Thought some of you might find a summary of a Dr Pepper addict, and how it’s affected various parts of my life, interesting. First of all, I’m not addicted to any other type of soft drink. It’s only Dr Pepper that I crave. I’m 36 years old and my current status is that my Dr Pepper intake is ‘down’ to ‘only’ about 12-20 ounces per day. At my worst, I’d easily guess I’ve been as high as 40-50 ounces per day. Hot summer days on the water for 8+ hours, I know I’ve crossed the 100 ounces in a day several times. My current BMI is about 23. I’ve been as high as about 32.

My addiction started in high school; however, I wouldn’t say that I noticed much of anything since I was a multi-sport athlete and stayed very active. I also went to college on a golf scholarship where my golf coach stressed endurance training so we would run at least 3 miles per day with non-tournament weekends requiring 5-7 mile runs each day. Looking back, this coach getting me into long distance running is the reason I’m not in a very serious health situation at my age.

My golf career was short-lived as I quickly realized I would starve if I pursued professional golf. Luckily, math and science were always strengths of mine so off to LSU I go for a mechanical engineering degree. It’s here where I start to understand that I am drinking a lot of Dr Pepper, but again, I’m now a long distance runner so I’m not concerned about health. In fact, I’m now running very long distances and training for marathons with a steady diet of protein drinks and, of course, Dr Pepper. Although I’m in incredible shape at this point in my life, me ignoring the addiction that’s building is going to cost me.

After graduating in M.E. at LSU, I leave and go to grad school at Clemson to get my PhD in M.E. and this is where I start to really notice just how powerful my addiction is and just how unhealthy Dr Pepper can be. Working on a PhD requires a lot of time at a desk and ability to stay focused. This ended up with me drinking 40+ ounces per day and not exercising as much. It was amazing how quickly I went from great shape to good shape to bad shape and considerably overweight. At my worst in grad school, I was probably 30+ pounds overweight which lead me to my first serious self reflection on my life where I said ‘f it’ and took control of my weight, but not my Dr Pepper addiction.

I got back into running. Got back into marathon training. And got back into great shape. All while still drinking gallons and gallons of Dr Pepper. So my success was short lived.

After grad school, my career comes calling. A PhD in M.E. allows me to go do some really cool things on F1 race cars, ballistic missiles, hypersonic aircraft, etc. Unfortunately, this career also puts me in very high stress environments with tight deadlines and long working weekends where I’m essentially sedentary. My Dr Pepper addiction is the worst it’s ever been and I turn into a ballon. My waist goes from 32 to 40. My weight goes out of control. Looking back, it’s amazing to me just how fast an insane amount of sugar can put on pounds. I went from in shape to 50+ pounds overweight in probably a year. That’s how bad Dr Pepper can be for your diet. Think about that.

After 5 years of doing the insane career and insanely unhealthy thing, I have my second serious life reflection. I leave my high stress job and take another job that does similar things in similar industries but is way less stressful. I also get back into running. Like I said earlier, I owe a lot to my golf coach for forcing me to run at a young age. I am lucky that no matter how overweight I get, I can go out and run 5, 6, even 7 miles without stopping. Granted I will be barely moving, but I have the mental strength of a long distance runner so I can get it done.

So here I am, down 50 pounds from this time last year. I’m running almost every day but this time I’m scared. My Dr Pepper addiction is still here. I know as soon as I stop running, the weight is right behind it. I’ve got every sign of being an addict. Telling myself I will quit tomorrow, it’s only this time, etc. I used to think it was stupid to say Dr Pepper was an addiction but that shite is real.

If anybody else has conquered a soft drink addiction, I’d love to hear your story.