Help me quit Diet coke!

Try pronouncing the ingredients. If you can do it successfully, then you can drink it.

I quit Diet Coke cold turkey last year. It really wasn't that difficult. Drink water instead!

Diet soda is a tremendously important modern elixir. Not only should you drink it, you should double fist it.

Hi there. I only read a few of the other responses, so please forgive me for being repetitive if you've heard this before.

I used to love me some diet Coke, I mean, really, really love the stuff. I drank more than I cared to admit. I'd go through drive thrus, stop at 7-11, keep a 12 pack in the house. I had heard reports that it wasn't good for you but of course all of that didn't apply to me. lol

Then one day my 13 year old son came home from his health class where they had read an article about all the evils of soda, Diet Coke in particular. He was concerned that I would have a stroke. He asked me to stop drinking it. I asked him if this was really important to him and he said, "yes."

I had my last diet soda at a girlfriends birthday party in August 2012 and I do believe it will always be the last one I ever have. I had lots of encouragement from the aforementioned son, but also from the birthday girl who challenged me to give up the drink. "21 days" she said, was all it would take to form a new habit. She is a wise, wise, woman.

Now I will tell you that the caffeine withdrawal was horrible and I felt like ripping the doors off the hinges for the first week or so, but I honestly haven't looked back. I know people hear about all the awful things about soda consumption, but let me tell you about the positive:

1. I lost 10 pounds prior to joining MFP just by giving up diet coke. It made me crave less food. I found that once I started drinking Diet Coke I would crave food, particularly savory or salty food. Big trigger for me.

2. My skin cleared up. No joke, my skin is 10x better.

3. I no longer have heart palpitations for no reason.

4. I sleep better at night.

5. I am less bloated.

6. I challenged myself to something I didn't think could be done (giving up the drink) and I DID IT! It instilled in me a confidence that I can accomplish whatever I put my mind to.

7. My beloved son is sooooo proud of me. He feels like I listened to his concerns and showed my love by making my health a priority.

8. I've saved a TON of money not buying Diet Coke all the time. $1-2 a day (drive through/7-11), a majority of the days of the year, was like $700 not including all the 12 packs I would buy at the market (not to mention the food I would often buy to go along with my drink). Sometimes I'd make two trips, especially on the weekends when I'd be at softball tournaments (Diet Coke apparently is the drink of choice in snack shacks in California) I wouldn't be surprised if the total was over $1000 if you added up drive thru, 7-11 and 12 packs.

I know it's fizzy and yummy and tastes so good. I still crave it, no doubt, but now that I am this far into my no diet Coke commitment I feel like a recovering alcoholic who proudly declares how long they have been sober. It's been almost 18 months and I don't want all that restraint and effort to go to waste. Once you get started in the process of giving it up, it's hard to go back. For me, at least, its just not worth it.

Best of luck to you. Maybe if going cold turkey isn't for you, slowly reduce the amount you drink until you are at a point where you can give up your one can a day habit.

Regards,
:bigsmile:

Diet coke?! EWW! Gross!! :noway:
http://www.fitbie.com/eat-right/tips/7-side-effects-drinking-diet-soda

I'm not trying to be mean or a jerk here - but just as a heads up - any time you come across a blogpost or article that mentions studies and doesn't link them. That is a red flag. I don't just mean in this case, I mean when anyone is researching weight loss advice at all.

Most (all?) scientific studies are easily found online and should be referenced if mentioned. That way you don't have to take the 30 word soundbite from a blogger at face value. You can actually peruse the study and find out what it really says. It is often eye opening.

I switched, gradually, over to nothing but Diet Decaffeinated Green Tea......and now I'm ADDICTED to that stuff, it's so satisfying...I might have 1 diet coke per month, in a restaurant...that's it, I don't even miss it

Green Tea is naturally caffeine free. And what makes it "diet tea?" Just don't add sweetener, and it's calorie-free.

No, but it is naturally low compared to many other beverages, commonly around 25 mg vs. 100-150 for coffee. It also contains the stimulants theobromine and theophylline. But, it also has the AA L-Theanine.


Green tea labeled as "naturally decaffeinated" has been treated with a chemical solvent called ethyl acetate. There is also "water processed" green tea (and cofee) where the caffeine has been removed through a process of "effervescence" using carbon dioxide (CO2) and water. If you want a decaf tea or coffee, you want water processed.

Do I think one diet coke will kill you? No. I think the bigger problem is that it does have detrimental effects that are often mistaken as "normal" and worse, it has absolutely no nutritional value. Even water has trace minerals. Water also hydrates. Just about anything you might drink in place of soda (assuming it,s a beverage and not, say, antifreeze) is more nutritious. The issue is less that soda is bad than that it isn't "good" which is something Americans can afford less and less as we consume foods vastly nutrient deficeint and higher calorically than they were 30 or 40 years ago.

o FDA just acknowledged Splenda is more dangerous than originally thought. No s**t.
o FAA regulates pilots who cannot drink soda with aspartame for 24 hours before flying as aspartame affects cognitive reasoning.
o Any drink with the word "Diet" on it causes weight gain because your body is so messed up with toxic chemical it has to flush & sugar levels get messed up, Bam, insulin levels goes up, Bam body stores energy in form of fat...
o 38 western countries have banned most artificial sweeteners

Just quit and add many healthy years to your life.

I agree with others that a Diet Coke is fine if it helps you in whatever way. I have a couple a week--probably one at home and one (maybe two!) while out to eat. I have the exact same problem as you though while drinking it at home-- I found that I was wanting to continue snacking as long as I had Coke left. So now I buy the little 7.5 oz. cans. I get my fix, and it's just the right amount for an appropriate snack portion.

I bought a SodaStream, and I make bottles of bubbly water constantly. They also sell seltzer cheap at the grocery store. I started drinking seltzer mixed with a little bit of thawed frozen concentrated 100% juice (no added sugar), which I kept in a bottle in the fridge. Eventually, I stopped putting the juice in, because even though it's "natural" sugar, it's still sugar. Now I drink lots of plain seltzer. I have also brewed some really strong tea, and mixed that with seltzer to make bubbly tea. The only problem is that I like my tea sweet, so that means using sugar or sweetener, so I don't do that very often. I carry a 32 oz bottle of plain water with me too. Maybe you could make a deal with yourself that you can only drink your diet coke after having your 8 glasses of water every day.

Your body processes almost all foods into sugars; cutting out sugar won't change this.

Why would your homemade bubbly sweet tea be somehow 'better' than a diet soda? I don't understand.

Why would you need to drink 8 glasses of plain water and then drink more liquid, rather than counting your soda toward your (personal) hydration "goals"?

I recently quit Iced Coffee by going 'cold turkey', however my caffeine and cold cravings have been taken over by diet coke. I do not want these extra chemicals in my body and the empty kilojoules are not worth it. I have been trying slowly reducing my intake, but it is not working. I think the only way I can do it, is to just stop. I guess I have been lazy of late and not had cold water in the fridge as an alternative. Give the cold water a try and just do not buy the soft drinks (any of them) - I am going to.

Try weaning yourself by making your drink smaller and smaller. I used to drink diet coke every day. I cut myself down to 1 a day and now have it occassionally, but not every day. I drink green tea so I don't deal with the caffeine withdrawal.

I like diet coke. I don't find that I have fewer cravings without it, my skin isn't any better or worse, I don't sleep any better (or worse), etc. I drink more water than I used to, but I still bloat on occassion.

Personally, I don't find that for ME (everyone is different), diet soda derails my weight loss efforts. Food does, diet coke doesn't.