Kick the soda addiction?

gazz777

Hi. Former Coca Cola addict and successful loser here. Coke was my staple 'stress relief' or what I turned to when there was a 'need'. I was on 1-2 cans per day (all the budget allowed) PLUS adding sugar to my breakfast cereal PLUS a couple of cups of tea a day with more sugar (1-3 teaspoons). One day I went ENOUGH ! Went cold turkey on the Cola and the added sugar. I had lemon AND lime (1/8-1/4 of each to a bottle of water - about 2 cups worth of water), and started walking 20-30kms per week. That first week was not too wonderful. A lot of warm/hot (not scalding hot - causes fainting) baths. Shakes a little 3-4th day but I have not turned back. Lost 10kg (22lb) from March to June before joining MFP.

As for no sugar on cereal or in my tea - my taste buds got the hang of it

Disclaimer: seek Dr's advice as I am not a medical professional. But I am a winner who has lost ! Currently, I am at 1lb from my goal weight !

runs4zen

Quit it cold turkey....

That's what worked for me. I was drinking 2-3/day and like you I had no interest in diet sodas. I would quit and then get terrible caffeine withdrawals and have the worst migraine imaginable so I would go right back to drinking soda. If you get the caffeine withdrawals too, but can make it pass the headaches you will be fine. Just don't get tempted.

I haven't had a soda in a week and a half.... I know that may not sound like a long time, but for me it is! No cravings past the initial first day either.


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Nutrition Facts For Foods

This. Cold Turkey! I kicked it twice--both times while pregnant--and then for good about two years ago! I drink caffeine though and lots of it so if you're kicking that too, go for decaf whenever you can!

iplayoutside19

I went from regular to diet....and I'm still trying to figure out that next step.

I may just have to go cold turkey.

jhagemann

Thanks everyone with all of your helpful hints and creative options -- I have definitely heard Crystal Light being a popular substitute as well as the Diet Dr. Pepper, I had forgotten about that! Basically I drink 4 items - wine, water, unsweetened green tea (hot and cold) and Coke. The most I will drink in a day is 2 12 oz cans. I just know if I kicked the Coke habit, the weight would come right off! I have heard of people just consistently watering down the soda week after week and losing their taste for it.

Jeff92se

I went from regular to diet....and I'm still trying to figure out that next step.

I may just have to go cold turkey.

Same here. I doing MiO and so far it's okay. Only 3 days into it. I don't eliminate diet cokes but I'll sub 1 of the estimated 2-3 I usually drink for water. Hope to get it down to 1 / day, then 1 per 2 days etc...

randym1586

I feel your pain on this one. I had a REALLY bad soda addiction that I'm still dealing with. I was to the point where I was drinking literally a 2 liter a day. The absolute best thing I can tell you is to NOT quit cold turkey, it will drive you insane and you'll end up caving in to the addiction. I usually drink about 2 cups of coffee every morning and that suffices my cravings for caffeine. Another thing to do is when you are really craving soda hardcore, go get yourself one, but do NOT buy a 2 liter. Make sure its a 20 oz. because having a 2 liter around will only tempt you into drinking the whole thing. I hope this helps!!!

gazz777

I feel your pain on this one. I had a REALLY bad soda addiction that I'm still dealing with. I was to the point where I was drinking literally a 2 liter a day. The absolute best thing I can tell you is to NOT quit cold turkey, it will drive you insane and you'll end up caving in to the addiction. I usually drink about 2 cups of coffee every morning and that suffices my cravings for caffeine. Another thing to do is when you are really craving soda hardcore, go get yourself one, but do NOT buy a 2 liter. Make sure its a 20 oz. because having a 2 liter around will only tempt you into drinking the whole thing. I hope this helps!!!

As far as CAFFEINE goes, yes ... be VERY careful. I still have tea which has caffeine. It was the SUGAR hit I was going cold turkey.

Here is the method to support my reasoning for me Re: SUGAR: http://sweetpoison.com.au/ - plenty of other links googling sugar poison. It is not sugars specifically - my research took me to cut back on what everyone told me to cut back on anyway - just took me years to get to that point.

asaba1013

might sound silly, but i think i found a solution for my coca cola addiction! i bought dixie cups... and when i have a craving, i just take a 'shot' of coke lol... ive pretty much dropped coke now... ill have a dixie full of coke here n there... by far better than a whole damn 2 liter!!!:glasses:

sugarbone

Tea or black coffee :-)

Kymmu

I like fresh mint in the water jug. Also try a couple of cut strawberries, and even a few rounds of cucumber make water different!

redraidergirl2009

I used to drink three a day. I wish I could say I instantly dropped weight when I stopped them but I didn't. Find something to drink that you like, like tea. I loveee black tea. So I drink it now instead with lemon.

bikerman79

All drink orange juice, apple juice, cranberry juice but mostly water for me.

