January - First thing you can do to improve your health

On a message board I frequent, some ladies and I are going on a health journey based on this article - 10 Things you can do to Improve Your Diet We're taking one thing each month and making it a habit.

January is eliminating artificial sweeteners.

Primarily one finds artificial sweeteners in diet sodas, but also in any other diet foods - low calorie or sugar-free. There are no artificial sweeteners that are good - None. Splenda is sometimes marketed as made from sugar, which it is, but it's chlorinated sugar. C'mon - adding chlorine to sugar makes it better? No. Sugar in it's pure form is always best - not chemically altered, not concentrated, just plain the way God made it.

This month is easy for me. I was kind of on a diet soda kick, because corn syrup (in regular soda) makes me a little nutty, but I quit cold turkey at 12:05 on January first. I accidentally bought some yogurt with Aspertame, but I could taste it right away and didn't finish it.

So, January is going well. February may be a bit more difficult, and later the year will be a definate challenge. Baby steps, baby steps.