Day 1 of no diet coke...not going well

I haven't necessarily given up Coke, if I want one I'll have one... but lately it's been straight up water, iced coffee or tea made by me or for something fizzy a glass of soda water with a splash of cranberry juice (I like how bitter and refreshing it is). You may try spiking carbonated water with a sweet juice if what you're craving is the carbonated sweetness

I finally got over drinking soda. Haven't had pop of any kind at all for about 4 months now. Start the day off with a couple large cups of black coffee and a little milk on my oatmeal, then after that I only drink water the rest of the day.

i used to drink soda ALLL the time i started drinking selzter water then just went off with soda all together and drank water!

I quit drinking soda more or less cold turkey when I moved in with my boyfriend (now husband) over two years ago. He'd cut it out years before to lose weight. His drink of choice was diet Arizona Green Tea, which really helped because it had caffeine. After a few days I noticed I wasn't bloated- I didn't even know the carbonation had made me bloated in the first place! I did get headaches and feel miserable for about a week, but it was very much worth it.

These days, I drink coffee, water, and hot or iced tea. I've cut back on caffeine, but I don't think I'll ever quit. Yes, I do use Splenda/ sucralose in my coffee and tea, but I feel like it's the lesser of two evils. At least it won't rot my teeth. Soda actually gives me all sorts of interesting and horrible stomach problems now, so I generally avoid it. Every now and then I'll have a diet cola of some kind with rum in it.

I'm so sorry! I can't imagine. Although I have weaned myself to less than three or four a week. If I knew it was no more, I would want one too.

Your skin will thank you.

Willpower! It's all about willpower. After 24 hours, the addiction is all in your head. You have to want it more!

Coke zero is my addiction, the only thing that I think of as comfort food. I try and limit it to weekends only, though I gave in today because i had a horrible headache and three more hours of work. Thankfully I love tea, and use stevia drops, so I have healthy substitution. I rarely drink plain water.

The thing that motivates me the most is the effect that soda has on your teeth---I try and picture myself after 20-30 more year of soda drinking and needing dentures---my worst nightmare.

You definitely should find something to help with the caffeine withdrawal to help make things easier!

Can i ask, why is diet coke so bad for you?
im not really a soft drink drinker at all.. but i had a diet coke the other day logged it and it had like 2 calories?

im just curious..

Personally for me it is a 'trigger' drink. I used to eat salty, fatty, sweet junk food and wash it down with diet cola. So cutting out the diet cola helped me cut down on the junk.

IMO, having one around is setting yourself up for failure. Just push through and don't let your cravings control you. You're stronger than that.

Mio and tea helps.

Use Mio in plain seltzer if you crave carbonation.

Try mass preparing a gallon or two of unsweetened tea the night before and put them in Kleen Kanteens or whatever.

But diet coke is fine anyway.

This is a paste from a post I made on a thread a long time ago, but it's very relevant here.

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Fear mongering, my (fat, but shrinking) *kitten*. I drank diet soda (several cans/bottles a day) while overeating and got fatter and had really bad lower back pain (in my sacrum/tailbone area) while sitting in most chairs for years. My chiropractor couldn't help, but not for lack of trying. I blamed it on my weight gain.

About 5-6 years ago, I was reading the "fear mongering" sites about aspartame and many of the symptoms listed were things I suffered. The most disturbing of which was a few times a day, I would get dizzy and have to grab a chair or wall to stay upright. These spells would only last 5-10 seconds. I had already decided to cut back on my aspartame consumption but after some of the stories I read, I literally dumped the one I was drinking down the drain and never had any aspartame for years after that.

After quitting aspartame and switching to full-sugar sodas in the same quantities, my capacity for food was cut in half, and for a few weeks, I could no longer finish a "super-sized" value meal from any fast food place. Of course, in that bad mental state of mine, eventually I was able to eat that much again and I continued to gain weight. After a few months, the lower back pain I had suffered with for years faded and eventually was completely gone. I did not attribute this to aspartame at the time. My dizzy spells stopped after a week, and I did attribute that to aspartame.

About two years ago, I weaned myself off of caffeine and switched to almost 100% water (sometimes Vitamin Water, juice, or non-caffeinated drinks) for my drinking needs. The fun thing about this, is after your brain un-wires itself from caffeine dependency, you can get a "wake-up effect" from it again!

In December, I restarted my weight loss journey. In an effort to keep my calories low, I decided to occasionally have a diet soda to satisfy my soda cravings. After having one soda a day for a few days, my lower back pain came back with a vengeance. I had already lost 30-40 pounds by this time, so it couldn't be because of weight gain! It didn't take long to realize the aspartame was causing it. Even in such low "doses", it was enough to trigger my symptoms again. Needless to say, I am off the stuff again. I can tolerate the amount in a "light" yogurt, but not the amount in a soda. Thankfully those dizzy spells didn't come back. I still don't know what it is about aspartame that causes such terrible back pain, but I am for sure off the stuff for good!

Your mileage may vary. I'm sure many of you can chug the stuff all day without a problem. Many of you might have problems caused by it that you don't even realize are linked. But between my symptoms, my aunt getting terrible headaches from the smallest amount, and my dad getting kidney pain after drinking it, that's enough to convince me that aspartame is poison.

My dad was recently drinking some 0-calorie flavored waters and he was raving about how they tasted good and I should try them. I looked at the back and saw the ingredient "Neotame" which is yet another name that Aspartame hides behind. I pointed this out to him and he was surprised. He immediately stopped drinking them and his kidney pain went away. He hadn't realized these new flavored waters were the cause.

So, you can keep calling it "fear mongering", but for some of us, the problems caused by aspartame-flavored products is VERY TRUE AND REAL. When I crave soda, I just budget in a full-sugar one.
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I can't tell you how to stop drinking soda entirely... I still have a full-sugar soda a few times a week as a treat and I log/budget for it. But, once you learn to love water, it's awesome! You can drink as much as you want and never feel guilty!