Muffin - yay! Good for you. It WILL get better. Trust me on this one. And then you'll be all 'woohoo, I am so awesome' - and by awesome I mean awesomer than you already are!
And speaking of awesome; Kelbel you can do this. And to help you here are 10 (preachy) reasons to keep it up (just call me Somerhalder):
1 pop/soda is nothing but sugar water - It's devoid of any nutritional value.
2 Danish researchers discovered that drinking non-diet soda leads to dramatic increases in fat buildup around your liver and your skeletal muscles, both of which can contribute to insulin resistance and diabetes. The study revealed that people who drank a regular soda every day for six months saw a 132 to 142 percent increase in liver fat, a 117 to 221 percent jump in skeletal fat, and about a 30 percent increase in both triglyceride blood fats and other organ fat. Their consumption also led to an 11 percent increase in cholesterol, compared with the people who drank other beverages such as water or milk.
3 Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center monitored 475 adults for 10 years, and found that those who drank diet soda had a
70 percent increase in waist circumference over the 10-year study, compared with those who didn't drink any soda. Those who drank more than two diet sodas per day saw a
500 percent waist expansion!. That's a LOT of extra Kelbel!!
4 In 2011, the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban the artificial caramel coloring used to make Coke, Pepsi, and other colas brown. The reason: Two contaminants in the coloring, 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole, have been found to cause cancer in animals, a threat the group says is unnecessary, considering that the coloring is purely cosmetic. According to California's strict Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer,
just 16 micrograms per person per day of 4-methylimidazole is enough to pose a cancer threat, and most popular brown colas, both diet and regular, contain 200 micrograms per 20-ounce bottle. 5 Diet or regular, all colas contain phosphates, or phosphoric acid, a weak acid that gives colas their tangy flavor and improves their shelf life. Although it exists in many whole foods, such as meat, dairy, and nuts, too much phosphoric acid can lead to heart and kidney problems, muscle loss, and osteoporosis, and [b
]one study suggests it could trigger accelerated aging[/b]. OH NO! The study, published in a 2010 issue of the FASEB Journal, found that the excessive phosphate levels found in sodas caused lab rats to
die a full five weeks earlier than the rats whose diets had more normal phosphate levels. We want you around for a long long time girlie!
6 The artificial sweeteners used in diet sodas don't break down in our bodies, nor do wastewater-treatment plants catch them before they enter waterways, researchers have found. A recent test of 19 municipal water supplies in the U.S. revealed the presence of sucralose in every one.
If our water treatment plants can't break it down with their advanced technologies and machines - what on earth is it doing inside our much more fragile bodies!!!???
7 "Mountain Dew Mouth," - a mouth full of cavities caused by the drink's excessive sugar levels. Nuff said (do I need to share visuals?
8 "Mountain Dew Mind"- An ingredient called brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, added to prevent the flavoring from separating from the drink, is an [b
]industrial chemical used as a flame retardant in plastics. [/b]Also found in other citrus-based soft drinks and sports drinks, the chemical has
been known to cause memory loss and nerve disorders when consumed in large quantities. Researchers also suspect that, like brominated flame retardants used in furniture foam, the chemical builds up in body fat, possibly causing
behavioral problems, infertility, and lesions on heart muscles over time.
Are you convinced yet? I mean, unless being flame resistant is something you WANT
9 Nearly all aluminum soda cans are lined with an epoxy resin called bisphenol A (BPA), used to keep the acids in soda from reacting with the metal. BPA is known to interfere with hormones, and has been linked to everything from infertility to obesity and diabetes and some forms of reproductive cancers.
YOu know how all the water bottles in the grocery store are all shouting off their labels "BPA FREE" - this is why!
Pepsi and Coke are currently in a race to see which company can be the first to develop a 100 percent plant-based-plastic bottle—which they're touting as "BPA free"
10 The "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," a mass of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean where things like soda caps, and plastic fish netting float just beneath the surface of the water. Birds, sea turtles, and other wildlife mistake the debris for food and eat large quantities of the plastic, which they are unable to digest. Ultimately, the plastic causes them to starve to death. It's estimated that thousands of animals die this way every year.
*totally copied from "9 Disturbing Side Effects of Soda" By Emily Main
I want to try and cut pop out of my daily diet, one can during the week and some on weekends when we eat out; i think I'll see a marked improvement in my belly fat if I'm able to do this 
my kids only have two more weeks of school left (help me! 
) so I'm thinking that we need to do a lot of walking around the neighborhood, and go to local nature parks, etc. this summer. my daughter needs to exercise more as well, but my son is so skinny he'd blow away in a mild windstorm 
he's running the local 5K again this coming weekend 
whatever works, right? 
but now when I try to use my daughter's, i feel like a giant with a piece of string 
my balance is horrible as an adult 
So proud of you for doing this!! 
Yes. Joy. And I have yoga tomorrow with the same teacher. Hope I can walk this weekend! 
I know that my belly fat is strictly from drinking so much pop b/c I've never had it there like I do now, ever since I started drinking pop regularly about 2 years ago. prior to that I couldn't drink it so regularly b/c the carbonation bothered my stomach, then all of a sudden it didn't anymore (?)
JodieO pointed out all the good stuff a "beginner" should see 
and I have no clue who Ray is (feeling very uneducated right about now, LOL!) Though I have to admit RA does have a fab voice and I adore Martin (how could I not? He's 
My balance just ain't there, yet, honey, that's WHY I hired ya!
)
