SODA - Biggest addiction
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Here is a recent article from CNN on how diet soda confuses the body
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/health/2014/12/03/diet-soda-confuses-body-be-a-champ-orig-nws.cnn&iref=allsearch&video_referrer=http://www.cnn.com/search/?query=diet+soda&x=0&y=0&primaryType=mixed&sortBy=relevance&intl=false
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I used to drink a lot of soda, then swithched to diet but it was even worse because since there were no calories, I'd drink 5-6 cans a day and still wasn't satisfied because it wasn't the same. Then I asked my husband not to bring soda home (he drinks it at work). I switched to really cold carbonated water. Sometimes I would add flavoring to it, but mostly not. I rarely drink soda now, but when I do, it's in a very tall glass with lots of ice to have an illusion of increased volume. No straw!! Very cold ice tea also works as an alternative.
I hope you find the way to enjoy it in moderation.
Anoher suggestion: try to create pleasant rituals around a more healthy choice, like tea. I am in the process of creating a habit for a nightly large cup of delicious tea. I cozy up on a couch under a fluffy comforter and drink my tea while my nails dry, for example. I try different teas and learn different ways to make them. I sometimes have a piece of milk chocolate with it or add honey etc.
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I lost 126 lbs while drinking diet soda. It's not like you need to give it up. Try having a diet soda with each meal, and making it water the rest of the time. I enjoy the flavored waters, such as Fruit 2-0. They have no calories. Flavored seltzers are good, too, and have no calories. As long as you don't drink sugary drinks, you will still lose.
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T00GlaM0r0US wrote: »I loove the taste of soda, diet or regular and especially when it is ice cold.
I have stopped drinking soda in the past, but after a few months I say "one wont hurt" and then I am back to where I was before.
I know cutting it out would help me tremendously, but I would rather drink soda than eat lolol.
Anyone else struggle(d) with this?? How did you overcome the addiction
THANKS
Here's my tip - Tea. Start with a black tea, sweeten to your liking with milk and sugar (or honey if you prefer). Slowly wean yourself off of the sugar and milk. Take your time. Maybe cut half a teaspoon every month or two and start to switch to a milder tea like green or white tea.
The lighter teas won't be as bitter and won't need as much sweetening. Eventually, you'll be drinking those lighter teas (which are the more beneficial teas) without any additives, and you'll be able to drink as much as you want!
I drink tea almost exclusively now. I only really interrupt it with certain whole juices, particularly during the winter season when illnesses tend to go around. Once in a blue moon, I'll spring for a sweet drink, but rarely do I want another because I'm not as use to the sweetness and one is usually more than enough.
Also - try dark chocolate. As you acquire a taste for those purer teas, you'll find that the little bitterness in darker chocolates won't bother you. It's a nice way to get a sweet fix while still keeping relatively healthy. Dark Chocolate should have far less sugar and milk (though be careful because chocolate DOES need SOME fat from some source). Research has suggested that the health benefits of chocolate increase as your intake increases, so as long as you're willing to work off the calories, eat away!
(NOTE: Also, you'll likely eat less chocolate if you eat dark chocolate as you'll get far more of that delicious cacao per bite than you're used to!)0 -
I struggle with the same issue. I focus on the reason I reach for a soda. I want one when I'm tired, I want one when I am anxious, When I am eating certain foods (popcorn w/ butter etc.) I realize I am usually reaching for it the effects caffeine has on me. I don't want a drug (caffeine) to rule how I feel throughout the day. I want to have energy because I am well hydrated from water and have the proper nutrients in my body.0
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Here is a recent article from CNN on how diet soda confuses the body
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/health/2014/12/03/diet-soda-confuses-body-be-a-champ-orig-nws.cnn&iref=allsearch&video_referrer=http://www.cnn.com/search/?query=diet+soda&x=0&y=0&primaryType=mixed&sortBy=relevance&intl=false
Just to be clear, this a "news" report, using cartoons, created by a news organization notorious for sensationalizing and getting stuff wrong, narrated by an ex-football player.
The scientific/medical community has been trying for decades to prove that artificial sweeteners are bad for you, and have been unable to do it.
