Kicking the Coca Cola habit - HELP

I love Coca~Cola! However, the only time I allow myself to drink it now is at restaurants. Sometimes even at restaurants I don't crave it any more, I will order iced tea or lemonade.

This is what I did:
I started out slow by going from two cans or 20oz. bottles a day to one a day. I then went from 1 a day to 1 every other day. Then I went to 1 on weekends only. I had to do it slow because I went cold turkey before and ended up miserable, grouchy and with a NASTY caffeine withdrawal headache! Plus I obviously started drinking it again shortly there after.

At home I replaced it with either vitamin water (carefully 100+ calories) or water with MIO flavored water enhancer (Calorie Free and no HFCS!)!

Good Luck!

PS: Stay away from the diet soda please as they are really bad for you!
If you need the bubbles switch to tonic water and add in fruit juices.

Coke Zero and Pepsi Max are my current solutions to the same problem. Eventually I hope to get rid of them as well; but for now, can't live without them...not sure how addicted you are, but I usually don't have more than 1 can per day on average, never more than 3 cans in a day. It's a lot, I know, but I am slowly getting better and better at reducing and am down to some days where I have none at all.

try cutting back little by little that is what i have done since the headaches are bad sometimes or switch to diet and go down from there

try mio its good or crystal light or flavored water or carbonated water

I drank coke for a long time. here is what I did.

i would buy a smaller size can drink so instead of drinking a 24 ounce I would drop down to a smaller size can like a 12 ounce. It was easier for me to go gradual with it. after a few weeks keep dropping to the smaller can unitl there is no more than start drinking water. diet sodas are bad for you. Nutra sweet for me causes migraines and they actually say its worse for you than sugar because it doesn't digest. it stays there and triggers migraine headaches.

I HAD the same problem. I say HAD because I have not drank one single soda since the 1st. I stopped buying them, I stopped my Finacee from buying them and I stopped ordering it at restaurants. Gather up some willpower and tell yourself NO. I know a lot of people on here love to say it's ok to have a little. It's not. When you have an addiction, a little will turn into the whole thing quick.
Cold turkey my dear is the only way to kick that coke problem. Once you go awhile without you will stop wanting it. Take it from a 15 year coke a cola addict.

Don't buy it, and don't let anyone else in your house buy it. Sounds stupid, but if you don't buy it, you can't drink it. Worked for me- I haven't had a full soda (only a sip of my hubby's every once in a while) in probably 2 years.

Believe it or not, I drank tea EVERY DAY, multiple times. I'm talking 32 ounces 3 times a day. The first 2 days it was so hard, but when i ran out, I just didn't make anymore. I keep water around. There is sprite sitting in my kitchen, but I know if I have one, I'll have another. So I keep looking at my profile picture and looking at my body and I tell myself "This is how you got to this, you want to get other places and healthier--sacrifice is going to happen." It's more of a mental thing than verbal lol. But once you get passed the the first week it practically gone. I guess I just don't have cravings like other ppl. I'm more of a habit eater. Also what helps is if you don't like water like I do, you can put liquid water enhancer in it. The Mio has 0 sugar, and maybe 0 calories too, I can't remember. But I put that in my water whenever I get a craving.

If you're logging your calories and being accountable to that then you won't want to drink a liter at your church fellowship because you won't have any calories left to eat a proper meal.

Ultimately you know yourself the best so there's no reason to struggle to have only one if you do better with declaring certain things "off limits". I enjoy soda and I feel deprived if I don't "allow" myself to have one if I want it (and count it). Having one in moderation has helped me successfully change my lifestyle and lose 25 lbs.

I LOVE Coke as well! I was addicted to Diet Coke for a while because I thought it was "better" for me, yeah right! I honestly think that just drinking regular coke is better than diet coke, because I think diet coke makes you crave more sugar. Anyway, I try to limit myself to one can during the week and maybe one on the weekend. And if I'm really craving something other than water, I will drink a diet ginger ale. I guess you just have to figure out if cold turkey will work for you, or just limiting the amount you intake. Good luck!

I am proud to say that I have given it up. I feel much better without it!
I used to be really addicted to diet Coke, I would drink it several times a day. I slowly went down to once a day then stopped all together. Now I don't even care for one. I add MiO to my water.

I've never understood this.. if you want to stop eating or drinking something, then why would you continue to buy it? Stop buying it, and you won't have it available to drink. If you go out, don't order it. It's called willpower.

I had to off it cold turkey. Wasn't easy but I haven't had a Coke since I started last May. Cant say I don't miss it but I no longer crave it.

I totally agree with this one. I just let it go entirely and overtime your body stops craving it. I quit back in March 2011 and haven't had Coca Cola since. I've always hated the taste of diet any-soda so that wasn't an issue. My biggest thing was my urge to have a coke with pizza. I still love and eat pizza but learned to drink iced tea or just water with it instead. You know what they say about not drinking your calories. I also learned to drink a small coffee with just 1 tsp/packet of sugar and 2 tbsps of half and half--which is waaaaaayyy better than my old go to morning drinks of large white chocolate mochas!

If you have to have it start by cutting out 1/2 of it with lots of ice and decrease the amount slowly overtime until you're just drinking water.

Good luck.

I have in the past drunk 2L/day of soda. This summer I had to completely quit, but that is hard because there are other people in my household that like soda. Kinda got to get everyone on board initially. I found the Green Coffee pills as a substitute for caffeine and that seemed to work fine. I could then curb my sugar habit (got both sugar and caffeine issues with soda). Then I stopped the coffee pills eventually (about 2 weeks). I had no cravings, but wanted to test the waters and after about 2 months without soda I started incorporating soda back into my diet, slowly at first, guess what went right back to the same thing. OK, now I just limit myself to once a week. No cravings. I did do the coffee pills again for the caffeine.