ChantalO89

I used to drink pop all the time..especially at work . But I stopped by first drinking diet with my alchoholic bevarages! Now I do not drink all the time but it was a little 'bump' that got me used to the taste. And now I drink water with lemon slices, maybe one diet a day and I also find that V8 fruit juices are great also!!! Now if I drank Mt. Dew, I get the worse acid reflux ever an that totally turns me off. Just make baby steps if you drank them all the time because everyone's body reacts different.

jhagemann

I started buying the 90 calorie 7.5 oz cans and trying to drink those instead of a 12 oz can!

sara_e_wallace

So Yesterday I drank Pepsi MAX and it was not too bad - Not the REAL Pepsi - but tolerable..

Sstrable

Honestly I had to do it cold turkey! I havent had any soda in about 6 years! You can do it if you really want to. I try to drink 8-10 bottles of water a day! It helps.

heykatieben

I've tried several times, including a few months ago... I think this one will stick. Here's what worked for me:

1) Cold turkey, no more soda. Don't dwell on it, just don't ever drink another one (I personally can't moderate soda)

2) Go absolutely out of your way to have truly exciting alternatives. Forget counting calories for a while, don't worry about the financial cost, and stick to one goal at a time (quitting soda - you can go back to other goals, like only water or saving money, after you've dedicated yourself to breaking a difficult addiction). Stock the fridge with exciting, non carbonated, healthy (but still exciting) drinks. I liked coconut water with floaty coconut thingys in it, Naked smoothies, lemonade, Sobe, Arizona tea.

3) Go absolutely out of your way to have those alternatives at home, when you go out with friends, at work, everywhere. When friends order soda, always order lemonade, tea, a smoothie - something exciting.

4) Make yourself accountable, somehow. What worked for me was finding a few people on Twitter who wanted to quit soda, too. (you've got MFP here, thank goodness!). Then I felt like I needed to not drink soda to hold up my end of a team effort.

After just two months of no soda, I don't have to try so hard to not crave it... the craving goes away. I drink water more naturally now instead of having to have lemonade, tea, sobe, etc. But I won't let myself have even a single soda, or I'll start craving it again. Isolating truly only one thing at a time works pretty well.

Good luck!! You can do it!!!

misstonico

I went the cold turkey route because I am absolute rubbish at moderating my intake. I found that setting up a countup widget on my computer helps me to stay away. I'm very competitive with myself and I like seeing the bigger numbers. I slipped once and made myself reset it and that bummed me out. Now I'm at 78 days without Diet Coke and I seldom even crave it anymore.

I also make sure to have a bottle of water with me at all times. My husband laughs because I carry one around the house with me, but it helps with cravings and I drink more water. Good luck on your journey to becoming soda free!

_Ben

IDK why, but it makes me sad to hear people are quiting soda. Love the stuff.


ANYWAY, good luck with quiting it. Going cold turkey can be pretty hard because of the headaches, because the lack of caffine. Really, you need to slow yourself down from maybe 2 a day, to 1, to one every other, one only on weekends, then never

jhagemann

I tried the Dr. Pepper 10 yesterday-- definitely did not do it for me, but it was not bad -- I could see people moving to that very easily coming from Coke/Pepsi. All of you got me thinking, I do like the Minute Maid Light Lemonade -- I think I am going to swap out 1 Coke a day for that and see how it goes. Thanks everyone!

drivers99

First, if you have 90 minutes to spare, go watch "Sugar: the Bitter Truth" on Youtube. If you're like me, you'll never want to drink soda again. I immediately switched from regular to diet sodas. I lost 40 pounds just doing that (i.e. avoiding sugar in general, which for me is all the soda I was drinking). I wasn't trying to lose weight but I noticed it was magically going down steadily. Win!

I noticed you get used to diet soda really fast. I had to ask people a lot of times if this was really diet or not and when they tasted it they were like "eww! It's diet."

Later on, my eye was twitching and I knew it was the caffeine. I also had problems sleeping whenever I had caffeine after noon. I also lost a lot of energy whenever the caffeine wore off. Since I didn't stock soda or coffee at home, I was going out to eat all the time just to get a caffeine fix. So I decided to switch to just water. I have one of those water coolers that you can put 5 gallon jugs on. It costs me only $1 to refill them and it's filtered and nice and cold.

I quit the caffeine cold turkey. I only started to get a little bit of a headache the first two days. I only took one excedrin (contains 65 mg caffeine) in order to taper down the first day.

You can also get used to water really fast.