How can I get away from soda?

Charmander191
Charmander191 Posts: 31
edited October 1 in Health and Weight Loss
I am addicted to Dr. Pepper... I have at least one a day... any advice is welcomed! <3 I need to stop drinking it, I know it would help me cut down on calories/sugars greatly!
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Replies

  • RachelSRoach1
    RachelSRoach1 Posts: 435 Member
    Stop drinking it.. you're an adult, you can control yourself. Often people break habits with new habits... crystal light is okay... chewing gum even would be okay.. I broke soda habits by chewing ice.
  • mpmama2re
    mpmama2re Posts: 212 Member
    don't buy any
  • Obstinate07
    Obstinate07 Posts: 89
    I honestly just stopped cold turkey three months ago. Not going to lie, its hard especially when others are drinking it around you. Try drinking less for awhile until you are comfortable just drinking water or real fruit juice.
  • Aimeemedders
    Aimeemedders Posts: 1
    This recipe does not taste like a yummy Dr. Pepper, but maybe you can trick yourself into thinking it's a soda!

    Pour regular Club Soda over ice
    Squeeze in 1 whole lemon or lime (or both)
    empty one packet of Truvia or Stevia all-natural sweetener into glass (be careful, it fizzes)
    stir with a straw and enjoy your mock-soda with Very few calories.
  • pattyproulx
    pattyproulx Posts: 603 Member
    I love club soda (sparkling water).

    I drink like 2-3 per day. No sugar or anything. It's just water with bubbles. So much better than regular water and I don't feel bad at all drinking it!

    (It'll probably take drinking 2-3 to get used to it, but afterwards, it's great!)
  • Skeith5
    Skeith5 Posts: 89 Member
    in 8 oz. of Doctor Pepper there are 100 calories and 27g of sugar. I would venture to say that's probably enough sugar for an entire day for you. Also, I'm sure you are having at least a can with 12 ounces in it. Soda will dehydrate you and work against your body in losing weight.

    For me, just realizing the above was enough to get me to stop drinking soda. I haven't had any in a month and a half. My wife and I both LOVE Dr. Pepper and we have a few cans sitting around from then. At this point it's not even a temptation... LOOK AT THAT SUGAR!!!!

    If you stop buying it, you will stop drinking it... If you feel tempted, pickup a can and look at the nutrition information...
  • MizCullen
    MizCullen Posts: 3
    Im with yah Charmander.. Ive been trying for months.. I used to drink a TON a day.. now I have 1 can of caffine free coke at dinner.. I wish I could just stop.. I tried.. did good for like a week then went out to dinner and did awsome on what i ordered to eat but I downed 3 fountain cokes.. TOTALLY fell off the wagon.. now Im back to one a day... if you find the secret I would love to hear it..
  • AdAstra47
    AdAstra47 Posts: 823 Member
    Iced or hot teas will give you the caffeine without the calories & sugar. See if you like any of the Crystal Light flavors, they have a wide variety.
  • stephwilli80
    stephwilli80 Posts: 4
    switch to sweat tea then after that switch to unsweat tea. Thats how i got off the diet coke.
  • ohwhataday
    ohwhataday Posts: 1,398 Member
    Just say NO!
  • Justjoshin
    Justjoshin Posts: 999 Member
    I was a huge coke drinker, and an even bigger Redbull drinker.

    I used to have a redbull while i checked my email in the AM, and then started in on my coffee while i did paperwork, and then started into coke in the afternoons.


    I quit Redbull, Soda, and Caffeine all at once. Cold turkey.

