I drink at least a 12 pack of Dt Dew a day-help!!!!

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mattntami
mattntami Posts: 1
in Food and Nutrition
Anyone know how to kick a major Dt. Dew habit? I drink 12-16 cans a day. Help!!!!

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  • fxdl2k2
    fxdl2k2 Posts: 250 Member
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    Just some suggestions! :smile:

    Make yourself drink a glass of water BEFORE you can have a Mt. Dew.

    Always have water at hand and put the Mt. Dew somewhere that you would have to go get it. If you work in an office, Keep water at your desk and the Mt. Dew in the break room on a different floor if possible.

    Use unsweet iced green tea as a substitute with some added lemon and lime juice.

    For every can you do NOT drink in a day, pay yourself a dollar (or two) by putting the money into a jar. Pay yourself double if you drink a can. Use that money as a reward at the end of a week/month.

    Look for other threads where people have kicked the diet soda habit for encouragement and ideas.

    Good luck!
  • Jamiebee24
    Jamiebee24 Posts: 296 Member
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    STOP buying it!!!
  • CoachFoland
    CoachFoland Posts: 564 Member
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    STOP buying it!!!

    Exactly
  • LittleBitz
    LittleBitz Posts: 5
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    I completely agree with Jamiebee24! If you don't have it, you can't drink it!
  • LaSirena29
    LaSirena29 Posts: 84
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    Saying "just don't buy it" is nice in theory, but with that big of a habit, isn't really realistic. Mt. Dew has one of the highest caffeine content of all sodas. Drinking 12-12oz cans of Mt Dew is roughly equivalent to the caffeine in 7-8oz cups of regular coffee. If you quit cold turkey, you're going to suffer some major caffeine withdraw. Your best bet is to set yourself realistic goals to reduce the amount you are drinking. Only you can decide what those goals should be. It might be something like, this week I'm only going to drink 10 cans a day, next week only 8 cans a day, etc.

    I would also keep the soda our of site, in a cabinet, not refrigerated. The night before, put tomorrows allotted cans into the refrigerator. Then you are only aloud to drink what is cold.

    And just think about all the money you will be saving!!!
  • skinnytayy
    skinnytayy Posts: 459
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    Start buying just a 6pk .. then follow through with making it not readily available. I always quit drinking soda cold turkey by not even going on that aisle at the store (I can find cases of water on a different aisle). If you don't buy it, you can't drink it.
  • stringcheeze
    stringcheeze Posts: 286
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    Anyone know how to kick a major Dt. Dew habit? I drink 12-16 cans a day. Help!!!!

    You might not want to go cold turkey, however you do it. Going from an average of 700mg of caffeine a day to none will probably make you start drinking again just due to the withdrawal headaches.
  • nopeekiepeekie
    nopeekiepeekie Posts: 338 Member
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    Saying "just don't buy it" is nice in theory, but with that big of a habit, isn't really realistic. Mt. Dew has one of the highest caffeine content of all sodas. Drinking 12-12oz cans of Mt Dew is roughly equivalent to the caffeine in 7-8oz cups of regular coffee. If you quit cold turkey, you're going to suffer some major caffeine withdraw. Your best bet is to set yourself realistic goals to reduce the amount you are drinking. Only you can decide what those goals should be. It might be something like, this week I'm only going to drink 10 cans a day, next week only 8 cans a day, etc.

