giving up soda (2+ltr a day addiction) !!

Cut down slowly. It will make the withdrawals easier. I used to drink a lot of pop and the first week was the worst. After that eveything got easier. Now I can't remember the last time I had it.

I used to drink 128 to 266 oz of coke a day when I drove truck.That was 2-4 64 oz cups of it. Yes that equates to 1-2 gallons A DAY!!! Gee, why did I weigh 345-375?? I had withdrawl symptoms also. And yes it is an addiction. I slowed down my drinking then switched to diet coke then coke zero. Problem is that there is a lot of research now that indicates that sugar substitutes can increase craving for sugar. The headaches are caused by caffeine withdrawl. You can maintain the caffeine intake through tea, coffee or even no-doz. What I use now is something called Hellfire capsules. It contains caffeine and othe herbal ingrediantys that fires up the metabolism. I will cycle between Hellfire and Lipodreme (either yellow and black one) to keep my body from adapting to them. I don't get jittery from them, but some people do. Only you will know for yourself. I buy mine at the nutrition shop. $35-45 per bottle depending where you are. It's not for everyone, but it works for me. I rarely get headaches, and when I do it is ususually from idiots at work.:laugh: So either cut back 1 can/bottle/cup a day for a week, then cut out another can/bottle/cup per day until you are weaned off, or go cold turkey and replace the caffeine with another source. It is worth it. The cravings will subside. Now when I have a coke it feels thick and syrupy. The diet and coke zero now just taste nasty. Good luck. Add me if you wish and I'll try to encourage you in your fight.

I ended up cutting cold turkey soon after Christmas. I'd often have 5-6 20oz Coke Zeros at work... Followed by a couple glasses of some diet beverage at night. Personally, weening off never worked for me... I'd eventually get a craving and cave. In my mind its much easier to think in terms of zero soda versus 1 or 2... Well maybe just today Ill have a third.

Headaches were bad for the first couple of days.. Ibuprofen helped during that time.

One big benefit that I found... In a bout a week of quitting, I was sleeping much better. Previously, I'd wake up after 3-4 hours of sleep and struggle to get mor in. I'm now getting a nice solid 7 hours of un-interrupted sleep.

Hope that helps...

-DD

I'm stepping down from my diet Dr Pepper addiction. I wean off diet Coke when I was preggers 7 years ago, but the allure of cold carbonated caffeine drew me back in. Take it slow. Use a caffeine replacement until you get yourself free of the "soda" addiction and then wean off the caffeine. It's my playbook this time, anyway! Good luck!!

so i have come to realise i MUST give up my 2 (sometimes more) ltr a day coca cola addiction. and when i say addicted i mean it. like when i dont have it i get terrible withdrawal symptoms, headaches,irritable and all the rest. i even cried last time i tried.
has anyone else been through it??
How did you succeed and what with?
Did you cut down or just cut it out.
i know thats mainly my weight problem too its just so hard!

Funny story on how I stopped drinking tons of pop. It was always in my house growing up so I drank it when it was in the fridge. Then I moved out and on my own, to another province entirely. One day a few months later I realized "Wow, I haven't drank pop since I moved!" It felt great!

Mind you that doesn't work for everyone.

You might be better off making small substitutions to help with coping with the change from pop all of the time to eventually none. Someone suggested green tea, that's a great idea. For the sweet fix, try healthy things like fruits.

use to do 4-6 2-litter bottles a day . I quit after one night of waking up at 3 in the morning and running out to the store... I just had a small glass every few hours and decreased over a week or so.
I never thought I would be a sparkling water drinker but now I make my own with a soda stream don't even like coke or Pepsi now. I add fresh fruit juice to my sparkling water.

I'm hooked on 3-8 12 oz cans of Dr Pepper. I get major migraines when I tried to switch to diet. My Dr said I was allergic to artificial sweeteners in diet drinks. He said to switch to water & decaf iced tea. I missed the "thickness" of soda. I cave. I'm trying to get to at least maybe 2-3 cans a day & then aim for one. Maybe some day I'll be able to totally get off it. My Dr said one a day is not a bad thing, but to lose weight I needed to get off it.

Thanks everyone! Finger crossed i can do it this time for good.

You can! Even if you were to slip, just get back up and start again!

God bless,
Karen

I too had a huge Coca Cola addiction. It started when I quit smoking and that was a big factor in my rapid weight gain. I stopped drinking it by slowly cutting down and instead of a can of coke I'd have a bottle of water. I remember the caffeine headaches were brutal. It was almost harder to quit drinking coke then it was to quit smoking but I managed. Good luck!!

Paul

Read this article, it may help you stop. And what about your teeth??!!


WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Experts say a New Zealand woman's 2-gallon-a-day Coca-Cola habit probably contributed to her death, a conclusion that led the soft-drink giant to note that even water can be deadly in excessive amounts.

Natasha Harris, a 30-year-old, stay-at-home mother of eight from Invercargill, died of a heart attack in February 2010. Fairfax Media reported that a pathologist, Dr. Dan Mornin, testified at an inquest Thursday that she probably suffered from hypokalemia, or low potassium, which he thinks was caused by her excessive consumption of Coke and overall poor nutrition.

Symptoms of hypokalemia can include abnormal heart rhythms, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Mornin said that toxic levels of caffeine, a stimulant found in Coke, also may have contributed to her death, according to Fairfax.

Harris' partner, Chris Hodgkinson, testified that Harris drank between 8 and 10 liters (2.1 and 2.6 gallons) of regular Coke every day.

"The first thing she would do in the morning was to have a drink of Coke beside her bed and the last thing she would do at night was have a drink of Coke," Hodgkinson said in a deposition. "She was addicted to Coke."

Hodgkinson also said Harris ate little and smoked about 30 cigarettes a day. In the months before her death, he said, Harris experienced blood pressure problems and lacked energy.

He said that on the morning of her death, Harris helped get her children ready for school before slumping against a wall. He called emergency services and tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but couldn't revive her.

Another pathologist, Dr. Martin Sage, said in a deposition that "it is certainly well demonstrated that excessive long or short term cola ingestion can be dramatically symptomatic, and there are strong hypothetical grounds for this becoming fatal in individual cases."

Inquests such as this are sometimes held for unusual or unexplained deaths in New Zealand, and can help shape future health policies. With the evidence in the case now complete, the coroner's office will compile and issue a final report into the death.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Lisa Te Morenga, a nutritionist at the University of Otago, said excessive consumption of any type of liquid in a cool climate would be likely to play havoc with the body's natural systems and balance.

Karen Thompson, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola Oceania, said in a statement that its products are safe.

"We concur with the information shared by the coroner's office that the grossly excessive ingestion of any food product, including water, over a short period of time with the inadequate consumption of essential nutrients, and the failure to seek appropriate medical intervention when needed, can be dramatically symptomatic."

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-04-20/Coca-Cola-New-Zealand-death/54433488/1