    Started drinking as much water as I could handle. Between drinking and having to run to the restroom, I didn't have time to think about my other drinks.
  • runpiggyrun
    runpiggyrun Posts: 30
    I had the same problem with Pepsi max..although its the "Diet" version, I had to stop drinking it. I started cold turkey, didnt buy any at all just some sparkling water and tap water. Its been two weeks now and the first week I felt crap and had a major withdraw headache but now feel great. I just drink tap water all day.....Good luck x


    this is an interesting link to make you stop drinking.
    http://www.termlifeinsurance.org/harmful-soda-full/
  • Zeromilediet
    Zeromilediet Posts: 787 Member
    Harsh but, suck it up and quit cold turkey. It's hard at first because you are literally going through withdrawal, but you'll be proud of yourself when you get past it.
  • Qarol
    Qarol Posts: 6,171 Member
    don't buy any
    This is what helped me. If it's not in the house, I can't drink it.
  • Seginns
    Seginns Posts: 39
    Maybe you can try tapering off? For example, go from one big can to one baby sized can per day for a week, then one baby sized can every other day for a while, and eventually cut down to once or twice a week. Honestly, I'm not a soda drinker but I had to do something similar with chocolate.
  • leftymac
    leftymac Posts: 169 Member
    I never understood this "I can't stop" mentality. Yes, you can stop. You just have to have the desire to do so.

    You asked how you can get away from it. Don't buy it, it's as simple as that. Don't keep it in the house. If you're eating out, it's as simple as saying, "I'll have water, please."

    You may go through caffeine withdrawal if you quit cold turkey, or get headaches, etc. Those will pass. It's nothing you can't live with for a few days if you really want to reach your goal.
  • Jade1964
    Jade1964 Posts: 111 Member
    I also just stopped cold turkey. I was addicted to Diet Pepsi, cut Diet Pepsi out and then started drinking regular Pepsi. I have not had a Pepsi/Diet Pepsi in over 2 months. I just quit.

    I do agree with what most have wrote on here "JUST SAY NO"!!!! It is up to you.

    I did drink Crystal Light for a little while after stopping the Soda, but I don't even drink that anymore. Just water and sometimes unsweetened ice tea.
  • Twasney
    Twasney Posts: 186 Member
    Wow...it always suprises me when people are so harsh with their answers!

    I hear you, I was totally addicted to Diet Pepsi and to be honest it wasn't even the taste of the pop though I love it, it was the carbonation!

    Here is what I did to slow it down (i was drinking 2 or 3 a day!) - I would choose 1 time a day when I really wanted one, for example with lunch or with dinner etc. I would buy 1 and save it for that time and I would drink it slowly and enjoy it.

    When I was craving carbonation I would buy seltzer water and some of my favorite fruits and berries. I would fill a nice tall glass with ice berries or fruit and pour in the seltzer water (don't buy tonic with sodium and sugar!). However before I could have one of those I had to have already drank 1 large glass of water first.

    Eventually I just would put the fruit and berries in my water and didn't need the bubbles as much. To be honest though I didn't fully kick the carbonation craving until I starting taking my new meds and now anything carbonated tastes like your sucking on aspirins while chewing tinfoil!!

    another thing to consider if you really like carbonation and you don't want to spend a fortune on bottles that go flat half way through is to get the Soda Stream and make your own! It just adds the CO2 to tap or filtered water!

    Hope that helps, and good luck! PM me if you ever want to vent or rant!!

    T
  • lynn1982
    lynn1982 Posts: 1,439 Member
    If you don't mind chemicals then switch to diet. If you like the carbonation, then switch to sparkling water and add a bit of juice to it. (That's how I kicked my nightly glass of wine habit, so it might not work with soda!) Or, try figuring out how much you spend each week/month on it. I stopped drinking diet coke after I moved out of my parents' house since I just couldn't afford it.

    To all those people telling the OP to quit cold turkey: If it's a true addiction, then she cannot. (It does have caffeine in it...as someone who is addicted to caffeine, if I don't have my morning cup of coffee then I feel sick.) Also, it may work for some people, but it's much easier to kick a bad habit if you find a substitution. It seems to me that she's just asking for suggestions on possible substitutions.
  • texancountess
    texancountess Posts: 52
    The only thing I have done that has helped me cut the soda back is to drink more water. I used to drink 2-3 Coke Zero's a day. Now I only have .5 a can or I will order 1 if we go out to eat(we live in Europe and the water here makes me sick, so it's either a Cola Light or a Beer.

