Tips and Tricks for going Cold Turkey on Diet Sodas??

Mmmm, leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches.

I was about to post the same...4 more weeks.

I am a diet soda junkie. I probably drink 1-2 cans per day. My long-term goal is to go cold turkey on it, but I've heard that you have to gradually wean yourself off of it. I keep thinking how I am going to get so tired of drinking coffee, water, and tea all the time.

Has anybody gone cold turkey on drinking diet (or regular) soda? What were your tricks?

Get sick of drinking coffee and tea all the time? I sure haven't had that problem! There are tons of varieties of tea and coffee out there, and they're good for you too.

1-2 cans is a junkie? Damn son, I drink a gallon of diet soda a day.


I've quit before, but then thought: Why?

I quite regular soda cold turkey - I just quit buying them. I started drinking iced tea with lemon instead, and now even that is rare - I mostly drink water. But I dumped the soda several years ago, and I don't miss them at all. You can do it!

I've never heard of weaning off of diet soda like it's a drug. I just stopped. I drink water and usually have one (huge) glass of green tea a day.

For me, drinking diet soda makes be bloated (not pregnant bloated, but bloated none the less). I was able to go from 1 large glass/ evening to none at all (I'll still drink one at the movies or on the rare occasion that I have pizza).

Think of it like quitting smoking. For a week, cut the multiple drinks down to fewer and each week, cut out one glass/day. Eventually, after getting down to one glass/day, drop it to one every other day, etc until you get down to 1/week. Once you get down to once/week quitting entirely will be far easier.

Also, drink more water and over time, you'll crave it less and less.

I quite regular soda cold turkey - I just quit buying them.

This is what I did when I stopped cold turkey. It was easier on my teeth, exercises, and wallet doing so. I now only have the occasional one, but it's far & few between. Drink water- think of how much more your scale will go down, lol.

Yup.

Flavored seltzer made all the difference for me when I was craving something fizzy, but I still drink it less frequently than I drink water. Keep yourself satiated by forcing yourself to drink more water than you normally would. It really does help to make a glass of water the first thing you ingest in the morning. I don't even want soda anymore, someone poured me a glass of coke last night at a friend's house and I couldn't drink it. Way too sweet.

Try drinking tea instead for a little while. That will give you some caffeine without the withdrawal symptoms and it's better for you.

Try seltzer water. Some varieties are a little bitter, but you sort of get used to it, and some aren't nearly as bitter as others. Canfield's raspberry flavor is good, as is the lime. Chill Seltzer water, again raspberry and lime, is probably my favorite though. I'm actually not a big fan of La Croix.

Seltzer water is just carbonated water and natural flavor, there's no sugar, no artificial sweeteners, no chemicals. If you want to get fancy with it, you can try adding a little juice to it to make a spritzer.

Edit to add: I should mention, my mother drank diet coke all the time, 2-3 bottles per day, and died of liver cancer at age 40. The very highly respected doctor said that he believed the artificial sweetener in diet coke (aspartame) caused the cancer, or helped it along. He said it was just his opinion, but he felt strongly about it and I feel that if a doctor feels strongly enough to say something maybe it's worth avoiding. Plus all the research shows that stuff is bad news anyhow.

If you are quitting diet sodas because they are causing you to go over your calorie limit, then try going from 2 to 1 to 0.

If you are quitting diet sodas because you think they are bad for you, then I would encourage you to do more research. 1 or 2 a day doesn't sound like you have a diet soda problem.

I did it cold turkey as well...definitely had some horrible headaches for the first three to four days...but after that, it was fine. I quit for about two months and then had one. Once I had one, I wanted another and then the cycle just repeated. I started again Monday of this week and no headaches this time because I wasn't having one daily this time around. I like Crystal Light lemonade for a little bit of sugar. It helps supplement my water when I get sick of drinking it

i have heard so much in these forums about not drinking diet sodas cuz they still cause weight gain. i say BS to that. i have never nor ever will give up my diet soda. i drink 1 diet dr pepper everyday. have since before dieting and still do.

I used to drink over 2 bottles of diet coke a day... over the past couple of years, I 've gone to none a day. I started drinking water, which was horrible in my mind... so I added lemon slices or lemon juice... a little better.... today i no longer drink diet coke. i did have one the other day, at a reception, because they had run out of water, and almost spewed it across the room... I cannot believe that was all I drank.... I now crave water - still with lemon, but drink that more than anything... tonnes of different teas/coffee. Even recently enjoyed hot water with lemon when I had a cold. It can be done, and each one of us is different.... if you can go cold turkey... run with it!! If not just start scaling it back! Good luck on your journey!