How to break the soda/sweet tea habit

Don't stock any at home. Don't eat any food that remind you of it. Or just force yourself to drink original flavour tea. There r a lot of option out there. Floral or minty is always solid. Make a large pot of it and chill it. That might give you the refreshing feeling you got for coke.

Like the poster above said, it's better to just cut loose sugar than gradually decrease the amount. The former will work better. And don't get fool by those 'diet' version of soft drink and sweetener. It's all marketing. They r just as bad if not worse than the original items they tried to substitute.

Have you seen those 10 calorie sodas? 7-Up, A&W rootbeer, Canada Dry gingerale, Dr Pepper. They are diet sodas with just a bit of sugar. These taste really good.

Sweetened iced tea - brew your own tea and drop in a couple flavored tea bags. This will mellow the flavor. I start with a "family" sized tea bag and add 2 Twinings Mixed Berry (individual) bags. This makes 1/2 gallon of slightly fruity tea. I don't use sugar anymore...... I used a step down approach. 1/4 cup sugar for 1/2 gallon, then 3 Tbls...etc.

Naughtlookin wrote: »

I seriously DRINK most of my calories!! I have recently switched to half Splenda in my tea. (Hoping to switch to full Splenda eventually.)

I really cannot stand diet drinks but I do at least drink more water than I used to drink. I honestly used to not drink any water. Ever. I know that's awful right? But now I drink two or three bottles per day. Yet I'm still "always" thirsty and I drink southern style sweet tea and Mountain Dew aaaalllllllll day long.

Any suggestions on how to break this habit?? I know pounds will just fall off if I can master this.

It sounds really simple but . . . just stop making it. A sweet tooth is learned behavior and you need to unlearn it. Don't buy it; don't have it in the house; if you make your tea yourself, get the sugar out of the house for a while. Eventually, you will stop craving it.

Also, you say you drink a lot of Mountain Dew. In order to cut it out without the caffeine withdrawals, buy some caffeine pills. Each one is the equivalent of 2 cups of coffee (or 1 can of Mt. Dew). Take the equivalent of what your current intake is and each week drop by 1/2 tablet until you no longer feel the effects of the caffeine. Your other choice is to take a week's vacation and go cold turkey. I did that and was sleeping 18 hours a day for most of the week.

This content has been removed.

Carbonated, fruity flavored water is my new favorite drink. Tastes like fruity sodas but without all the caffeine and other stuff, and 0 calories.

We just went cold turkey. We but diet lipton tea and flavored water. I dropped sugar and cream from my coffee and drink it straight.... Hadnt tried with tea yet.

I used to drink a ton of pop, but now I switched to La Croix, which is flavored, carbonated water. It does the trick for me. It is 0 calories and there are a bunch of flavors. My favorite is the cran-raspberry.

I'm on my second week of no sugar in my tea. I almost abandoned my efforts a day or two in because I realized that I was looking for a blood sugar boost at times and found it so tough to not get one that I turned to food to accompany my tea. So I ended up having more calories than that little ol' teaspoon of sugar would have given me. But the sweet foods I chose had a decent amount of fibre and I think that helped. This week I'm having no problem drinking the tea without sugar and without having something sweet to go with it.

So I guess my suggestion is to have something sweet to accompany if you need to initially.

bbell1985 wrote: »

Yo the diet mountain dew is actually really good. Ever try it?

This is the only thing I have found on this Earth that gives me heartburn. weird!

Making your own tea with stevia would be my best advice. Stevia is a sugar substitute extracted from the leaves of the stevia plant. It's the equivalent of Splenda, but sweeter. I used to like to drink really sugary fruit flavored tea, and this helped me. If flavor is an issue, I would take twice as many tea bags/loose leaves than normal, and steep them overnight in a pitcher. Trust me, the tea will be very concentrated by then, and with enough stevia it should taste about the same. Just add water to dilute it to your personal taste, and you've got enough to last the day.

Ice brand sparkling water is my favorite sugar free drink, just thought I'd throw it out there. Costco carries it in variety packs. The apple flavor tastes exactly like real sugared apple juice to me. Blackberry is also good XD

I was always told that drinks with high sugar won't quench thirst, as the body will simply require more water to rid itself of the sugar ingested, thus why one of the symptoms of diabetes being excessive thirst.

Last thing, stevia tends to taste slightly "plant-like", maybe floral. I personally can't tell this difference when I use it in tea, but in things like coffee I prefer Splenda.

Hope this helps

If you enter them into your diary and see your calorie allocation disappearing, does that not deter you? I find it difficult to stick to my calorie limit, but would not waste them on sugary drinks!!

I weened myself and our family from sodas by introducing sparkling water. Zero calories and no sodium and no fake sugars. Now it is a must at family celebrations. Try it you might like it.

I drink diet. No it's not as good but I think you get used to it lol