    Completely agree with this! Wean yourself off of it. You might only be able handling dropping off one can a week. But it's definitely a place to start.
  • imnoops
    imnoops Posts: 2 Member
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    I think you should set small reasonable goals for yourself, if you are drinking 12 a day, then try to cut back to 9 a day, until you get use to that, and also....don't put the whole case in the fridge, just put what you will drink for the day, so that you can keep track of how many you have actually drank, I like to drink Dt. Cherry Coke, and I only have 1 a day, and I make myself drink a bottle of water before I even open the coke, just don't be so hard on yourself about it and take small steps so you don't get overwhelmed, but big enough steps that you see the progress you have made....Good Luck, just the fact that you want to quit means you will be successful, but don't be discouraged if you slip up :)
  • ajmthomas2
    ajmthomas2 Posts: 3
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    I too used to love soda. But, once I decided to lose weight, I stopped drinking it entirely. But I still needed the caffeine. So, I drink 1 snapple diet iced tea (either Lemon, Raspberry, or Peach) every morning. Then I drink flavored water the rest of the day which is much easier than just plain water. I have a container that holds three 8-ounce glasses of water. So I know that if I drink three of them, I've had 72 oz of water in the day! I use the Aquafusion strawberry from Big Lots. I use one packet to flavor the whole 24 oz bottle. My favorite though is the grape Great Value from Walmart (sometimes they have strawberry too). I use half a packet to flavor 24 oz. So one packet gets me through my two bottles at work. The water flavoring does have minimal calories, but the Snapple does not have any. I can't drink caffeine after 2:00 or it keeps me up at night. But if you need that boost, try another snapple tea. I haven't had a soda since May 24th following this program and I don't crave them either. (I even take a snapple with me to breakfast if I'm eating out.) Hope this helps. Good luck!
  • Danielle84Duncan
    Danielle84Duncan Posts: 48 Member
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    Baby steps, cut down to drinking only 6 a day or less and go from there. My doctor actually told me that going cold turkey would give me major headaches.... your body is used to the caffeine so you will need to starting gradually making changes to cut it from your diet. I myself started only having a pop with lunch and dinner and then only dinner, and now I mainly drink water unless I really want a pop and then I will have my dt. dew and truely enjoy it!!! :wink:
  • reneeot
    reneeot Posts: 773 Member
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    Buy a 6 pack only! Portion it out for the day! When you successfully can drink just a 6 pack. Reevaluate!!

    The money you would have used for the other 6 pack, put in a jar. At the end of the week. Buy something for yourself as a reward!!

    :-)
  • sbilyeu75
    sbilyeu75 Posts: 567 Member
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    I'm a Sunkist fan. I did stop for awhile but I've recently fell off the wagon. Make sure you log those calories and you'll be shocked on how much wasted calories you're getting. Her's how I cut it out the first time.

    Keep the pop warm and when you think you're going to want one then put it in the fridge. Just having to wait on it to get cold, makes you double think about it.

    Then, instead of the 12 ounce cans, get the 8oz cans if they are available.

    Then, stop buying soda pop at the store. If I want one bad enough, I make myself go to the gas station and pay the stupid expensive price for one.

    Then slowly start cutting it down from there, say to once or twice a week.

    Drinks a crap load of water, they'll help with the headaches.
  • animatedbecca
    animatedbecca Posts: 203
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    Just thinking out loud but perhaps if you "jazz up" the reward system a tad. I can ______ you fill in the blank, such as If I can have no dew before 2 pm...whatever is realistic for you ...then I can have a can poured over a hal cup frozen yogurt or sherbet. Try turning your habit into a special treat that you worked hard to earn :)
    I totally loose control for cheese cake. I COULD eat a piece a day. Instead I tell myself if I can go all week with no candy then on Saturday I can have a SMALL slice of cheese cake. If I go in a store and start to grab a snickers bar out of habit, I stop and ask myself if I want this bad enough to give up my cheesecake on Saturday! Reward system works! Just decide what you are willing to give up and what your reward will be :)
    You can do this!
    The best thing is, you dont have to do anything anyone else's way. You get to make the rules, be your boss and Make yourself do what you know you need to do. Then when its done, you have no one to give the credit to but yourself. DO IT and see how great it feels to be proud of yourself!
  • ashlee954
    ashlee954 Posts: 1,112 Member
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    Well, I was a 2 bottle a night champagne drinker. When I started MFP my calorie goal for the entire day was 1200. My two bottles of champage were over 1200!!! That was enough for me to kick that habit!!!
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
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    bump. Former Mt Dew addict, will do some research and return.
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
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    I used to be a serious diet coke addict, and here's how I did it. It took a little time, but no cold turkey withdrawal symptoms, which for caffeine are actually pretty nasty.

    I gave myself a cut off time (say 4 p.m.) and then, after a week or so, moved it up (say 2 p.m.) , I kept moving it up in the day until it was morning and then I quit entirely. Over the course of a few weeks, I went from several two litres (and a big gulp or two or three) to none.

    Now, I'll have it once in a rare while.
  • inguvap
    inguvap Posts: 85 Member
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    Think about all the money you can save and how you can use it for massages, manicures, pedicures, facials and nice clothes in smaller sizes when you start losing weight.

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