Addicted to Soda all my life.

I still drink sports drinks like gatoraid mainly because my 5 year old can not have juice and we make it alot. However I have reduced the sugar in them by doing a make your own. I make it the way it says on the package and then pour some in a glass adding water to it. I started out going half and half and then slowly worked it down to about an 1/8 of the sports drink. This has helped me some but when I manage to break my soda habbit all together it will probably help.

Good luck to you!!!!!!!!! I went off all soda two days ago. I'm doing OK, but I get strong cravings when I'm back in the situation that got me drinking it in the first place (make-it-a-meal at Subway).

I quit drinking soda about 6 months ago and I feel so much better!
I quit cold turkey. For me, there's no "I'll just drink this baby can of coke and that will be my splurge" I would drink them all. I hope you stick with it and get to reap the benefits!

I,m going coke free tomorrow morning. I,m a 3 can a day addict! I have gone 2 weeks without but one sip and I'm hooked again. I just found this conversation so I hope that the support will help me stay clean.

Calories are the culprit, so opt for diet soda. However, if you don't like the taste or are health conscious, try Zevia or Steaz. They're brands of zero calories sodas that are all natural. If you like fizz try sparkling water, like pellegrino. Good luck!

Good luck! If you can, invest in a soda stream! You can create some great concoctions with it that give you the feeling of a soda drink without all the sugar

You can do it!

I gave up Diet Pepsi in about August .. and haven't looked back. I did Diet Pepsi daily .. like in a bad way. I only drank Diet Pepsi and didn't eat much food. I quit cold turkey .. and really I haven't missed it at all.

Healthy just feels so much better.

Pop is one of the worst things you can possibly put in your mouth. Coke spends HUGE amounts of money to convince us that really pop isn't that bad. Well .... just do some research on the net and you will quickly learn that pop really is pretty bad for us.

Sure .. water is just water. I hated it too at first .. but I have been doing much better at drinking it daily.

I have a bit of a soda problem too but I've cut back a lot. After I started working out regularly I didn't want it as much any more.. it really seems to slow me down and gives me side aches. I find that drinking sparkling water actually helps with the soda cravings too.

I gave up diet soda about 2 months ago and have been drinking green tea instead. Took a little time to get used to.

Yeah, water is getting old, old, old. BUT SO IS BEING FAT! I have been putting a slice of lime in mine. That's starting to get old too, but I ain't quittin! :grumble:

You can drink iced or hot tea to mix it up, but do not drink Southern style sweet tea! Also you can flavor your water with mint, lemons, oranges, cucumbers, strawberries, raspberries, tarragon, etc. Dried hibiscus flowers adds a lovely color to water as well and they have a citrus tart flavor as well.

Here is my story, when my mother was expecting with me, she drank several bottles of soda a day. Shortly after I was born she started giving me soda in my bottles instead of milk. At six months, I stopped taking the milk bottle all together. Even when my family was having hard financial times, my mother still managed to get a coke a day for both of us. So drinking soda was all I knew for most of my life. I was thin, eating anything I wanted to up till I hit 30, then I began a cycle of gaining over a couple of years, and losing it over a few more years.

In my mid-50s during my menopause phase, I lost weight again and this time the only big change I made was a vow to give up soda. I did it cold turkey like you are trying, so yeah it can be done. Over 6 months, I lost 35 lbs. I still had dark chocolate in small amounts daily, I ate pretty much anything I wanted in small portions and stopped the soda, replacing it with water, herbal teas, and green tea. I felt better, the belly bloating went away.

I am here now because I gained weight back because I was making my portions larger and eating too much chocolate and drinking too much wine. I also took a night job and my exercising pretty much stopped.

So it is never one thing that makes us overweight. But I promise you, drinking soda, even the diet types is going to help your weight control efforts. Diet soda always made me crave more food, so even when dieting before, I drank reg. Pepsis not diet.

Now I start my day with a 32 oz pitcher of water, sometimes with some of the additions listed above, but not always, I drink water through out the day, in fact, I average about 100 ozs of water a day now.

Keep it out of your house. My husband didn't like that at first now he is a lover of raspberry zinger tea and he dropped a pesky 10 lbs he always said he wanted to drop, he is skinny naturally, just wanted to drop those. Yes, I love him dearly, but I hate how weight control is so easy for him and not me!!!

You are stronger than a can of soda you can do this!

I think if people had any idea how bad pop is for us .. they would stop drinking it. Yes ... even diet pop. It is just as bad.

Google is your friend ... just do some online research and you will soon see that pop really is very very bad for us. Then we wonder why there is such an obesity issue .. pop is a major contributor.

Contrary to what some people think on this thread .. there is no such thing as good pop. Why do you think that companies like Coke spend billions of dollars trying to convince us that pop isn't bad for us.

People that think that buying a soda machine .. and all things will be fine are just kidding themselves.

I WISH I COULD GIVE UP POP! i've been trying really hard for a few weeks now, and I ALWAYS cave, I crave everything about pop entirely too much, the bubbliness, the color, the flavor, even the way it smells. LITERALLY CRAVE IT.

After reading this article (assuming it's all true) you may never want to drink soda again.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/01/12/what-happens-to-your-body-within-an-hour-of-drinking-a-coke.aspx

I have had a long history with a Coca Cola habit. I have given it up a few times for a few years each time but keep falling off the wagon then I'm back to at least one coke a day. My late mother was the same, she had a life long addiction to tea which she would kick on & off.

When I was younger I kicked the habit by going cold turkey and didn't have a problem with headaches & withdrawal. The last time I kicked it by substituted Coke for Nestea Ice Tea (powdered mixed with water) for a period of time then subsituted the ice tea for water with about 1/4 can of lemon soda then I switched to chocolate almond milk. I don't mind drinking calories if I get the benefit of calcium & iron. And for me it was true, after a period of time the thought of any soda drinks just grossed me out - too syruping & sweet & just plain poisonous. In the past I used to bring my own drinks to places to ensure that it was available when I needed it. So planning & preparation helped a lot.

I can drink plain water no problem (and it is my preference) in the mornings and in the evening but between 2 - 4 p.m. I need the mix of caffeine & sugar or at least sugar because by that point in the day plain water just makes me sick.

Looking back I can identify what caused me to fall off the wagon and start drinking coke again - generally when I was feeling sick, stressed or hung over I needed a coke. Also if I eat certain foods then I want/need to drink a coke too (pizza, chinese food, veggie burger, fries, chips, popcorn). So avoiding these situations is best but it can be a vicious cycle.

This time around I have been trying for months with no luck; cold turkey, slowly reducing the amount, attempting to substituting other drinks, and I am well aware of all the awful side effects that soda drinks has on the body.

So wish me luck as I attempt this again & I hope that you all can learn from my previous experience.

I have been addicted to Mt. Dew for over 20 years and before that, it was Big Red. I was drinking 8-12
per day. I have tried tapering off and cutting down, to no avail. I even ended up wearing a heart monitor
for 3 days on one of my tries...lol. Last week, I had been dealing with some serious stomach pain and
bloating and decided to do something after my Dr. Said everything looked fine. Tuesday morning started
my journey. I am now 3 days without a Mt. Dew. I stopped cold turkey. I have been drinking water, which
has never been in my diet. I feel good! I have a few cups of coffee throughout the day and continuously
drink water. I am very suprised how easy this has been. I have not lost any weight asvof yet, but I am sure
once my body comes out of its state of confusion, I will. I wish you luck and just know, you can do it .