I Quit Drinking Soda

Can your car run on sugar?

Featured by Suzanne Horrocks Wellness, posted in I Quit Drinking Soda, Uncategorized

Of course not. It’s a simple machine that runs on gasoline. It can’t run on anything else – water, sugar, soda, preservatives, oil, plastic… You get the picture.

Where our bodies differ is that we are not simple machines. We are a complex system made of smaller complex systems. Our bodies run on water and oxygen. Not gasoline, plastic, sugar, or oil, but water and oxygen. You’ve heard the statistic, right? Our bodies are 60% water. We. Need. Water. Just like we need oxygen (the O in H2O, see how that works?)

A car engine is a simple machine, made to do one thing, turn the tires (very basic idea yall. I am FAR from a mechanic.) If you ask it to run on anything other than gasoline, the effect is almost immediate. It’s not going to run right. Sometimes it won’t even start. The quality of the gasoline counts too. Bad gas will make the engine grossly underperform.

So, how are our bodies different? Because we are a complex system of complex systems. We have built in systems to help us mitigate the effects of running on bad gas, or on plastic, sugar, vegetable oil, etc. But is that the best use of our bodies?

Shouldn’t we honor our body and treat it like the magnificent gift that it is? Don’t we want to give it the absolute best gasoline available? Don’t we deserve the best?

For our bodies, water and oxygen are the best “gasoline”. Our bodies deserve water. Pure, clean water. Not soda. Not sugar. Not oil. Not plastic. Water. Clean, pure water.

Sure, we can run on soda, but not anywhere near as well as we can run on pure, clean water. Some of our systems (namely our digestive system) are so busy flushing out the bad gas – the toxins or the overload of sugar – that it just can’t keep up. That’s when you end up with pain, or exhaustion, or chronic illnesses.

Thank goodness that’s it’s an easy fix!! Find a way to add in more water. Begin crowding out the bad gas because the good gas is sooooooo good. You will immediately begin to feel better. You will have more energy, better memory, less pain, better sleep and more.

As a wellness guide, I’m here to help you. I have created a program – I Quit Drinking Soda – to guide you in your efforts to ditch the soda drinking habit.

Do you want to know more about the program? Leave a comment and I will send you a link to my Facebook page – I Quit Drinking Soda. Or simply go straight over there now and “like” the page. Turn on all notifications to stay in the loop.

Any questions? Any ideas? Comment below. I would love to hear from you!!

Cheers

Nose to the grindstone

Featured by Suzanne Horrocks Wellness, posted in I Quit Drinking Soda, Uncategorized

Are you ready for spring? It’s snowing here today. I’m ready to get out of the house and onto some hiking trails, or at least some walking paths.

But, my nose is to the grindstone. Writing a blog post is one of my Wednesday assignments. And today, I can’t think of a single thing to tell you. Do you ever have those days? Where you have an assignment, but the motivation just isn’t there?

The joys of entrepreneurship. (That’s a hard word to spell, btw.) Being an entrepreneur sure isn’t the easy way out. Of course, I could just give myself the label and never produce any work, but that serves zero purpose, imho. So here I go brain dumping on yall. Thank you for reading this!! I appreciate it more than you know.

Tomorrow is #NoPlasticThursday. My plastic consumption is down pretty far. I’ve been working at it for a while. My only obstacle is packaging. I was in a Whole Food Market a few days ago. I absolutely love looking at their pastries and baked goods. Hello fresh baked sourdough bread. Sliced. Yum. Anyway, I was looking for a baked chocolate dessert. Have you noticed that most of that stuff is packaged in single use plastic? And not just a thin bag. But a hard plastic container with an equally hard plastic lid. There’s more reasons to cook at home. Bake in this instance, I suppose. Anyway, the packaging become as important as the baked good. (It had to be chocolate. If it’s not chocolate, it’s not dessert in my house.) I finally settled on some bite size brownies. They were in a hard container, but, it is reusable. As a matter of fact, it’s in my fridge right now with some leftovers in it. Which leads me to ….

