The Cake Project: Pledge successful!

by Suw on November 2, 2006

Much to my surprise, the Cake Project pledge has been successful, with 22 people pledging to give up sugary drinks along with me. Yay! In fact, the pledge deadline is not til 22nd November, so there's plenty of time for you to sign up if you still want to.
I decided that I would to give up sugary drinks from this morning, so I've not had a Coke or anything else all day. I'm going to keep this going until February 22nd, three months after the end of the pledge. I'm leaving it up to the other signatories to decide when they want to give up, so long as they've given up by 22nd November.
I'll give updated every now and again, just so you all know how I'm doing, and so that I know you know that I'm doing it.
Unfortunately, I had thought that I had found a replacement for the Coke and fruit juices that I normally drink, in the form of green tea. Now I never used to like green tea apart from in Chinese and Japanese restaurants. When I used to make it myself, it always turned out bitter, but I discovered when I went to Ching Ching Cha in Georgetown, Washington DC, that it tasted bad because I was scolding the tea. You have to put a bit of cold water in with the tea first, then add the hot-but-not-boiling water, and it tastes much better.
Sadly, though, a few cups of green tea later, I discovered that it actually has a fair bit more caffeine in than I am used to, and I spent most of yesterday quite significantly over-caffeinated. You might even say 'manic'. In fact, Kevin had to scrape me off the ceiling in order to get me to go to bed.
So, if I need a perk-me-up, instead of Coke I have green tea. But that's really not going to replace all the other crap I used to drink. Not sure what that's going to be, but I have to find something that's slightly more interesting to drink that filtered tap water.
Ah well, we'll get there. I'm just happy that the pledge was met and that I'm now going into my period of abstinence with a bit of moral support.

Anonymous November 2, 2006 at 11:23 pm

What about Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Coke Zero or Pepsi Max?
These cola drinks are sugar-free and still have the caffeine.

Anonymous November 3, 2006 at 2:27 am

If you can find some, you may like to try white tea… similar to green tea, but more mild, and (I think) markedly less caffinated.
I got a bunch of samples from adagio.com a few years back, and picked the one I like from that (song yang). Unlike green tea (or coffee) I can have one after dinner, and still get to sleep…

Anonymous November 3, 2006 at 8:01 am

Unfortunately, or maybe not, I'm not keen on diet drinks. They taste kinda horrible, and I'd rather give up all soft drinks and find alternatives rather than just shift to diet.

Anonymous November 3, 2006 at 8:02 am

That sounds like a good idea! Kevin says that they do have some in our local supermarket, so I'll look next time I go shopping and see what I can find. I've never really drunk tea, mainly because I can't drink milk, but if I can find a white tea that I like, maybe that will solve my problem. I think they might try the decaffeinated green tea too.

Anonymous November 3, 2006 at 8:09 am

How are you with herbal teas? They can grow on you!

Anonymous November 3, 2006 at 8:25 am

Never really liked them, actually. But I think I'll make progress with the white and un-caffeinated green.

Anonymous November 3, 2006 at 2:18 pm

I'm a Rooibos convert – no caffeine, has a sweet-ish taste, quenches thirst like nobody's business!
Tria de Eleven O Clock – http://www.dragonflyteas.com/products/11oclock/index.php

Anonymous November 3, 2006 at 3:34 pm

I did something similar a year or two ago – I ended up in A&E resus with heart palpitations following caffine withdrawl.
Be careful eh?

Anonymous November 4, 2006 at 5:16 pm

I second the red bush option. Dragonfly also do other teas:
http://www.dragonfly-teas.com/products/range/index.php

Anonymous November 7, 2006 at 10:16 am

I'm a random lurker and occasional visitor. Just chiming in to say I put lemon or lime juice in sparkling water to feel like I treat but want to replace the elderflower cordial and lemonade. Also, I drink iced fruity or flowery herbal tea.

Anonymous November 10, 2006 at 10:16 am

Rooibos and Honeybush are both nice tea-like things from africa that are not caffeinated, and yummy without milk.

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