    Drinking the water not only keeps me hydrated, it fills that tick of having something cold nearby to drink. I didn't start out trying to cut the amounts of soda I was drinking. My goal was only to increase my water intake, but the side affect has been awesome.
  • brandoneilers
    brandoneilers Posts: 7
    You might try to ween yourself off of the full sugar version of Dr. Pepper and try the zero calorie, no sugar version. I personally had a big addiction to Dr. Pepper and sweet tea. I started drinking tons of water and when I couldn't resist the urge for something coke-like I got a Coke Zero Cherry. Now I drink about one Coke Zero 20 oz. per month.

    It's hard at first, but if you can resist long enough to get over that initial hurdle then you will adjust nicely. You won't even feel a need for it anymore. Good luck!
  • Heather75
    Heather75 Posts: 3,386 Member
    One a day of anything is hardly an addiction. You like it, so you drink it. If you want to stop drinking it, you should probably just stop drinking it.

    HTH.
  • lindsaylove07
    lindsaylove07 Posts: 444 Member
    I understand this addiction! Sometimes it's hard to stop cold turkey, I tried to stop cold turkey and was laid up with a 5 day migraine as a result.

    To help wean yourself off it, what I did was first switch to diet, which is a little more weight loss friendly. At first I haaaated the taste, so I did half diet and half regular in a cup and gradually lessened the amount of regular. Then for every coke I drank I had to drink double that amount in water. I got so bogged down that I eventually quit drinking cokes at all.

    BONUS: My migraines have gone WAY down since I stoppped drinking cokes altogehter.
  • Rhea81
    Rhea81 Posts: 38 Member
    The hardest thing for me when I quit sodas was when eating out to not order it out of habit. Becuase then, I'd already paid for it and didn't want to waste it. At home it was easy, just don't buy them, and get what you may haved stocked out of the house! Now that I have retrained my brain, I really don't miss them as much as I thought I would. AND I FEEL BETTER!

    You can do it!!! You just have to decide you want to stop bad enough!!
  • brewingaz
    brewingaz Posts: 1,136 Member
    Don't pee all day long. You'll have to pee so bad the thought of drinking anything will be out of your mind. Therefore, you won't drink Dr. Pepper.
  • lovessweets
    lovessweets Posts: 32
    I gave up Coke a few weeks ago. I had really bad pains in the head for about a week. I just stopped and started drinking lots and lots of water as cold as i could get. It hard but so worth it dont give in to it. I feel less blotted and so much better for it. If i can do it you can i was drinking 4 cans a day. Good luck.
  • runpiggyrun
    runpiggyrun Posts: 30
    http://www.termlifeinsurance.org/harmful-soda-full/
  • butterfly0819
    butterfly0819 Posts: 94
    I was a big soda drinker too and I stopped cold turkey this past Friday. I started with the flavored waters and am now onto just drinking regular water.. I can say I had a horrendous caffeine headache the first couple days but I feel really good now.. and I don't really miss it as much as I thought I would. You can do it!!!!! And if you drink diet, one or two a week should be a treat for you :)
  • Twasney
    Twasney Posts: 186 Member
    I also wanted to tell you that my nutritionist and GP does not think 1 pop a day (full sugar or diet) is a problem, if your drinking 1 of the 2 litres a day thats an issue, but a can or small bottle is not going to hurt you as long as you are watching your sodium, sugar etc in your diet and your still drinking plenty of water!

    The problem with many people is that they drink 4 + soda's a day and follow that up with major amounts of fatty, processed crap foods!
  • FollowThatUnicorn
    FollowThatUnicorn Posts: 200 Member
    You have to just stop drinking it. It sucks. I used to only drink soda, for years, then one day I decided that I needed to stop because it is so bad for me. I got bad headaches and caved a few days, but now, after about a year, I only want water. If I go out somewhere and feel like a soda and order one, I take one sip and bleck. I couldn't believe how much bloat I lost after not drinking it for a few days.

    You can quit it!
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