I used to wonder about people who smoked cigarettes. Everyone knows that smoking is a terribly unhealthy habit with seemingly nothing but undesirable consequences. So why stick with it?

Then I realized that my relationship with Coca-Cola is awfully similar. It has absolutely no redeeming value other than tasting great. It’s full of serious calories, caffeine, and all kinds of other junk that doesn’t exactly help the body. And it’s super acidic. I’ve known for a long time I shouldn’t drink it, but couldn’t bring myself to quit because, well, I just liked it. A lot.

Interestingly enough, there have been at least two times where I conquered the addiction and quit Coke. But I wound up coming back to it. Actually, both times I “fell off the wagon” we had recently had a baby and I really felt like I needed caffeine (I don’t like coffee or tea).

So here’s what I’ve learned about how to quit your Coke (or similar) habit:

* Don’t quit. Sounds like strange advice, eh? Part of the problem with going cold turkey and swearing off something (a Coke, a cigarette, whatever) is that if you “fall off the wagon” you immediately feel guilty. And then, with your streak ruined and your resolve weakened, it’s very easy to slip back into old ways. Trust me, I know.

I don’t think I’ve quit Coke – I’ve just scaled way back. There’s nothing inherently wrong with enjoying a Coke. After all, most of us allow ourselves to enjoy other things that are not nutritious. The key is to do so in moderation.

* Baby steps are better than cold turkey. The problem with breaking an addiction is, obviously, the withdrawal phase. In my case with Coke, this involved some serious headaches, and when you live in a house with rambunctious little kids, you tend to not want to give yourself a headache for days on end.

So this time, instead of just mustering up the resolve to quit cold turkey, I scaled it back gradually. One a day, then one every couple days. Now it’s been a week since my last Coke and, quite frankly, my appetite for it has gone.

My new beverage of choice – Water with lime

* Use a crutch. When I was scaling back my Coke consumption, I allowed myself to have something sweet to eat once in a while in the afternoon. Once or twice I even got a piece of chocolate candy (a peanut butter cup – don’t tell my kids!) so I could get a bit of caffeine to blunt the headache. I also didn’t hesitate to use ibuprofen.

Will I ever have a Coke again? Almost certainly. And that’s OK – don’t judge me if you see me sipping a Coke! The goal here was not to create some kind of legalistic rule but to change my patterns and habits to be more healthful. And that’s the key principle here. Legalistic rules only work for a while, and when broken they often lead to defeated resignation. But positive changes in lifestyle will, I think, bear more fruit.

And that’s a principle that goes way beyond Coke, don’t you think?

I’ve always been a bit interested in chiropractic, and because I have backpain and headaches fairly regularly, I recently took a chiropractor up on the offer of a free consultation. Turns out this one is a “NUCCA” chiropractor, which believe that the key to all of health is the proper alignment of the first vertebrate, the “atlas.” It’s a pretty big claim, and while I suppose I understand the line of reasoning, it seems rather spurious to me.

So I’ve spent some time the last day or two researching chiropractic and I must say that I am not inclined to pursue it — at least not this NUCCA stuff. I could be persuaded to give a different chiropractor a shot if he seemed legitimate, did not make such vaunted claims, and that sort of thing. My wife, who has a background in fitness training, suggested that the pain in my neck and back could be better treated by a program of strength/resistance training and stretching. Now, I simply don’t like stretching because, well, I’ve never been particularly flexible. But it seems to me that she’s on to something. Her advice was to give that a shot for a little while before taking the plunge (literally and financially) into chiropractic.

Below I’m basically going to deposit some links I came across in my research:

* A book by Samuel Homola, Inside Chiropractic, which is apparently a critique of chiropractic written by a seasoned chiropractor. Here’s a good quote from the book (cited in the review below):

Chiropractic, which celebrated its centennial in 1995, is a curious mixture of science and pseudoscience, sense and nonsense. Much of it is based on the theory that misaligned spinal bones produce nerve interference that causes disease. Many chiropractors claim that correcting these misalignments (“subluxations”) can restore health and that regular spinal adjustments are essential to maintain it.

