I’m not a photographer, but I wanted to add a visual to my post. Lol.

So….this academic year has a been tough on the immune system. It’s my 1st year working full-time in a middle school and I’ve been a magnet for viruses. My colleagues told me to give myself a year or so to build my immunity up and I won’t get sick as often. One of my friends led me to doing a little research on “gut health” where I learned that 70-80% of our immune tissue is located in our digestive system. Kombucha suddenly became my BFF.

My husband got really sick at the beginning of February. He was sick with an upper respiratory virus for 3 weeks. It was a scary time for him, as this was the sickest he has ever been in his lifetime. He has been a decades-long diet pop drinker, and has always used “the pink packets” of artificial sweetener in iced tea. While he was sick he really looked at all aspects of his health and decided to make some significant changes. The first on the list: over a week ago decided to give up all artificial sweeteners. No diet soda, no yellow, pink or blue packets in his tea or on his fruit. He started drinking water regularly and brews his own iced tea at home. He adds lemon juice and a little bit of real sugar for sweetener, no more than 1.5 tsp of “sugar in the raw” in a 32 oz container.

This was a significant change for my husband. It would be for anyone who has an ingrained health habit. I have that habit as well. I was a huge proponent of diet soda as a healthy replacement for sugar-sweetened beverages. I still believe that it’s a good transitional product for people trying to quit a fully-leaded soda habit. But I did some research on what artificial sweetener does to a body and it made me reconsider my own use of the little packets.

Here is a link to a good article that hits the major highlights of what benefits your body will experience from quitting artificial sweeteners. Please read, it’s rather eye-opening.

https://www.prevention.com/food/quitting-artificial-sweeteners

I quit artificial sweeteners a week ago, a few days after my husband. Here are a few things I’ve noticed:

1. My taste buds woke up – I can taste the natural sweetness in foods, and all food seems to have more flavor
2. I don’t have energy swings – I don’t have a mid-afternoon sweet coffee craving, and the snacks I keep in my office for my students no longer tempt me.
3. I am perfectly satisfied drinking sparkling water with a hint of fruit flavor – I love the carbonation and it helps give my mood a lift for some reason.
4. My skin looks better. I have more color in my face than I did a few weeks ago
5. The darndest thing ever – my bad hip doesn’t hurt anywhere near as much as it did a couple weeks ago. I also have more range of motion in my weight training workouts.
6. I’m not as hungry as I was before. I don’t feel the need to snack or doing my stress eating habit of making homemade popcorn at sitting on the couch after work.
7. My husband reports that he is sleeping better than he has in years.

This is just after one week. I’m looking forward to seeing what other positive things I notice about my body and my health. I’m very grateful to my husband for leading the way with this change.