Soda addict! Help!

Have you tried swapping it out for sparkling waters? Start slowly... Just swap out 1 or 2 and go from there. Let your body adjust slowly.

Osugirl2022 wrote: »

I need help! Who has successfully beat a soda addiction? In the past, I have been able to cut back on my soda and lose weight. But, because I never gave it up completely, I always had the craving for it and always went back to drinking multiple cans a day. I want to give it up completely. The most I’ve made is 7 days before I’m out there buying it again give me motivation please!!

I had a Coke Zero addiction. My stomach finally had enough of the chemicals from the artificial sweetner and I was getting sick. I switched to seltzer waters and iced tea. I rarely ever have a craving for a soda now and if I do, I can only drink a few sips of regular soda and I’m good. I hope you find an alternative that works for you.

I am in this boat with you. I am addicted to soda as well. Many years ago, I trained myself to like diet soda. I had to train myself because, frankly, diet soda is actually quite nasty-tasting when you first start drinking it. Sure, it's sweet, but it's not the same sweetness that sugar provides and there's something bitter and acrid about the aftertaste.

I almost always have to have soda (or juice, or some sweet drink) with my meals. Yesterday I was at my mom's and she didn't have any diet soda but she had Pepsi. I drank a small amount even though I am trying to stay within a calorie budget and that soda cut into the amount of food I could eat for the day. I just had to have it, or else my lunch wouldn't have been satisfying.

If you can't stand the idea of not having soda, I would switch to diet. It's really the only alternative if the soda has to be sweet and caffinated. I would suggest La Croix (a sparkling water that is infused with fruit flavor but has no sugar or calories) but you said you don't drink sparkling water.

There are other, lower-sugar sodas out there as well. I think there's one called Wave that they sell at Whole Foods (but it's even more expensive than conventional soda).

As far as diet soda goes, Diet coke is the worst-tasting of the main ones. If you can train yourself to like that, you will be pleasantly surprised by the taste of Diet Dr. Pepper, Pepsi Zero Sugar and Coke Zero.
Diet white sodas like diet Sprite or diet Ginger Ale are absolutely horrible tasting- do not recommend. Unfortunately, those are the only ones that don't have caffeine, unless you specifically get Caffeine Free Diet Coke.

I apologize for having absolutely no solutions for how to actually kick a soda addiction! I haven't even tried and I'm pretty sure I would fail at it.

I used to drink a ton of full sugar soda...like five or six per day. I drink zero sugar soda now, but I also maintain "rules" around how much. I usually have a Coke Zero with lunch and an evening mocktail of zero sugar ginger beer, lime, and mint.

nossmf wrote: »

At one point I was drinking a 2-liter per day of Pepsi. Tried switching to diet, absolutely hated the flavor. Tried going cold turkey, had the most horrible caffeine headaches. So I hear ya, I do.

My first step towards kicking the habit was allowing myself to continue to drink as much soda as I wanted, but first had to drink an equal amount of water. So before a 12-oz can of soda, I had to drink 12 oz's of water. Want more soda after the first is gone? Get more water. Doing this I cut back from 2 liters to 2 cans per day.

Next I started swapping other sweet beverages to try to cut down on the acidic nature of the soda, which I suspected was at least in part to blame for my nightly acid reflux interrupting my sleep. I came to love sweet tea, which further reduced my soda drinking to a can per day.

What ultimately broke things for good for me was when I cracked a tooth on a popcorn kernel, and until I got it fixed anything hot or cold was quite painful. Since warm soda was disgusting, I found about all I could drink consistently was water, which I supplemented with caffeine pills to prevent the headaches.

By the time I got my tooth yanked (it was beyond repair) and could drink what I wanted, it had been long enough that my craving for the sugar had faded significantly. These days I try to only have sodas with certain meals, such as when I splurge on pizza or burgers, so maybe a couple times per week, plus one on Sundays watching NFL games. Think it's a coincidence my weight dropped 30 pounds as I went from 2 liters per day to 2 cans per week?

