Diet coke, a massage therapist, and my first year of “sodabriety”

I’m gonna be honest. I never thought I would do it. Actually, I never even wanted to.

I didn’t drink alcohol or smoke. Heck, I’d never even had a joint let alone taken something more serious. So what if I guzzled bottle after bottle of Diet Coke like a frat boy on cheap beer? It was my one and only little vice and truthfully I was kinda proud of it. It was my thing. My brand. Everywhere I went I had a mystery by Agatha Christie and 16-ounce bottle of Diet Coke. When others had a beer, I had my innocent little bottle of soda. A bottle in the car, in my office, at every meeting. And to top it off, one right before bed, a little “nightcap” if you will just to tie up another wonderful day with my favorite drink. I used to tell people Diet Coke was the perfect beverage because it went with everything: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And I practiced what I preached. I drank it from sun up to sun down and even in the middle of the night if I woke up and happened to have one on the nightstand next to me, which I usually did because you know you do get kinda thirsty in the middle of the night. I’d even walk 5 miles in the blazing hot 100-degree Texas summer heat and immediately come back and pop open another ice cold 16-ounce Diet Coke as a reward for all of my good exercise. Or maybe two bottles. A fellow can get pretty thirsty walking in 100-degree temps. I’m not exaggerating when I say I probably drank about 3 liters of Diet Coke every day. Yes, you read that correctly. Not 3 cans or 3 bottles. 3 liters. Like one of those 2 liter bottles and half of another. But what was not to like about an ice cold Diet Coke?!

And then, all at once, I quit.

Cold turkey.

Not another drop.

A year ago this would’ve been stocked with just one drink: Diet Coke.

Not a little taste of one. Not a sniff of someone else’s. Not even a nibble of one of those little Coca Cola gummies from Germany you buy at CVS.

Absolutely not one Diet Coke or soda for that matter for one whole year. 365 days of constant, unmitigated SODAbriety.

And man, I gotta tell you, I feel so much better!

That day, the day I gave up soda for good, was one year ago today: August 2, 2025.

Here’s what happened.

I had turned 59 at the start of last year. Thanks to my wonderful chiropractor and amazing massage therapist I spent the first half of last year working back from an accident involving my lower back and by the time summer rolled around I was pretty much once again walking 5 or more miles a day and enjoying the things I’d been able to do before the accident.

One day, out of the clear blue, Cher, my massage therapist (did I already mention she’s absolutely amazing?!) said to me, “Look, I’m only gonna say this one time but you need to give up Diet Coke. I know what you’re thinking. You don’t drink alcohol or smoke so you’re thinking you can at least do this one thing and get away with it. You’re not getting away with it, mister. Soda is bad for you. It’s Carmel-colored poison. It’s one of the worst things you can pour into your body.”

She was right. That was exactly what I was thinking! Diet Coke was my one little vice and surely I could at least have that one. Right? It wasn’t like smoking or alcohol or weed or something worse? Right?

I agreed with her but at the time wasn’t quite ready to give it up. Me and Diet Coke had been best friends for over 4 decades. But true to her word she didn’t mention it again. Still, I filed her warning away in my head. That was just before the summer months rolled around.

But there was something I noticed about my health that was kinda nagging at me that I didn’t tell her. My hands hurt. A lot. They were getting more and more achy. Arthritic, I thought, and I wondered if that came with age. I noticed it especially when I went for a walk and anytime I went to shake hands with someone. It hurt when someone squeezed my hand and as much as possible I resorted to fist bumps.

But I was also going to the bathroom a lot, especially in the middle of the night. And, truthfully, it hurt to pee. THAT really got my attention.

So, at age 59 I said to myself, “Derek, it’s time to act like a grown up and start drinking some water.”

I figured if I cut out a little of the Diet Coke I wouldn’t have to get up so much at night and maybe it wouldn’t hurt to pee.

So, that last week in July last year I started including water in my daily liquid regimen. Not a lot, but some. I didn’t want to cut out Diet Coke altogether because I knew I’d probably get a massive headache. Plus, I liked the taste of cola. But cutting back, striking a “balance,” would probably be the middle ground I needed between living a healthier life and still enjoying my one true vice.

All that week I began incorporating more water, and on Friday, August 1st, I realized at the end of the day that for whatever reason I’d only had one bottle of Diet Coke for breakfast. The rest of the day was water, and honestly I was kinda shocked. It hadn’t even been that hard. I’d never gotten a massive headache and truthfully I hadn’t missed the taste. But the next thought shocked me even more. What if I went a whole day without a Diet Coke? Could I do it? I could try. Maybe start the day off without my usual morning soda and see how far I got.

Thus began my breakup with Diet Coke.

That was Saturday, August 2, 2025. The first day in literally decades I went without any soda for a whole 24 hour period. I mean, I’d been a heavy soda drinker since my first year of college in 1984. We’re talking over 40 years of non-stop soda guzzling.

The next morning I wondered if I could do it again. So I did. And then I wondered how many days in a row I could go. All of the sudden I was piling up day after day without even the smallest drop of soda of any kind. And amazingly no headache. It was as if my body had been crying out for years to finally be free of the Carmel-colored toxins and was more than relieved to give it up.

I celebrated one month of SODAbriety on September 2nd. Then I celebrated two months. Then half a year. By then I knew I’d never go back.

So here I am, one year later, still “clean” and still enjoying the healthy benefits of being soda free. I will tell you that almost immediately my hands stopped hurting. That was the first thing I noticed. I no longer grimaced when someone wanted to shake hands. Overall I feel so much better now. I’m much more hydrated. And I guzzle about 3 liters of Fiji water everyday. I add a little flavor to it because drinking straight water all day long can get kinda boring. Just a couple of drops of flavoring from SweetLeaf. And I don’t mind saying I’m a bit of a water snob these days, too. Fiji is my go-to liquid everyday and there’s nothing I love better than pouring another ice cold 1.5 liter bottle of Fiji into my 64 ounce gray Stanley and adding a few drops of flavoring to get my morning off to a great start. I didn’t even have a Stanley a year ago. Now I rarely leave home without it. I fill it up twice a day.

Now, for the rest of the story …

I thought once I gave up Diet Coke I’d stop peeing so much and it would stop hurting to do so.

It didn’t happen.

So I found a great urologist and after an MRI and a biopsy we discovered I have an enlarged prostate and a case of very low grade prostate cancer that, as the urologist explained, is likely not to grow or spread. While my PSA number is high, my Gleason number is low, and the only course of action we are taking for now is just to watch it. Active surveillance, he calls it. Oh, and he put me on a little medication that many men my age take for an enlarged prostate to making “going” way more easier. It’s my only medication.

But here’s the thing: if I hadn’t given up Diet Coke, I doubt I would’ve gone to a urologist. I would’ve assumed it was the soda that made it uncomfortable to pee and just chalked it up as the trade-off for enjoying my favorite beverage. And I would’ve never known about the prostate cancer.

I tell Cher it’s because of her I gave up Diet Coke. Her words came at just the right moment and put me on the road to a better, healthier me. And without realizing it, she put me on the path to finding out about my cancer.

These days my beverage intake consists of five choices. Water mostly, of course. About 3 liters a day. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. But always Fiji. I told you. I’m kind of a water snob. I also enjoy Fairlife’s Core Power protein drinks as well as the Supergreen drinks, the energy drinks, and the meal replacement drinks from Huel. And that’s it. That’s all I want. It’s all I need. I keep my office fridge stocked with all five.

So, after one year of SODAbriety I officially begin year two today. I highly recommend being soda free. So does Cher.