* In general, there’s lots of very interesting (and very readable) information at saveyourself.ca, which made a lot of sense to me.

In sum, in some ways I am drawn to alternative medicine (like chiropractic), but there are many reasons to be very cautious. Science is not my religion (and doctors not my priests) as it seems to be in our culture, but science certainly has value in explaining the world. You want medicine and healthcare that works.

The part of me that is drawn to alternative medicine is the part that likes to buy organic and shops at Whole Foods — I’m drawn to what seems to be “natural” and not industrialized or processed. (Don’t get me wrong — I eat plenty of industrialized and processed food – but philosophically that is my position). Why pop the pills made by Big Pharma if there is a better, more natural way? Furthermore I do believe that the Creator may well have endowed the body with the ability to take better care of itself than we might realize. I’m not a chance evolutionary result but a preordained and designed creation. At the same time, my theology reminds me that I’m also in a world beset by the repercussions of the Fall and Original Sin and all that. Stuff, like my body, doesn’t work the way it should.

Anyway, I’m beginning to ramble. The point is that there has to be some kind of middle ground, but it sure is hard to find and it sure is hard for a layman like me to know who to trust. People on both sides of the chiropractic debate get pretty worked up about it all. It’s hard to cut through all of that to find the truth. The key to the whole thing has to be finding a good, humble, honest personal doctor whom you can trust.

I just hope I have one. My new doctor seems promising, so I’ll stick with him for now. But I’ll continue to read and learn too. I welcome your thoughts.

Well it’s time to get healthy. I kicked off my health campaign by getting the first physical of my adult life last week. No big surprises there. The doctor, who I think I like, took some time to get to know me and talk about changes I could make to my lifestyle to get healthier. There was no earth-shattering news – try to eat better and lose weight, exercise, take a multi-vitamin, etc. But I still found it helpful.

So I’ve decided to begin educating myself on some of these topics related to health and nutrition. I’ve also begun to experiment with cooking – for whatever reason I find myself more interested in learning to cook healthy and tasty food. To that end I’ve cooked tilapia (and used the leftovers for fish tacos) and a couple other things. I’ll take suggestions on that – stuff that’s good, healthy, and easy enough for a kitchen clutz like me to have a bit of success.

We’ll see how this goes.

I was amused at Chick-fil-A tonight when the girl taking my order asked if I’d like a wheat bun for my Chick-fil-A sandwich. Because, obviously, the guy ordering a fried chicken sandwich, fries, and a Coke is really into making health-conscious food decisions tonight. Was it an attempt to assuage my guilt? Could I take some shred of dignity and self-satisfaction away from my fast food meal because I boldly proclaimed my preference for the wheat bun? Or were they merely trying to squeeze another 20 cents out of me?

Alas, it turns out I made the responsible decision and opted for the wheat. The sandwich wasn’t quite as tasty, but I took my stand for my health, right?

I’m a life long Coke addict. By Coke, of course, I mean carbonated beverages in general – what some people (for some reason) call “soda” or “pop.” Of course, for me, Coke is, in fact, the actual beverage that has been a part of my life and diet forever. I don’t drink coffee so, in addition to being a beverage that tastes good, Coke became my source of caffeine also. In college it was not uncommon for me to have coke at all three meals (when I actually ate breakfast) and maybe in the evening with a snack. While not drinking it to that extreme since then, it has continued to be a part of my daily eating habits. I gave up Coke for about nine months last year, but reacquired the habit around the time Asa was born (see: caffeine).

So I’ve done a little Google search to learn about the effects of Coke on the body. Here is one guy’s list of the five worst foods you can eat. Here is another interesting article that notes, among other things, that in the 1950s the standard coke bottle was 6.5 ounces, whereas today it is 12 ounces. Interesting stuff. Of course there’s also a financial incentive. When you eat out too much like we do, drinking water instead of Coke will save you a decent amount of money over the course of a month. Finally, I can only say that I just feel better. I can’t quantify that or describe to you in a scientific way why that is the case, only attest to the fact that I feel better, especially after meals.

So I’m kicking the habit. I reserve the right to eventually have a coke or sprite or something on rare occassions, but will no longer do so regularly.