I like the idea of drinking water and then the soda! I may need to try that as a way for me to drink more straight water lol

I got a soda stream. It helped alot. I use that with the squirty stuff or just straight up fizzy water. I like that you can puck the carbonation level too.
I still have a diet pop now and then but this helped alot.

Every time I think I got it kicked I fall right back off the wagon

I believe Coca-Cola should be paying me with shares in the company, I'm up to about 4-6 litres a day of Coke No Sugar. I ditched the regular coke in 2009-2010 in favour of Coke Zero then they replaced it with the No Sugar.

I'm currently in the process of quitting smoking (again) with a prescription this time for Zyban. Maybe the medication will help with the No Sugar addiction.

I would definitely be quitting for the cost, even buying two litre bottles at $2.85AUD it comes to roughly $9 a day, more if I buy the smaller chilled bottles when out and about.

I am just here reading everyone's comments and suggestions. I am in the same boat. My addiction is with coke cola. Its the cold sweet, caffeine flavor and the fuzz taste. It just taste so good with my food. Literally my mini goals have been how many days I can go without. So far week 3 I only failed two days....I was drinking one or two a day. For caffeine I drink green tea, for the carbonation I drink mineral water...but its been hard to remove it in general....so every day is a mini goal just to not drink. The reason I want to remove it from my diet is because I don't want this to have a hold on me. I want to be able to have that control to want it or not on any given day. But I noticed every day that passes I have less and less of a need for it. So iam bookmarking this thread.

Switch to something else would probably be your best bet. I drink those spindrift drinks now but they're kind of expensive. Or diet soda every now and then. Or I also like kombucha which I make myself so I don't go broke buying them.

Osugirl2022 wrote: »

I need help! Who has successfully beat a soda addiction? In the past, I have been able to cut back on my soda and lose weight. But, because I never gave it up completely, I always had the craving for it and always went back to drinking multiple cans a day. I want to give it up completely. The most I’ve made is 7 days before I’m out there buying it again give me motivation please!!

to be addicted to it it must be either energy drink, or sugar. I have a sugar addiction so understand completely.

I had to switch to diet drinks, they're really cheap at my supermarket, about $1 per large bottle. The really dodgy budget ones don't do anything bad to me but the higher quality diet fanta etc give me diarrhoea, so that's fun...

there are diet versions of caffeinated sodas you can choose. The caffeine headache is a killer to quit caffeine cold turkey.

The taste of diet drinks is not absolutely perfect but you know what? after 3 days you won't notice. My son drinks my diet sodas and would pull a face. Now he's giving them ago as well.

I thought I would never give up my Diet Mountain Dew/Mountain Dew in general, but I stopped cold turkey one day & tried the new Coke Zero. The Coke Zero reformulation tasted so bad that I also gave up that. I drink Sprite now, but eventually will stop drinking that. I need to get back in the habit of drinking more water.

mandiv69 wrote: »

For those of you that have given it up or switched for a no sugar version what was it like. I’m in iso this week so my access is not there. I’m hoping this week will give me the kickstart to breaking the habit. Have had quite bad headaches and wondering if it could be from this. I was drinking 2-3 cans a day. Thanks 😊

I used to drink 3-6 regular sodas per day. I didn't just cut it out completely cold turkey. I started with cutting back to 1 per day at lunch then I cut back to every other day, etc and then to once per week and then figured I didn't really need that either. I did that over the course of a month or so...don't remember exactly.

I didn't drink any kind of soda for a long time except I would allow myself a sarsaparilla that is brewed at a farm we visit for pumpkins in the fall...so like one a year for a few years. I did ultimately miss it and started drinking Coke Zero a couple of years ago. I have one with my lunch most days. I don't think it would have cut it if I just went from regular to diet but I've been off the regular for so long, Coke Zero to me tastes pretty much how I remember original coke (but I haven't had one in about 9 years).

Headaches are likely caffeine withdrawal. Early on, I drank more caffeinated tea and coffee, so I didn't really ever have any caffeine withdrawal.