Flowings of Your Everlasting Taffyman

So I had Aleks  join me for a class this summer and apparently I inspired him to try to give up Coca Cola as one idea in his attempt at a more sustainable life.    He also asked me to be a team member on that blog.
My first thought is basically... I don't know what I could contribute.  I know the research I presented in class to my students was what got him thinking about one thing, but in general I gather research, I don't actually live it.

My attempts so far this year were to give up bottled water (I am getting much better) and briefly after watching this video, to give up pop.  That lasted like 2 days and made me realize how thoroughly addicted to sugar I am.
One of the points the researcher makes is that Alcohol comes from sugar, and the long term effects are roughly the same. I can see so many of them in my body already that it scared me... but not enough to stop drinking pop at bars (since I don't drink alcohol).  Not enough to always order water at dinner or social events...  and since juice is roughly the same thing in a slightly less intense way it makes it hard.   I don't think I am cut out to be an activist always tap water type of person. Alek's suggestion of tea doesn't sit well with my stomach and in both tea and coffee I add a shit ton of sugar to make it palatable.
Its weird though to recognize how addicted you are to something, to its convenience, the energy boost, the physical sensation, the fix... I honestly can't seem to go very long without coffee, pop or candy... and maybe I ought to go more lightly and just say one a day... but it seems hard to even do that.  I have been adding fruits and veggies as snack food but I still want some candy in-between.

anyway... they are not even sure this an addictive substance so I can't imagine giving up the things that are considered that.  I find in strange how vulnerable these vices make us... I feel incredibly insecure knowing that I am feeding myself poison and can't/don't want to do anything about it.Similarly the pornography thing... I think if I didn't have it in my life I wouldn't second guess myself nearly as much as I do... its just a reminder of all things negative for me.

So Alek's asks me for my expertise, and I can't think of anything to offer...
my first thought was really just to have the cool people I know who do cool things to add their own words...
while I listen and repeat as is my role.

*Also, funny that I can influence people older than me who barely know me, but have little to no effect on my teenage students who I spend years with. Maybe I was meant to teach higher ed.