Warning – do not reheat your leftovers in the microwave in a plastic container! While a single instance of warming plastic in the microwave may not be harmful, repeating this practice is where the danger lies. Think heating your lunch five days a week. For more info about the dangers of heating your food in plastic, read this link. Manufacturers and retailers are in tune with demand, so you can find reusable glass containers in your local home good store. They usually come with plastic lids, but at least the bowl is glass.

In other news –

In other news – this is my new favorite drinking glass. It’s a quart mason jar. A quart!! I only need to drink four of these to get in one gallon of water. How cool is that? Discovering, or re-discovering, your favorite drinking container (glass or stainless steel preferably) is a fantastic way to get more water into your body. After all, water is the first medicine. In fact, most modern day medications suggest taking it with water. Not with soda, or coffee, or whatever. But take with water. It’s the first medicine. I would love to see your favorite water glass. Tell/show me in the comments. Or on social media by tagging me and using the hashtag #myfavoriteglass. Showing your stuff may inspire others to find their favorite glass and fill it up with the first medicine aka water. That’s a win for everyone, right?

One last thing before I go, here’s a reminder for ya.
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I am a wellness guide. I help women heading towards retirement take better care of themselves so they can live a good long life.
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Contact me if you want help in quitting a soda drinking habit, or if you would like to switch and ditch the chemical filled products with some natural essential oil based ones.

See ya on social media!! Thanks for reading this. I would love to read your comments.

No Plastic Thursday

Featured by Suzanne Horrocks Wellness, posted in I Quit Drinking Soda, Uncategorized

I wanted to write about reducing plastic today because tomorrow is #NoPlasticThursday sponsored on Instagram by Blue Haus. It’s a fantastic idea.

While I don’t believe that the problem will be solved simply by reducing, reusing, and recycling, I do believe that if we demand differently, remove the consumer demand, change will happen.

So, are you up for it? Are you willing to spend each and every Thursday without single use plastic?

The Zero Waste Chef has some excellent suggestions. You can read them here. But here’s a breakdown of how to get started.

Top three ways to breakup with plastic (according to the Zero Waste Chef)

Eat real food, not food wrapped in plastic. Processed food, convenience food and to-go food almost always come in plastic wrappers and containers. Real food you cook yourself does not.
Refuse single-use plastic. Say no to plastic shopping bags; plastic straws and stir sticks; plastic utensils, plates and cups; and other disposable plastic items.
Ban the bottle. Stop buying water, soda, energy drinks, juice and other beverages packaged in plastic bottles.

The Zero Waste Chef goes on to give 50 ways to be plastic free. Here’s a link to her post again. Yes, it’s that good. You should read it.

On a personal level, I try to do my part. I very seldom eat out, especially fast food. I counted the pieces of trash from one meal one day – it was 11. And that was just for one person. Not all of it was plastic, but at least half was. Between the plastic lid, the plastic straw, usually a plastic cup, plastic utensil, plastic ketchup holder, etc, it adds up quickly.

We like to walk for exercise and one day I accepted a challenge to pick up five pieces of trash. Within the length of a football field from our front door, we had picked up 15 pieces of garbage. Perhaps you live in an area that is fairly clean. Do you? If so, can you help clean up another neighborhood?

We went walking again the next day and decided to pick up more trash. Because frankly, it felt tragic how much trash was just thrown out of people’s car windows! My guess is that 98% of trash we picked up was either food wrappers or drink containers.

I had to wonder, why is so much complete junk being sold – and bought?!?! It hurts my heart. This planet is our home. We should treat it better.

Another thing I’m doing to help reduce our demand for single use plastic is to help people stop drinking soda. From the picture above, you can tell how much plastic is used with just this one habit. If you want help to quit drinking soda, comment below or email me for more info.

So, what does soda have to do with it?

Featured by Suzanne Horrocks Wellness, posted in I Quit Drinking Soda, Uncategorized

So, what’s soda have to do with it? Better yet, what does quitting drinking soda have to do with living well?