There is a ton of research and evidence that carrying extra weight can cause, contribute to, and worsen all sorts of health problems. So if you need to lose weight, and drinking diet soda helps you to get your calories in line, worry about the possible, vague, and unproven dangers of diet soda once you have all the other stuff in check. Moderation is a great way to increase your chances of success.0 -
Have you tried drinking carbonated water like La Croix? I know some people get addicted to the carbonation... La Croix is available in different fruit flavors and it's pretty good.0
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T00GlaM0r0US wrote: »Anyone else struggle(d) with this?? How did you overcome the addiction
If your main goal is to quit soda (including diet), you've gotten some good advice. The first question, however, has to be why you drink it. I drink it (a) for caffeine, and (b) because I enjoy it and like to have a drink available at all times, so for me what worked was replacing it with a variety of things, mostly extra coffee (since I wasn't bothered about caffeine and like coffee black), tea and iced tea, and water. I didn't find that I missed soda that much, which also made me fine with drinking it on occasion if I really want one (or something analogous, like diet ginger ale or those flavored waters). What I personally don't do is forget about the variety of other beverages available (like water or tea) and, especially, waste calories on soda. For some it might be worth the calories, but for me it never would be--if I didn't like diet, I wouldn't ever drink it.
And that brings me to the second question, which is whether you really need to quit diet soda. IMO, if you want to, do. I experiment with quitting stuff from time to time for a variety of reasons (for example, I don't think coffee is bad for me, but I don't want to feel dependent on it, so I give it up for periods to confirm that I am not). However, other indications in your posts have suggested that you think it's an important thing to do for losing weight and it's not. I've lost lots of weight while drinking diet soda off and on, and it's made zero difference, and perhaps even made it easier, since it was one less thing to feel deprived of and an easy no calorie thing to eat/drink if I wanted something at a time I knew I wasn't really hungry.
It seems to be true that just switching to diet alone typically won't result in weight loss (not because cutting calories doesn't work, but because people compensate for the decrease in calories in some other way). But that's very different from saying--as people seemed to be suggesting--that diet will continue to count toward your overall calories as if you were drinking regular. My personal thought is that unless there is some reason that quitting soda seems helpful to you (motivating or some such) there's no reason to bother with it at the beginning of a diet/lifestyle change. What you need to do is get your calories in check and start losing weight in a way that seems sustainable, like something you can do for a long time (and with a few more calories, forever). As you go on, it will get easier and you may want to make additional changes. There is no reason that you have to do everything at once, though, and I personally might not bother with changes that don't actually affect your calories if you are thinking they will be difficult for you to sustain and could result in your "falling off the wagon" in a way that is counterproductive to your success overall.
So the main question is what you are trying to accomplish.
Anyway, good luck!0 -
When I first gave up soda about a year and a half ago, I tried at first to cut down slowly and only limit myself to one or two a day. (I was previously drinking about a 2 liter every day!) I had a hard time though because when I'd have my one or two, I would always somehow find a way to justify having more. For me, it was best to just go cold turkey; however, I really think it depends on the person and what works best for you!
I will say though that my weight loss really skyrocketed once I stopped drinking my calories, so keep trying to do this!
Good luck!0 -
Another thing about diet soda is that the arguments for it being bad for weight loss are based on a theory (never well supported) that it causes some people to crave sweets more than they otherwise would. Based on personal experimentation I know this isn't true for me, even if it is for some. There's an easy way to test this--if you struggle with craving more sweets than you want to eat while on a calorie restriction, cut out diet and see if it makes a difference. But if you are happily eating within your calorie deficit and it's a true deficit, then drinking diet soda won't interfere with your losing.
Whether there are other personal reasons to cut it is a separate question that only you can answer.0 -
First off, going to google and typing in "aspartame side affects" is pointless. Unless you show me a legitimate scientific study proving causation of aspartame relating to negative side effects, then it's pointless. I don't waste my time with fear mongering articles on the internet with no cited sources, and neither should you, or anybody for that matter. There is so much intentional misinformation about nutrition on the internet that if you believed every article you read, you'd be utterly confused. Just watch one episode of Dr. Oz. It's a joke...
Secondly, you never answered my question about your phrasing of "full fat" soda which is what I was asking in my reply. Soda does not contain any dietary fat unless you're talking about a root beer float with a scoop of ice cream in it. Luckily one of the other posters answered my question informing me that the terminology "full fat" is sometimes used to refer to a non diet version of something such as soda.0 -
I haven't had any problem losing weight, or keeping it off while consuming diet soda. All of my inflammation issues were alleviated by cutting excessive amounts of processed carbs and sugar. As long as I take in an equal or greater amount of water, and my urine is the correct color, I drink diet soda.
Not much left to safely eat or drink if you listen to the "experts"; therefore, common sense and "If it fits your macros" all the way for me.
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Yup! Some people use the phrase "full fat" in the way we use the phrase "fattening." Not a reference to lipids or a macro breakdown.
