Trying to kick the soda habit...

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  • HMonsterX
    HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
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    I'd have it at every meal and never ANY water. None.

    Ah, but ya did, though. Diet soda is 99% water. :)

    Heresy!! Once you add bubbles it ceases to have any water content at all! ;)
  • wannakimmy
    wannakimmy Posts: 488 Member
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    Honestly, you just have to want to do it bad enough. Are you logging your soda? For me, I look at the calories in everything... Do I want to waste "X" amount of my allotted calories on a drink? Or would I prefer to eat something? So I weigh it out in my head... IE. Pizza or soda? I do it with all foods too... 2 cups of fresh veggies vs. a bite of brownie? Which will be more worth it to me.... Don't get me wrong, sometimes the bite of brownie wins.... I just log it and move on.

    Good luck in your journey :)
  • howardheilweil
    howardheilweil Posts: 604 Member
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    Logging the calories in a can of regular Coke did it for me. I don't really care for the taste of diet soda either, so I pretty much stopped drinking any soda.
  • 100missy
    100missy Posts: 1 Member
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    I had a six can a day Mountain Dew habit. What worked for me was a fast taper (week 1 - three cans, week 2 - one can) more because of the caffeine withdrawal than the sugar. After that, I stopped buying soda entirely. In order to really break the habit, I didn't allow myself juice or other sugary drinks as a substitute because the idea was not to trade one terrible habit for a different one. Once the habit was good and kicked, now I have the occasional juice or lemonade.
    Instead, I made myself drink ice water and found that I really liked carbonated waters like H20, Mendota Springs, La Croix, Klarbrunn, Ice Mountain. I look for brands that use natural flavors and contain no artificial sweeteners or preservatives. Soda Stream uses My Water flavorings so you could make your own and adjust the amount of flavoring.
    Three years later, I rarely drink soda. I bring water to work. It can be very hard when I go out to eat as their table water may not taste very good and they may not have many other alternatives, so every once in a while I get a Sprite or root beer.
  • snapehbp
    snapehbp Posts: 64
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    I stopped cold turkey almost 2 years ago. Caffine has no effect on me, I just liked the taste over water. If I do have a pop, I only do regular (used to drink 4 cans of duet a day for probably a decade). In the past 2 years, I have consumed 24 cans of reg sprite if that. I only drink pop when I have pizza and didn't break my "no pop" until I made it to one year of cutting it out cold turkey.

    It was hard, but worth it!
  • donjessop
    donjessop Posts: 186
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    July 31, 2013, is the last time I had a Dr. Pepper or any other soda. The substitute? Really cold water or sparkling water. No diet soda as I get headaches when I drink it so I really had no choice. Since then the weight loss has actually been a good reminder as to what I was putting in my body.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    I quit coke by switching to diet, years ago, less about calories than it being considered weird for girls to drink regular (I was a jr in high school, so I suppose that does go back to weight, sort of). Once I got used to diet I didn't even like regular--tasted too syrupy, but I got to a point where I was drinking a ridiculous amount of diet, so I am skeptical that it's about an addiction to sugar or, usually even caffeine. I think it's habit and taste.

    Anyway, I quit soda for Lent a couple years ago just by replacing it with water, tea, and probably a bit more coffee. A more direct replacement is probably iced tea or flavored waters, but I'm picky about iced tea I don't make myself and didn't make it as often as I should have. Since then I try to drink it sparingly and quit again when my consumption starts creeping up (it's free at my office, I don't buy it or drink it at home). One thing is to grab a water at the same time and drink it plus another before getting soda again. Since I mostly drink it for hydration that ends up with me craving it less.

    Since it is a habit, though, just stopping is the best way to kick it. I know logging those calories and thinking about what I could have instead would make me stop.
  • Rachel_Louise85
    Rachel_Louise85 Posts: 26 Member
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    I know what you mean. I was a complete soda junkie, it was hard to kick the habit. If I feel like something fizzy I either opt for a Polar Frost or get Seltzer/Sparkling water and add some 100% juice to it. Yummy! :)


    Polar-Frost-_bottles-web.jpg
  • yorkshiregoal
    yorkshiregoal Posts: 41 Member
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    Sparkling water is AMAZING!

    If you add half a fresh squeezed lime or lemon, plus some Stevia if you are craving the sweetness, it is a great alternative and so much more refreshing than sodas! Try it, it's delicious :)

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