Fizz in The Everyday (A Diary Of Sorts)

I’m rather proud of myself lately. Ever since a very good friend whose opinion I respect (most of the time, anyway, except for when I’m being an obnoxious brat.), I’ve been doing things to make my eating habits more health-friendly. Of course, in my case, I have two issues to deal with; a diet that’s good for my heart, and another diet that’s good for my kidneys, and strangely enough, those two diets don’t always agree on what’s best for me. Some things the heart-healthy diet prohibits, the renal-friendly diet says I can have. This requires that I make educated choices that somehow manage to bring about compromise while not endangering myself. It’s not easy, and I may not like doing it, but I do it because you know, I’d like to be here a little while longer. What’s the use of having all the fun if most of the fun is killing you? It doesn’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense, does it?

Then of course there’s the fluid intake issue, and I’m doing fairly well with that as well, and I’m proud of myself for that too. However, I have had (and still have, to some extent.) one big nasty horrible weakness, to which I herein confess, and not proudly at all. See, I have always had a love for soft drinks, or pop, or soda, or soda pop, whatever you call it wherever you live. You know what I mean; things like Coke and Pepsi and the like. I’ve loved that fizzy stuff since I was a kid. Cream Soda and Root Beer were my primary favorites. I loved Root Beer floats.

Fortunately, I grew up in a household where such beverages were considered a rare treat, unlike today where it seems like kids drink sodas by the truckload. There are even vending machines selling soft drinks in the schools. We never had vending machines in the school, not back then, I tell ya. Soft drinks weren’t a way of life like they are now. Therefore, I never got used to the concept of sodas and soft drinks as “everyday” beverages. They were treats; we only got them once in a while.

Of course, when I was old enough to make my own decisions, what did I do? I took advantage of my freedom (to my own detriment.) and had Pepsi and coke and mountain dew (another favorite) anytime I wanted, and that was far too often. I am older now, and supposedly somewhat wiser. I am well aware that such beverages hold no health benefits and in fact just aren’t good for anyone at all. There’s little to redeem them excepting for the fact that they taste good, especially on a hot summer day, but that’s no reason to indulge oneself whenever one pleases. Moderation, you know.

I am not good with moderation, but I’m beginning to get better at it as time goes by, and as I get a little smarter and act more like a grown-up about such issues.

I’ve discovered that my love of sodas and such comes from the fact that I enjoy the fizz. It’s not the sweetness, the high sugar content, or even the flavor of the drink itself that I enjoy; it’s that fizzy, bubbly feeling as the liquid slides down my throat. I just love that.

So instead of drinking sugar-laden soda pop, or whatever you want to call it, I’ve discovered flavored seltzer water and sparking water. There’s far less sugar, and I still get the thrill of the carbonation, and that makes me happy. Mind you, I can’t drink a whole lot of that stuff at any one time because I do have to ration my fluid throughout the day, but I can have an eight-ounce glass with a meal, or in the evening while I’m watching the television or listening to music.

However, I have discovered something that dismays me; those supposed sugar-free beverages, like flavored waters and drinks like Crystal Light DO have a little sugar in them, not to mention other things that really aren’t so good for the human body, especially a human body that needs all the help it can get, like mine. What to do?

Bright idea; make my own…

So I bought one of those SodaStream machines on line this morning. It’ll be here by next Wednesday. I didn’t buy it to make soft drinks, though that’s what they tell you it can do; I bought it to make my own flavored sparkling water and flavored seltzers, and if I really do want a soda, I hopefully can make those from natural fruit juices, like cranberry juice and the like. It’s certainly going to be better for me than those drinks that are full of sugar, aspartame, and other things.

And, in anticipation of receiving the machine, when I went grocery shopping today I brought home lots of oranges, lemons, limes, and grapes, so I can make my own flavor-infused water in the refrigerator. I’ve got some in the fridge right now in fact, and by sometime tomorrow afternoon, it should be ready. I took one large orange, quartered it, and placed it in a quart of water, and already the flavor from the orange is making its way into the cold water. I didn’t use any sugar at all, and not even a sugar substitute; it’s just water and oranges, nothing more, and I can hopefully make sparkling water from that when the Soda Stream thingie arrives.

My next purchase, when I have the money lying around (which will be a while.) will be a water filter I can attach to the kitchen sink faucet. We have yucky water here; lots of chlorine and crap.

And by the way; lunch today consisted of a fourth of an orange, several delicious red grapes, and tuna salad on lettuce. Dinner tonight wasn’t so healthy, but I’m not perfect. I’ll just keep trying and I’ll do the best I can.

As for the problem with dialysis; it’s still on-going, and we haven’t decided what’s causing me to react to dialysis the way I have been the past few weeks. Now we think it could be a nutritional problem, but then again, we won’t know until blood tests have been done and the doctor has had a chance to see them. In the meantime, I’m managing okay, and we’re keeping an eye on things. Yesterday I didn’t feel very well for most of the day, but I did notice that once I had my lunch, and a cup of hot tea, that I was feeling a little better. It also helped that I took a nap, and slept very soundly when I did so, at least I think that helped.

In other words; I have no real news to report, except that I am optimistic that we will get to the bottom of this problem that has recently arisen as a result of the dialysis process, and be able to fix it so that life, such as it is, can go on, for a long time to come.