Quitting Soda!

I have lost 50 pounds and I still drink soda. I either fit it in my calories or choose a diet option. Calories are all that matter for weight loss. Doesn't matter what you eat/drink.

Soda is my big issue. Probably drink at least 6 cans a day for over 40 years. On day 2 of cutting back. First day drank 2 cokes, today just one. Praying I can continue.

I quit drinking soda back in 2012 and haven't looked back since! I might have a little bit if I'm at a social event or someone's house and they only offer/have soda... but it burns! You get to the point where you don't enjoy it after you haven't had it for a while.

My mom was just diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and she was a soda drinker. Something that has helped her out quite a bit is putting either Crystal Lite or Mio in her water when she is craving a soda.

As a kid, I was very limited in the amount of soda I was allowed to drink. When I got out on my own I went more than a little nuts with it since I could have as much as I wanted whenever I wanted. Got to drinking 6 to 10, or more, cans of Pepsi per day. I also ate mass quantities because I grew up with a very fast metabolism. I stopped growing by the age of 20, but my appetite did not slow down to match. Anyway, I went from 195 pounds and lean at the end of high school to over 300 pounds and obese before I reached 25. Somewhere around then was also when I learned I'd become diabetic. Immediately switched to diet soda, preferring those sweetened with sucralose over aspartame in terms of taste. That change didn't help with my weight as I found myself eating more to make up the calories. My weight's been up and down a few times. Highest was 315 the first time I decided to do anything about it. Lowest in that time has been 240. Presently about 278. My diet soda consumption hasn't made a difference in my weight losses or gains as far as I can tell. There have been two or three occasions where I decided to kick caffeine and went cold turkey for a while. After suffering through two weeks of a constant headache, funky stomach and just plain feeling like crap, I'd recover from the withdrawal and tell myself that with the physical addiction kicked I could drink soda in moderation. It would start that way, but gradually build back up to where it was. Today I average literally around a gallon of diet Pepsi per day, and have been doing this for the majority of the last 20 years. Quite frankly I no longer care about the caffeine addiction. I'm the kind of guy who likes to have a beverage constantly close to hand, and I just plain don't like anything else well enough to be able to substitute it for the soda. If I could learn to enjoy water the way I do diet Pepsi I'd save a heck of a lot of money, but in terms of diet and health I haven't experienced any negative effects that I can connect with my soda habit (other than the full sugar Pepsi undoubtedly contributed to my diabetes all those years ago.)