How do you fight that urge...

Allow yourself to have a little as a reward for all your hard work, but not everyday! Pick cheat days and fit them into your routine, works for me

I used to drink waaaayyy too much soda myself and Dr Pepper was my addiction. I say drink a huge glass of water and wait to see if the urge passes. Try to think of perhaps why you want it? Are you tired?
In the past I knew if I gave in to drinking it, it would kickstart my habit back up. Now I don't even miss drinking soda. If you can, I would stay away from it. If you can't, do what they have said in other replies, take a sip or two and then dump the rest out.

I never drink a pop myself. The only time I wil l have some is when I'm at the movies with my husband and I'll have a sip or two of his Coke (I get a water). About once a year I'll drink rye and gingerale. Water and tea, and I never crave it. I did for awhile but cold turkey worked best for me (and yes, there were headaches and urges). My husband just quit a 5-9/day Coke habit (drinking 1 or 2 a week now) and he found that really sweet flavoured water was a good replacement. It's so sweet I can't even drink it!

Hey Pamela!

I see you got a lot of great responses! I think it boils down to you'll find out what works best for ya. But, just like a smoker, it may take many attempts to kick the habit.

Last year, I decided for Lent I was going to give up soda. I was not going to drink any soda, be it diet or regular, til the 40days were up. (I am not of that religious persuasion - just thought I'd give myself the challenge)

It was about as far in as you are right now - when my mind when bonkers with cravings. I'm like omg i don't think i can outlive this. lol

BUT eventually I did survive lol. I even had some lil' vlogs on my youtube channel where i ranted to get myself through it lol. if you just go to youtube and search thedarlingonebecky

This is where my mistake came in! I thought - as a reward for making it through the 40 days, I would allow myself a regular soda. FELL OFF THE WAGON like bad!

Before the Lent, I was only drinking regular soda on the random - and was drinking diet soda more frequently. Well when I fell off the wagon - i went back to regular sodas. All day everyday! I mean I would give myself every excuse in the book. A good one is "ah, well your stomach is hurting this a.m. and you know a reg. coke would make it feel better. That diet stuff makes it worse." lol

Moral of the story is - if you go at it cold turkey - you may not want to allow yourself "just one" - because it may jack you up bad lol

Moderation, it seems, is key in every aspect of life. Diet, kicking the soda habit, smoking, until you ween things down and get on a normal brain playing field lol. Life of an addict is hard no doubt!

I am on my 3rd attempt at losing the soda habit - and have done much better so far this time for the simple fact of....i am ready. it feels different from my many other attempts. not just soda kicking but my overall health. Being more aware of what you're putting inside of your body - and the nutritional value it has.


Have you ever heard of "brominated vegetable oil"? - I was drinking a mountain dew one day and I look down at the ingredients out of boredeom. I see that listed. I'm thinking WHAT THE HECK is OIL doing in my soda?! - so I looked it up....Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) is a FLAME RETARDANT CHEMICAL. I'm like woah! Brain! Did we just compute that. Think of all the mountain dews we chugged in our lifetime....
...Once I found that out, it was pretty simple - oddly enough - for me to lose the "addiction" - now I find it pretty easy to...drink a reg. coke from time to time - and even diet dr pepper....but I"m right back on my water pretty quickly afterwards.


Oh man! i hope this wasn't too much of a ramble. I work answering phones and we just had our busy check out time of the day....so I"ve been working on this post between calls for probably the past 2 hours lol. If it rambles, and is a mile long, my apologies

ps: feel free to add me if you'd like - i will be glad to cuss the cravings with you lol

i chew lots of gum! sugar free of course

I've substituted cola for soda water and I add a touch of natural fruit juice to add flavour. it makes a nice refreshing fizzy drink without the tons of sugar

I agree.

I also used to love soda. A couple of years ago I couldn't live without diet coke. Now I never touch the stuff. A couple ounces of Simply grapefrut juice on ice topped off with canfield's seltzer (0 sodium) is my total favorite. Yummy and refreshing. Just keep trying different things until you find something that works for you. The thing about sugar soda is that it is just completely empty of any benefit whatsoever. It is just a bunch of weird-*kitten* chemicals and sugar. If you can find a juice / water combo that works for you, you will actually be nourishing your bod.

Have fun!

Hi there! Yesterday I tried Stevia, a natural cola flavored drink that is sold at my gym and at whole foods. It tastes a little bit like a cross between coke and dr. Pepper. It supposed to not have anything artificial in it. Give it a try and let me know how you like it?

I go the "everything in moderation" route and would get a small sized soda if I were you. However, everyone is different and for some people "a little" will lead down a path of excess or binge. Get to know yourself and what you can handle!

^ This. In the UK they do mini cans (About 150ish ml) Can you get those? I still eat whatever I like I just try and make healthier choices 80% of the time...

BTW I have a real sweet tooth (used to have a diet energy drink every morning) I've started making a fruit crush instead (1 cup frozen berries, 1 cup ice, 1 cup 100% apple juice - blend & serve) give me the sweet taste I need and gets me towards my 5 a day.

I will have to try this fruit crush! It sounds delicious!

You sound like you may be a bit addicted. It might be best to just drop it and see how you feel in a few weeks. Going back to it right after resolving to kick the habit isn't good for you.

I get what people are saying about everything in moderation, but since you started your day with it and had rituals around it etc and were troubled enough by it to WANT to get rid of it entirely... I don't think you should go back to it. Ride out your soda detox and if you want to reintroduce it for special occassions later in life then feel free, but right now you're anything but free.

For me personally pop was like alcohol. I had no self control with it and I knew it. So for me having a 'little' slip-up would've started me down a dark road again. You're the only one who knows whether you can handle a little and be ok, or if it'll make you want more. I refuse to let myself drink any; if I really need something sweet then I'll treat myself with chocolate milk or tea with honey and that helps ALOT.

By the way, 43 days no pop and counting

WAY TO GO ON 43 days!!

And although I didn't use the alcohol analogy I certainly was thinking that.
I made it thru the day with no soda :happy:

Thanks! It's not easy ^^; but I know I'm not the only one struggling with it, so it helps knowing that. And I'm glad you were able to get through it! If you like tea, I find the best way to curb that is having hot unsweet tea with a bit of honey (mmmm so good!)