Good question. One that I need to answer besides the obvious – it’s bad for you. It’s got too much sugar, all 101 reasons that I’ve already researched.

How else will quitting drinking soda improve your life? By being the first step. By showing the Universe, God, your Higher Power, Angels, whomever is your guide, by showing them that you care about your body. That you care about the gift that was given to you at that moment that you became you. You have to start somewhere, right?

I’ve been where you are. I’ve had issues that didn’t require medical intervention, but I knew those conditions weren’t something that I just had to accept. You know, things like depression, low energy, low motivation, chronic pain (or daily pain), sleepless nights, always chilly, never comfortable. You may have these issues too.

I also knew I wasn’t a health freak, or a goodie two-shoes. I wasn’t like that. Basically, I was afraid that I would have to give up my lifestyle completely to be healthy. I was afraid that everything I did/thought was wrong and healthy people, were smarter, more disciplined than me. They had something that I didn’t, and never would, have. They had stuff that I didn’t want, but I wanted to feel good all day everyday. Not just some days, or some parts of the day. I wanted to feel good all day – every day.

You can quit drinking soda. Take the first step. You don’t have to take any more steps after that. Just one. Do this one thing and God, the Universe, your Higher Power will notice. He/she will reward you. She/he will give you the next step. It will be gentle. It will be graceful. It will be painless. It will be easy.

Quitting drinking soda can be gentle, graceful, painless, and easy. Believe me, I have done it. If I can do it, you can too. You can take the first step. That’s all you have to do right now. Take the first step.

Got questions? Comment below or email me. I want to help you. You can take the first step. You can do it. You can quit drinking soda.

Featured by Suzanne Horrocks Wellness, posted in Growth & Expansion, I Quit Drinking Soda

*Stop trashing your body and the planet.*

I quit drinking soda and you can too!

Those tricky makers of these sugary drinks sure know how to hook us and keep us hooked. How else can they keep selling their products?

Did you know that one 12 ounce soda has over 9 teaspoons of sugar? Nine!! Just imagine putting nine teaspoons of sugar in a glass of tea. Yuck! Sure, it can help get you going in the morning, or help keep you going until your next break (and your next soda). But the consequences of ingesting that much sugar at one sitting is, well frankly, keeping you from living a spectacular life – the life of your dreams. If it hasn’t already made you sick, if you don’t already have to live with dis-ease, no worries. There’s a disease waiting for you in the next can/bottle/glass.

The good news is that you can quit!

The answer is here. I Quit Drinking Soda is a program designed to give you all of the information, support, and accountability you need to conquer that beast once and for all.

It is a self-paced online program inside of a private Facebook group. There are some worksheets (yes, you have to do some homework), helpful articles and videos, support from me as your wellness guide, support from other members who are walking in your same shoes, and accountability.

There are also a couple of bonuses. One is a daily diary template. Living mindfully is a gozillion times better than living reactively, unprepared, or unaware. A second bonus is inclusion in another Facebook group focused on the effects of sugar in your body. This group is founded by my teacher at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, Joshua Rosenthal.

In addition to all of the above, I will be “live” inside the group once a week to answer any questions, or address concerns. And to celebrate your wins!! I will also be hosting a weekly video conference to provide more support and education.

All of this is included in a one time membership fee of $97. You will have lifetime access to the group, with all of the worksheets, videos, etc.

To join, click on the menu at the top and go to “shop”. You will find the button to pay the fee. Upon notification from PayPal, I will add you to the group (look for the invitation in your notifications) and you will be on your way to living your best life! Woo hoo!!

If you have any questions, you can comment below, or go to the contact page and send me an email.

I can be found on Facebook at SH Wellness and on Instagram at Suzanne.horrocks. I look forward to serving you! Thanks.

**I have created a Facebook page specially for the program called I Quit Drinking Soda. Go over there and “like” it too. Thanks!