I’ve been drinking it daily, in varying amounts, since I was… at least 14, if not younger? and have been trying to either quit or reduce my intake for at least 10-15 years now, on and off.

Recent quit attempts:

• August 2023 > Dec 2023 (longest attempt! Mexico trip derailed me)
• July 2024 > October 2024 (another Mexico trip derailed me…!)
• December 2024 > ?? a month or two? Can’t even remember specifics on how I failed this time.

All I know is that my soda consumption eventually crept back up and up during 2025, to pretty sky high levels.

Then, back in August 2025, I also developed a chronic cough. After finally seeing a doctor and mostly ruling out allergy causes, the main culprit seemed to be GERD (silent reflux- I had no other symptoms besides a dry cough). After months of coughing, the doctor prescribed Omeprazole. However, I didn’t really want to take a medication if I didn’t need to. I decided to wait on starting it, to see what would happen. I still sort of thought maybe it was just a post-viral cough lingering on for ages?

Most recently, in January 2026, I declared a new soda goal: forget cold turkey, I’m going to become a moderator!! 😆 No soda at home, only when out at restaurants. I actually did really well with this, for a little while. Until…. I started cheating by buying diet sodas (because that didn’t “count”) AND I suddenly started suggesting we go out to eat like, every day, so I could get my regular-soda vice. HAHA. Womp, womp… I am not a moderator after all. 😝

In February 2026 I did a mild “cut” of sorts, to try to shape up a little for our spring break trip. I continued drinking soda during this time, but reduced (because, have you ever tried fitting multiple large McDonald’s Dr. Peppers into daily cut macros?? 😳 It is damn near impossible to fit much soda in….).

I noticed during this reduced intake time, Hey, my cough has really settled down! It’s barely present. Hmm. Interesting.

I then proceeded to go on spring break to the Virgin Islands in March 2026, where I increased my soda intake again (and even did some serious addict level soda drinking, like waking up, making my tea and then also drinking an ice cold can of Coke on the balcony at like, 8 am. 😬 This in addition to restaurant sodas, etc.)

My cough came back with a vengeance during the trip to the point that it was waking me up at night. I thought, am I allergic to the tropics?? Or is it that I’m pouring oodles of phosphoric acid down my esophagus….

Anyway, long story long, I got home from spring break, continued drinking a bunch of soda, and my cough continued worsening. I finally caved and started taking the Omeprazole- and poof, within 2-3 days, the cough literally disappeared. Ah. Mystery solved- so it IS GERD, for sure.

I finally had to face the music. I know soda is not the only thing that causes GERD. There’s no guarantee that cutting out soda = absolutely no more GERD. But it certainly seemed like there was a connection.

I decided to do a little experiment. What would happen if I went off the Omeprazole and completely quit soda?? Without the soda, would I still need the Omeprazole?? 🤔

To be clear, this is not only just about the GERD thing. All my same old reasons for wanting to quit soda still remain. (Family risk of dementia/ brain health concerns, tons of sugar!, tooth health, the cost, inevitable weight gain as I get older from a million empty calories, other health risks from a high sugar diet, effects on my skin, etc.)

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m also just tired of the mental battle with soda all the time. Soooo tired. The moderating did work, sort of, but clearly it didn’t last, and even then, I was constantly thinking about it.

I could switch to diet soda, but I honestly don’t love it, anyway, and it feels like a Band-Aid- and there are some health concerns with diet soda, too.

I am just truly fed up and I want this over and done with, for good.

So, here we are yet again, friends.

I quit again on Sunday, April 20th, 2026– so I just hit my 4 week mark yesterday.

I know I have said this before: BUT I truly feel committed this time. (I KNOW, I have said these exact words before and still relapsed; I re-read some of my old posts.)

But I think the GERD/ cough piece is an extra motivational layer now. This past month, I have not had a drop of soda nor have I been taking the Omeprazole, and my cough has stayed away!! It seems very promising.

It’s been going very well. I do have those occasional “sad” thoughts, where life seems a little flat without that dopamine hit from my soda to look forward to. But I’m keeping on strong and have had no actual thoughts of giving up.

My next big goal mile marker is my birthday, October 17, at which point I should be about 6 months soda-free. I’ve never made it that far on any quit attempts yet. But I’m determined to this time. 🙂

I do feel silly blogging about this yet again (how many times?! 😩), but I’m okay sharing this vulnerability. I had to face the realization that this is simply not something I can moderate, ever, and I need to treat it like the actual addiction that it apparently is for me.

So there’s my 1 month update! Currently soda-free and cough-free (and Omeprazole-free). I’ll set a reminder to update you all on my 2 month anniversary. 🙂

Here’s a snip from my free Quitzilla app:

You can select whatever you want to quit and it will start a timer to track your abstinence time. It also creates a chain on a calendar, to discourage you from breaking it.

Thanks to everyone who has written words of support on this in the past. Sharing here doesn’t feel as scary because everyone is always so nice and understanding. I do feel like this may sound like a weird addiction to many people, so I think that embarrasses me a little bit, but it is what it is. I know I’m not alone in this.

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for hitting my 4 week mark. I told SHU about all this when I quit and that I felt sheepish blogging about it yet again. She suggested waiting to share and writing a 1 month post for extra motivation to hit that 1 month mark! 🙂 Made it so far.