A Dragon in Sheep’s Clothing

I made the decision this week to try switching to Diet Dr Pepper. I usually avoid diet soda because I can taste the aspartame. Yes, I can. I year ago I tried Diet Cherry Vanilla Coke, thinking the flavors might cover the aspartame, and I couldn’t even finish one 12 oz. can. I felt nauseous. (And to think that I used to drink Diet Coke in high school!) Diet Dr Pepper, however, has somehow managed to cover the taste of aspartame well enough that I don’t really think about it. It definitely tastes different than regular — more syrupy, I would say — but at least I can drink it.

Anyway, the most important reason for the switch is to free up those calories that I get from regular Dr Pepper. I usually drink 3-4 cans a day. They’re my caffeine boost at work. (I don’t have any at home, but I need something to get me going in the morning. Since I don’t do straight coffee or tea, this is the next best thing.) So at 3 cans, that’s 450 calories a day from regular Dr Pepper. I’m thinking that if I have at least 450 extra calories to work with, I could lose weight, or at least feel less guilty about indulging in a Krispy Kreme.

The experimental part of this… experiment.. is to see if I can stomach the Diet Dr Pepper and to see how my body reacts in general. Like I said, the taste is much better than the other diet sodas I’ve tried, but I’ll wait a couple of weeks to see if I build up an intolerance before I’m convinced this is a permanent solution. And then there are headaches. My best friend used to get headaches from diet soda, but she never knew it until she switched to regular while she was pregnant and became headache-free. So I’m also on the look out for headaches.

It’s been 4 1/2 days so far…. and so far, so good!