Soft Drinks: Emotional Addiction

I felt the same way. Then I started logging my calories and realized sodas just wouldn't fit. I started using lemonade packets in bottled water and haven't looked back.

I have the same issue!

swanny320 wrote: »

msf74 wrote: »

swanny320 wrote: »

I've tried every trick in the book to quit but nothing works.

What specifically have you tried and what was it about these approaches caused you to abandon them?

Cold turkey: The urge is too strong. I cave within a day

Habit replacement: I've tried replacing it with seltzer/soda water. I've tried juice, I've tried water (flavored and not).

I think in breaking a habit it's useful to really understand it and whatever the triggers are. When you tried the replacement, what happened? Why didn't it work? Did you forget and order coke and then realize after the fact, did you not enjoy the replacements, what?

Reduction: I've tried limiting my intake to just one a day or even less.

Maybe try this, but more gradually. I drink more coffee than I should often, and have cut cold turkey (which is not great because of the caffeine, which could be part of it for you too, although it sounds like it's also missing the taste and the routine, which is part of it with me and coffee). A better way for me to cut down is to have rules, like none after noon or 2 or drink one or two or three glasses of water for every one cup of coffee. Maybe see how much you are drinking in a day and then try to substitute for half and alternate? And then work from there.

1. Start to wean yourself. If you have, say 3 a day, only do 2 a day. Then 1. Then only drink its 6x a week, then 5, etc.
2. Don't buy more than what you're allowed to have. So if you can only drink 5 a week. Only keep 5 in your house. If you over drink them then you have none left. Period.


This sounds like an addiction more then anything. You say you don't even like them? So tell yourself that when you want one. "Do i actually enjoy the taste? No." then move on, don't over think it. Don't make a big issue over it. It's just pop. Go out for a walk, read a book, call a friend. Something.

I had that exact moment when I realized I wasn't even enjoying the taste anymore and still kept drinking. Soda, Coke cola, was my everything. I felt I couldn't clean the house or do any activity with out having some ice cold Coke. I think I love the fizziness of it. My first step was to have ginger ale. And allow myself the Coke whenever I REALLY couldn't keep the craving away. It's been about 4 weeks and I don't really feel deprived. I encountered a very cold 2 little Coke this weekend but I just knew if I started I would end up having half the bottle so I had some Sprite (since it's not my first choice) I didn't feel the need to over do it The thought of it being forbidden is what make the desire greater.

I used to be in the same boat with sodas and diet sodas. Switching from regular to diet reduced my calorie intake, but it did nothing toward ending the cravings. What I found, after trying everything you've tried, is that it wasn't the actual soda I craved, it was the "reward" of getting it. I reached for the soda whenever I wanted rewarded. When other people say, "I need a drink", they reach for alcohol. I'd say that and reach for diet soda. I found I couldn't end this need for rewarding myself, so I simply changed my reward system.

My biggest hurdle was at the grocery, where I'd buy myself a diet soda with every trip. I tried fizzy waters and even just the plain waters, but they didn't cut it. So I started getting the unsweetened teas. With time, this became my replacement reward, and it has stuck. So, HUZZAH to that!

At home, the first thing I did was get rid of all sodas and beg my wife to not bring them home also. Those were some serious discussions. Eventually she relented, our house became a soda-free zone, and my at home reward system became fizzy waters, more tea, and coffee. We now have shelves of different teas.

That was a few years ago and I've managed to stay off sodas. I've lost my cravings (for the most part), and my wife can bring home sodas for herself again. She does, though, keep them tucked away in a corner where I never check.

So, my advice is, whatever trigger in your brain that needs that soda reward? Let it stay, just replace the reward.

What's wrong with calling it pop?