How did you quit soda?

iRyanS

I quit drinking soda quite abruptly, or "cold turkey". At the time I was miserable due to the fact that I couldn't bare to stand for extended periods of time without feeling pain. Quitting soda was the first straw, before I even got involved in a better diet or exercise.

Been 10 months since that last sip of soda. No cravings or anything. Its allowed me to drop 110 lbs. Thankful for that.

cinnabondelights

I used to drink soda daily but stopped cold turkey when I decided to lose weight. I really like sweet drinks so I substituted it for green and black tea- sometimes I would have it with a spoonful of honey I can't even drink soda now since the carbonation gives me bloating and it just gives me a stomach ache.

LeanMean2077

Imaging my teeth rotting and all those dental bills - they will fund a trip to Europe! If you're stressed, do something HEALTHFUL, or productive: exercise, clean something... I was addicted, and I switched to sweetened tea, measuring the sugar, and then cut down SLOWLY over the course of 3 weeks to no sugar. Your teeth will thank you!

ccrdragon

LeanMean2077 wrote: »

Imaging my teeth rotting and all those dental bills - they will fund a trip to Europe! If you're stressed, do something HEALTHFUL, or productive: exercise, clean something... I was addicted, and I switched to sweetened tea, measuring the sugar, and then cut down SLOWLY over the course of 3 weeks to no sugar. Your teeth will thank you!

If you practice good dental hygiene, the sugar does far less damage than the acid does.

curiousgp

fizzy water - la Croix

kshama2001

SabrinaJ89 wrote: »

Sorry I havent responded to anyone, crazy week so far!

For the most part I feel like quitting soda altogether would drastically reduce my calories in. Some days at work i drink 3 20oz sodas (mt dew is my downfall.) I quit drinking soda while pregnant because of the caffeine.

Now I feel like I have myself tricked into thinking soda helps with energy or making me feel better. I've tried drinking diet and its just gross to me, I did good for a little while with flavored water but keep coming back to soda

Well, caffeine and sugar can indeed make you feel better, so you're probably not imagining that

I think artificial sweetener is gross too.

If you switch to something uncaffeinated, get a different source of caffeine for a while or brace yourself for the misery of caffeine withdrawal.

I only put a 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) of sugar into a 12 oz cup of tea. 12 oz of Mt Dew has 46 grams of sugar and 170 calories.

My mom takes straight caffeine pills.

12Sarah2015

Cold Turkey when I realised it was affecting my teeth and dental bill

12Sarah2015

SabrinaJ89 wrote: »

I'm definitely an emotional eater and when I'm stressed at work or home soda is like my go to stress reliever. I've quit drinking soda in the past when I was pregnant but I had a different reason to then. Anyone have any tips or advice on how to kick the habit?

How are you going?

GetFitFix

My go to soda was Mountain Dew, but I quit cold turkey. Now I just drink black coffee and water. I probably drink to much coffee now that I think about it.

millerdan1

I switched to carbonated water and have the occasional soda when I’m eating out somewhere.

MalkinMagic71

Coke zero and cherry coke zero for life.

eatyogarun

SabrinaJ89 wrote: »

Now I feel like I have myself tricked into thinking soda helps with energy or making me feel better. I've tried drinking diet and its just gross to me, I did good for a little while with flavored water but keep coming back to soda

Maybe try different ones. I used to drink diet Coke before switching to Coke Zero. Now I don't know how I drank diet Coke, it's not good. If you can find one that's not gross to you, you'll get used to it and then come to prefer it.

smptd7

I switched to soda water! Turns out I craved the fizziness more than the actual taste!

mkmaske

I like the la criox waters, give a few flavors a try until you like one. It took me a while to find some that I liked. My favorite is the Aldi brand. Also, sometimes I mix it with lemonade or a splash of juice.

DoubleUbea

It took a long time and started before I joined MFP. I no longer enjoyed the sugary sweet taste. It was odd because I grew up with Pepsi Coke made with real sugar, when they reintroduced "made with sugar"t I thought it tasted better but I didn't want it. It still needs a glass bottle but that is a different story. Eventually I realized I wanted the fizzy not the sugar. For a while I was drinking unsweetened flavored seltzer water. Eventually I grew tired of that.

My advice to give up soda is to try unsweetened seltzer, maybe you are craving the fizzy.

fishgutzy

Water with lemon. Rarely drink soda now.

countcurt

SabrinaJ89 wrote: »

I'm definitely an emotional eater and when I'm stressed at work or home soda is like my go to stress reliever. I've quit drinking soda in the past when I was pregnant but I had a different reason to then. Anyone have any tips or advice on how to kick the habit?

This may be a bit blunt, but here goes: You put on your big girl pants, decide what's important to you and do that. So if there is no other way to relieve stress, you're stuck with the 500-800 calories per day of sugar water. If losing weight is that important to you, you'll have to figure out a different strategy to relieve stress.

I must wonder, though, if you have simply created a habit as opposed to a stress reliever.

Sunshine_And_Sand

I don't remember ever liking soda, especially dark soda.
My mom says I used to drink it all the time but got a lot of UTIs when I was really little and that the extra water they made me drink to try to help this problem apparently turned me off of sodas. I assume this plan worked (or I just outgrew the problem) as I don't remember the frequent UTIs.
I guess that "strategy" worked since water is what I want to drink 99% of the time, but I wouldn't recommend the multiple UTI route as viable strategy for forcing yourself to quit sodas😃
Short of medical conditions quitting sodas isn't necessary, but I've heard water grows on you if you drink it all the time, and I feel like chocolate is a great substitute if it's the caffeine you're after 😉

WillingtoLose1001984

SabrinaJ89 wrote: »

I'm definitely an emotional eater and when I'm stressed at work or home soda is like my go to stress reliever. I've quit drinking soda in the past when I was pregnant but I had a different reason to then. Anyone have any tips or advice on how to kick the habit?

I think you just have to get rid of it and not keep it in the house if you can. I have a similar problem with sweets. If you can't not keep it around have your family member hide it. My mom hides her treats from me and it really helps. Putting it out of sight helps too or in an inconvenient location.

RonyMack

I substituted my liter of Mountain Dew with apple cider vinegar.
I have no teeth now, but I've rebooted my metabolism.

CSARdiver

About the same time I started tracking calories I also spent a good deal of time travelling overseas. When you do this going from the US to anywhere else you don't notice it as much, but there's much less sugar used in food and drinks. Traveling the other direction people often note how much sweeter and saltier food and drinks are. This doesn't impact calorie count as much, but it does influence appetite and satiety.

A very effective tool is to "reset your sweet" and go off sweets for a few weeks and then reintroduce salt/sweet carefully. I went off soda initially simply due to the calorie count and switched to diet, seltzer, or water. Now in maintenance and put my goals to performance I eat/drink everything, but just ensure I hold to my caloric budget.

rfreitas1848

I replaced it with smoking. Seems to help.

Snowflake1968

I quit drinking 2L a day every day about 10 years ago. I just decided to stop buying it. I still have an occasional Coke once in a while if I'm out eating in a restaurant but I find now that I don't even really like it very much. I found after the first week the cravings stopped, sort of like quitting smoking it was the habit I needed to change.