160 Ounces of Pain

A friend of the blog shared a rather alarming story the other day about his impressive capacity to slug back diet sodas. He downed a 32-ounce serving of Diet Dr Pepper during his regular work schedule, then met up with friends at a local chain restaurant after work. While there, he added four more 32-ounce beverages to his tally for the day, bringing his total diet soda consumption to a staggering (and no doubt sloshing) 160 ounces, or 1.25 gallons (4.75 liters) in about 12 hours.

He didn't keel over later that night — that we know of — and, indeed, seemed in good health the next time that we saw him. He did, on the other hand, mention feeling a dull pain in the kidney region that he attributed to his excessive daylong carbonation-and-caramel-coloring bender. Another friend immediately corroborated this finding based on his own experience with maximum intake of Dr Pepper products. Apparently "soda kidney" is a thing to beware of for all of us.

Now we know what you're thinking: Are the effects limited to the Dr Pepper family of brands (which includes 7-UP, A&W Root Beer, Canada Dry, RC Cola, Crush, Schweppes. Hires, and IBC, among others), or can I also get soda kidney from drinking too much Mountain Dew? Ha-ha, just kidding. What you're really thinking in probably, "Are the effects of soda kidney temporary, or could I actually do lasting harm to my body by drinking 1.25 gallons of soda per day?"

OK. All right. What most of you are really actually thinking is probably, "What in the Sam Hill does all of this have to do with IT certification?" Well, here at TestOut Continuing Education, our Library Suite certification and training bundle probably sometimes seems like 160 ounces of diet soda. Or at least it would if you tried to blast through the whole thing in a week, say, or even a month. Like most things, successful certification requires patience, planning, and moderation.

There's often a temptation in certification to rush through, to pile it on, to go from one lesson to the next as quickly as possible. You don't get any extra benefit from setting a speed record, however, and allowing time for principles and processes to sink in increases the likelihood of successful retention and application. We get it:  Sometimes something just feels good — even IT training, now and then — and you want to get as much of that sensation as you can. Just don't get carried away.