Addicted to Soda

ken_hogan

sodas can carry a lot of sodium or caffeine depending on the kind you drink.... and as we all know sodium can be a bummer during weight loss and for your health...

Actually, milk has more sodium than a lot of soft drinks, at least the soft drinks that I looked at the lables.


Cold turkey was the easiest way that I shook the soft drink habit.

joshdann

I used to drink 60oz or so of Dr. Pepper daily. Just about every meal during the day (even breakfast many days), most likely with a refill... plus a can or two or three at home. I wouldn't call it an addiction, just a really bad habit. For me, it was two things that helped me get off them: exercise and desire to lose weight. Exercise meant I *needed* the hydration of water. I felt all kinds of funky if I didn't rehydrate (duh), and water fixes that better than anything else. I was still drinking sodas... then just made the conscious decision to stop. Once I started logging my food, and striving for a large deficit, I just couldn't afford the calories. Diet drinks taste terrible to me, and most artificial sweeteners give me headaches and a bit of dizziness... so those were out, too. I switched to the occasional iced tea with meals (caffeine but no sugar).

Now I pretty much only drink water and coffee. I don't drink nearly as many calories, and my deficit thanks me for it. So does my body

lewandt

I use to drink Mt Dew and switched to diet years ago strictly because of the calories. I didn't like it at first but now i cannot drink regular Dew, it is way too sweet.

I have been trying to cut the Diet Dew too and it is hard. Anytime i tried i would get the headaches, mainly because of the caffeine. Then i switched to caffeine free and had a couple cups of coffee in the morning to combat that.

So now i am trying to get off the caffeine free Diet Dew but my problem is there is nothing i can find to substitute it with. I have tried the flavored packets to add to water and like those ok, but i am not sure they are any better. They all have some kind of sugar substitute in them (which is what i want to get away from) and i don't want to add any calories in my drinks so it has to be sugar free. I am not a big fruit juice drinker but i don't think they are all that good for you either with all the added sugar.

Right now i drink a cup or two of coffee in the morning and water after that. I only allow myself soda at lunch and one in the afternoon and try to stick to that.

My goal is to drink water with an occasional soda. Not sure if that is realistic though.

cmcis

I have found drinking soda was really nothing more than a habit for me (it felt like an addiction at one time). I have minimized drinking of soda by drinking ice cold water. I used to never drink water but in a way this has become a habit also. Now when I drink coke, I do not find the same high I used to get (unless I'm very hungry then I think I get that sugar high). I still have to avoid buying it too often though, I'd hate to develop the habit again. Another alternative for me is to drink a glass of orange juice.

emlott88

*massive generalisation klaxon*

It does seem that adults drinking fizzy drinks is more of an American habit? In England it's usually just kids or students who drink it.

Adults drink tea - or beer.

Not judging just commenting...

I'm originally from New Zealand, and I had a 'soda' addiction. From what I've noticed since living in the USA and now being around military, Americans are WAYYYY into their 'energy drinks'. Thankfully my husband isn't. He doesn't even drink soda lol. The free refill thing in the USA probably makes it easier to drink a lot of soda though - and also, it's SO CHEAP! It costs $4.00 for a 600ml bottle of diet coke in New Zealand. The same bottle is $1 out of a vending machine in the USA. Less from a supermarket.

Anyway - OP!

If you want to kick the soda habit, you really have to put up with those headaches and irritable moods. Just like losing weight, there's no easy way of getting out of it. I was addicted to diet coke. My workmates would always joke about me cracking my first 'DC' at 8.30 in the morning.

Once I moved to the USA and was at home, I could quantify my addiction much better as I kept all the cans. I was drinking like 4 cans a day - and no water! My poor body (it's embarrassing).

My first step was to switch from regular DC to caffeine free DC. I had guessed my addiction was the caffeine. I REALLY didn't like it. The only way to enforce it was to ONLY have caffeine free in the house. Your mind doesn't want diet MD, it wants regular! I promise you after drinking 12-20 diet mountain dews, you will probably have adjusted to the taste. I also didn't like coke zero, but I went through a major natural disaster and the supermarkets ran out of 'DC'. I drank 6 2 litter bottles of coke zero, and suddenly that's all I wanted.

Now, I don't know if mountain dew comes in caffeine free, but if it does - get it. Half of it is probably in your mind - i.e. you like the routine of grabbing a can or glass. If you push through the horrible side effects of withdrawing from caffeine, then you can find a healthy way of having routine

Oh, and I limit myself to one can of caffeine free a day now. I have it with my dinner and it's purely ritual haha. I can have a normal DC if we are out having a meal and am no worse for wear. I feel so much healthier as now instead of 4 cans of soda, I actually drink 80oz of water a day! I'm hoping to cut down to one a week eventually, but, for now I'm happy with my one zero calorie soda a day

Good luck!

LolaBug85

I'd suggest cold turkey. I tried lowering how much I drank. I got down to about 16oz/day but didn't go any lower after that. Every day I would say, I'll just have less tomorrow. That never worked. So I just quit cold turkey. The headaches were terrible for about 5 days then after that I was fine. Haven't gone back since. I've been pop-free for 10 months now