First off, going to google and typing in "aspartame side affects" is pointless. Unless you show me a legitimate scientific study proving causation of aspartame relating to negative side effects, then it's pointless. I don't waste my time with fear mongering articles on the internet with no cited sources, and neither should you, or anybody for that matter. There is so much intentional misinformation about nutrition on the internet that if you believed every article you read, you'd be utterly confused. Just watch one episode of Dr. Oz. It's a joke...
Secondly, you never answered my question about your phrasing of "full fat" soda which is what I was asking in my reply. Soda does not contain any dietary fat unless you're talking about a root beer float with a scoop of ice cream in it. Luckily one of the other posters answered my question informing me that the terminology "full fat" is sometimes used to refer to a non diet version of something such as soda.
I call it "sugar pop" - different people call it different things.
It's an expression.
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Growing up we never had coke (soda). My mother drank (and still does) about 5-6 cans a day and would refuse to let the kids have any so it was never a big deal. So when I turned 16 and started working at a Subway that had unlimited access to a coke machine...my life took a terrible turn. Cue me with my face under the rootbeer stream after hours. It became an addiction. If I didn't have rootbeer or some form of coke I had a headache (It was all mental, I'm sure). I was probably consuming a good 700-800 calories a day in nothing but coke and that is NOT an exaggeration (I worked long hours and we brought route 44 cups and refilled often). My weight ballooned due to this...and all the bacon I was eating. =D
When I started my weight loss journey and began working at Starbucks (Cue, 15 cups of black coffee! WOO!) I cut out coke. I went from drinking them regularly to one every few days. My Love drinks diet soda like it's going out of style so I began drinking those with him. Thennnnn I cut that out too....I'm now made fun of for ordering water at restaurants. I don't crave cokes anyone (Except the occasional diet rootbeer!) and I feel way better. It took a lot of work to stop wanting cokes and I constantly craved them at first. It took will power and begging him to put the cokes on the top shelf where I couldn't reach. But it is possible! It's all mental!0 -
Same old scare tactics associated with soda. Diet soda is calorie free. No reason for it to affect your daily calories.0
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When I first gave up soda about a year and a half ago, I tried at first to cut down slowly and only limit myself to one or two a day. (I was previously drinking about a 2 liter every day!) I had a hard time though because when I'd have my one or two, I would always somehow find a way to justify having more. For me, it was best to just go cold turkey; however, I really think it depends on the person and what works best for you!
I will say though that my weight loss really skyrocketed once I stopped drinking my calories, so keep trying to do this!
Good luck!
I know not everyone agrees with ryanhorn on this approach but until I got ticked off at myself over drinking soda and left them cold turkey I kept letting them suck me back in.
For three months I have been mainly only drinking water (gallon a day due to my size) and green tea and not much coffee any more. One plus in my case is I stopped grabbing a candy bar, etc from the break room when I stopped the sodas because after a life time of doing both at the same time I must have been living for both a caffeine and sugar kick from break time.
Everyone is is different but tapering off just never works for me. In my case there was a change at 20, 40 and 60 concerning how eating/drinking different foods would impact my % of fat and health in general. Aging never made things easier in my case.
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T00GlaM0r0US wrote: »They say it's just as bad for you as regular soda; as in retaining water etc.
Who are "they", exactly? "They", in this case, would be wrong.
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I personally quit drinking soda completely. I found if i had easy access to it, I would drink it mindlessly. Diet Dr Pepper was usually what I bought. Also I would drink it later in the evening and the caffeine made it harder for me to sleep well. I had a hard time restricting to just a little bit daily so I removed it. It was hard for the first week now I don't crave it. On the plus side I save a lot of money not buying it, especially when I eat out. Restaurants charge way to much for soda.
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I will not comment on rather or not it's good or bad or if anyone should or shouldn't give it up because it seems to be an inflammatory topic for people. I just thought I would share what worked for me if it's something you'd like to do and are looking for ideas.
I accidentally gave up soda a few years ago, before doing so I was drinking 3-4 a day. I did an elimination diet for a few months to try and figure out what foods were causing my stomach issues. During that time I ended up not eating anything with added sugar because I wasn't eating anything processed. By the time I was reintroducing added sugar foods there were many that I found unpalatably sweet. I tried soda once or twice again since then but I still can't stand the taste of it anymore.
It would be a bit extreme to do an elimination diet just to cut out soda, but maybe just cut out or just cut back on added sugar foods for a few weeks or a month and see if that helps you.
My husband decided to give it up too because he prefers his liquid calories to be beer, he drank seltzer water with fruit juice instead of soda for a while until he got sick of the effort.0
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