Giving up diet soda. So hard!

If you have an Asian market nearby, you can buy bottled green tea, unsweetened, and it is great to carry around like bottled water. I love that stuff. I still drink diet soda, but I don't drink it all the time. This is a good alternative and it is hydrating.

Ill never give up pepsi max! i used to drink coke 7 years ago and havent touched it since
But i have cut down from what i used to drink in fizzy drinks, dont give up everything you enjoy you wont last long on an eating plan you dont enjoy, fact

Aviva92 wrote: »

why do people need to defend diet soda as though it's a huge travesty to give it up? if she wants to give it up, it's her life.

I think if she wants to give it up she should. Some people probably feel better not drinking it, especially if they seem to drink it to the exclusion of everything else. I give up coffee from time to time since I can get into a pattern of going overboard with it (right now I'm trying not to drink coffee or caffeinated tea after noon and it's driving me a bit crazy, since I was overdoing it).

However, sometimes people think they ought to give up something instead of really wanting to, and diet soda is one of those things where you hear that it's poison or making you fat or silly things that are not true. If people are giving it up for those reasons, and not more factual ones, they might want to know that it's not necessary--for example, that lots of people are able to drink it and lose or even find it helpful.

I don't agree with the frequent advice that you should change your diet as little as possible when starting a weight loss plan, since for me it's motivating to see myself doing something positive, and some of the bigger changes go along with that, so I can see that side.

But, on the other hand, if I had added on to my dietary changes when I started a requirement that I also drop coffee--which happens to be something I can use in place of how I used to use food, as a break, a relaxing taste treat, whatever--I would have made this harder for myself and deprived myself of something I enjoy, for no reason. I actually made the call when I started that I wasn't going to worry about coffee until I was really comfortable with my eating. (And now that I'm close to goal I'm messing with it and might drop it for a while.)

Similarly, I like to give up foods as part of my Lent practices, usually meat plus sweets. This time I did not (I started losing weight last January, so was still somewhat in the early stages), in part because I don't want my practices to relate to weight loss efforts, but more because I thought adding things would make it more difficult than it needed to be when I mostly wanted my diet to feel natural and enjoyable. This year I might well go back to my usual.

So I do think that sometimes newbies to MFP seem to be doing too much at once and adding difficulties that are not necessary (if you really miss diet coke and end up having more trouble not overeating cookies, that's not helpful). However, that's going to depend on the person, so I think it's both useful to present the "you don't have to" ideas to OP and challenge things like "aspartame will KILL you TOMORROW and make you FAT" (not said by OP, of course) and also to respect her decision and answer her question.

I gave up regular Coke (cola) in 2008. I replaced it with unsweetened iced tea with lemon. It was very hard for about 2 weeks. But now I don't miss it all. I am addicted to tea now, though .

I don't do diet drinks because I really hate the taste. So I was never tempted to switch.

I have learned that if I give up something then I am more likely to fail. I can have soda and sweets still. Just not with every meal. Try a sparkling water.

I've been weaning myself off diet coke. I'm not really worried about the chemicals so much, it was just really wrecking havoc on my teeth enamel.

For a substitute, I've been drinking water mixed with low calorie cordial. Tastes good and still guilt-free

I add a bit of 100% juice into my water. It makes it so much easier for me to drink.

I was addicted to soda as well and gave it up for water with a splash of lemon or lime and iced tea. After you don't drink soda for a bit, it's amazing how much it hurts your throat if you try it again.

It took me well over a year to get off the diet pop completely. I was off, then on, then off...over and over. I'd even refuse to buy pop at Publix and then run to the Circle K for a 20oz. It was crazy. Eventually I got sick of having to re-quit all the time and decided to just not have another sip, period.

I feel so much better when I'm off that stuff!! Don't give up, even if you fail. Keep trying. It's worth it in the end! I just drink ice water. If I am making something with lemon or lime and have extra, I'll throw some in my water, but usually it's just ice water.

Some people here get very upset when other people make changes to their diet. They'll demand to know why you're doing it. Anything short of a virtual doctor's note (and sometimes not even that) will not meet their criteria for whether or not it's okay for you to change your diet, so then they'll feel justified in insulting and mocking you. They do it to different people every day. Don't take it personally. It's not you.