The End of Dew

It's not a habit, it's cool, I feel alive. If you don't have it you're on the other side. I'm not an addict (may that's a lie). I'm not an addict.... ~Jane's Addiction

30-Nov-2011 marked two years since I last had a Mountain Dew. This may not seem like a big deal to many people but it was a big moment for me. For more than 30 years, I was a Mountain Dew-ahollic. I regularly drank a six pack a day and on some days I would drink an entire twelve pack. It was pretty much the only thing I drank. I rarely went anywhere or did anything without a cold Dew close at hand.

I tried numerous times to quit drinking Dew, each time accompanied by a week or so of caffeine withdrawal headaches, each time the cessation lasting but a month or two. During those times, I would substitute other flavored drinks. The substitutes did not break the habit of having a cold sugary so, eventually, it always leading back to the Dew. First one a day. Then a Dew for breakfast to help me wake up followed by the after lunch reward. The rationalizations continued until I was back to a six pack a day or more.

The impetus to finally quit came about because I had been invited by a long time High School friend to take part in an epic bike trip in Jamaica planned for Feb 2010. My friend and I were reacquainted at a mountain bike race the previous summer when he told me about the Jamaica ride. We talked later in the year and I was informed the riders I would be going with were hard core and the ride was going to be a challenge so I really needed to get into shape.

The easiest way to improve bike endurance and speed to is to drop weight. Dropping weight on a bike cost big bucks for a few grams here and there, money I did not have readily available. However, there was a way to drop weight for next to nothing. And that was to lose some of the pounds that I carried on my body. I could actually lose weight and save money if I quit drinking the sugar laden soda which, at that time, was selling for $1.25 per bottle and I was drinking six a day. And to pick up my cardio work on the stationary bikes at the gym.

Since that last day in November 2009, I switched my drink of choice to water and have not touched a Dew since. There are many times I have craved a Dew but have not given in. I took a road trip to Tennessee this past Fall. In the car on a road trip was a time when I typically drank the most Dew in the shortest time. I always had one open as the miles passed. I stopped for gas a couple of times and felt myself drawn to the coolers, drawn to the cold, sweet green liquid but did not give in.

Besides shedding a few pounds, an added benefit is I have saved over a thousand dollars in the last two years by substituting tap water for Mountain Dew. I just wish I could get the money I wasted for the 30 previous years back in my pocket.