Have a (diet) Coke and a smile.

So, I can't even believe I'm going to admit this outside of the 4 walls of my home, but... I've made the switch to Diet Coke (insert "record needle scratch" sound effect).

I know, I know. After I had spent all these years mocking people for drinking Diet Cokes with their Big Macs and large fries (because no one could possibly prefer Diet Coke for its taste. I mean, really.). Now I'm one of them (except for the Big Macs and large fries part). The truth is, you do kind of get used to it. As a matter of fact, in the few days since I've made the switch, I don't notice the difference at all.

Plus (and I can't believe I'm admitting to this either), drinking Diet Coke is kind of... cooler. You never saw the cool, older girls drinking a can of regular Coke out of straw while sunning themselves. Regular Coke was/is for babies. And, at my old job, my co-worker told me once that she had tried to drink coffee for years, because it was considered cool. But, she just couldn't get used to the taste, so she stuck with Diet Coke for breakfast. And, to me, she was pretty cool. Caffeine is caffeine, right?

My first official turn to diet (though, short-lived) happened when I was pregnant with our second son and diagnosed with gestational diabetes (or, as my mother and her friends call it, "The Sugar"). Obviously, it was irritating to have to test my blood every 4 hours, but my main annoyance was giving up sugar. I mean, deprivation when you're pregnant? Is torture. But, I did allow myself a Diet Coke every now and then and I found the taste wasn't so bad. My friend recently told me how, when she was pregnant, she couldn't wait to go back to diet (because, of course, the artificial sugar was bad for the baby, so she stopped), and here I was, doing the opposite (and possibly giving my unborn child a defect [thankfully, he came out without 3 heads]). All this for something I shouldn't be drinking anyway.

And, because of my newfound health kick, I thought I could save myself at least 150 calories (and 9 [nine!] teaspoons of sugar) a day by drinking diet as opposed to the one Coke I allowed myself. But, then I read an article that said, by switching to diet, the risk for obesity was even greater than drinking regular (by 41%).

Figures.

Actually, that article, of course, was encouraging the reader to drink water, which, I might add, I do. A lot. So, if I allow myself a soft drink, and it's diet, and I don't allow myself to overindulge on other foods because I drink diet, I should be fine. Right? Right!

By the way, I can finally, after 3 days, move my legs without pain. Which, of course, means no gain. But, let's face it, the no gain is what I'm going for, so there you go.

This is "what life should be like" according to the 2008 Diet Coke slogan.