Cutting out soda

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Like most Americans, I drink a lot of soda. I actually had cut it out for about a year. I got strep, and it hurt to swallow. A week or two later, I was used to not drinking it. But now I try not drinking soda and get massive cravings for it. I don't drink coffee, or energy drinks, so other than soda I basically consume little to no caffeine, which is probably why my brain wants it so bad.


How have you guys been able to cut out the soda from your diet? Any advice would be great!
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Replies

  • ChantalGG
    ChantalGG Posts: 2,404 Member
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    Try over dosing on diet pop and then you wont want any of it anymore. I still drink diet pop once in a while.
  • auticus
    auticus Posts: 1,051 Member
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    Soda is poison. Period.

    I used to drink coke like it was going out of style. Surprise surprise I was also heavily overweight and diabetic.

    Cutting soda out of my life dropped me 10 lbs and 200 points off my sugar count.

    Diet soda is equally toxic and counter productive to weight loss. You're better off mixing water with cigarette ashes and dropping in some monkey scat and drinking that.
  • AngChambers06
    AngChambers06 Posts: 126 Member
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    I would phase it out... Ive never been able to myself though and diet is still not good for you but thats what I drink. Even 1 diet drink a day would probably be better than going through bottles and bottles of it.

    thats just my thought process though.
  • CountandBaxter
    CountandBaxter Posts: 31 Member
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    I have cut out regular soda, then diet soda- now I drink sparkly water. Ozarka sparkling or Perrier is really good and I have it daily. Just feels a little fancier than regular water.
  • bcarter0218
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    I too struggle with soda. I've been drinking soda for 45 years and trying to give it up is IMPOSSIBLE! I too would appreciate any help I can get!
  • palmermarc
    palmermarc Posts: 9 Member
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    @auticus Thanks for your comments, but being told something I know over and over seems counter productive.

    My only problem is that when I try to phase something out, my consumption of something else spikes. I drink a LOT of water every day, and honestly I only drink soda for the caffeine, and just to drink something besides water.
  • meowow
    meowow Posts: 42 Member
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    Honestly, after finding out how awful any kind of soda is for my body/how much it bloated me (I hate that bloat feeling so much, ha) it was VERY easy for me to cut it out completely. Now, I drink nothing but water. After a while without something, your taste buds change and you no longer desire it.
  • H_Factor
    H_Factor Posts: 1,722 Member
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    I phased out soda. I went from 2 or more cans/day to 1 can/day to nothing (and I don't drink coffee, tea or other forms of caffeine). With the phase out process, the withdrawal headaches weren't bad and they lasted only a few days. I haven't had soda since late April and I haven't missed it one bit. I don't take any caffeine, but I have more energy. I realize caffeine only led to crashes and you needed more and more caffeine to experience the same "benefit" it provided.

    Almost exclusively, I drink water and sobe lifewater. that's it. and I feel a ton better for it.
  • Cooriander
    Cooriander Posts: 2,848 Member
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    I don't dring water, mostly soda - diet soda. I am still alive, European and I am middle age and feel great. I will check back in when I am 101. I also love coffee.
  • tbudge
    tbudge Posts: 114
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    I do drink diet soda, it's like my treat. But I found that replacing soda with green tea or snapple really helps. My favorite is the Diet Trop A Rocka snapple that Bret Michaels made on Celebrity Apprentice. It tastes good, and it helps with the blood sugar levels. Give it a try.
  • CJK1959
    CJK1959 Posts: 279 Member
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    I have never like drinking plain water, and instead was a Diet Coke fiend. Three years ago I started drinking water with Cyrstal Light in it for flavor and I was able to give up the soda completely. The headaches were really bad for a little while, but they do go away and you can substitute other things for the caffiene.....more rest, take some vitamins...especially the "B" family for increased energy.....I feel so much better for not drinking the soda, it's more of a mind thing that anything else. Your body doesn't need it.
  • alleyag
    alleyag Posts: 142
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    Just stop it. It's in your mind. No I will not have soda. Don't open it don't reach for it and you won't drink it. :)
  • Masterchef2000
    Masterchef2000 Posts: 127 Member
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    I had a real problem with soda. I drank it and NOTHING else for months at a time. I did this for years. I actually felt like I would puke drinking water. Before I started my exercise, I knew I had to get right of my Mountain Dew. Otherwise, with as much as I drank, I knew I would go no where and get frustrated and then give up all together. So in June I stared to quit. To be honest, it took me until the end of August to get where I am with drinking my water (with Crystal Lite Lemonade added) and if I were really craving it, I would give in, buy a bottle, get my fill then dump the rest down the drain. It's what I had to do to quit. And I think I can safely say that I have. I don't crave it, I reallllly like my water.

    Someone else said something about being bloated due to soda. They weren't kidding! You will be amazed at how bloated you are on soda. My kids started to tell me that I looked pregnant. My stomach went way back down and they haven't said anything about a baby in my belly since.
  • jarrettd
    jarrettd Posts: 872 Member
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    I'm not sure diet soda is toxic. Mind you, I'm not sure that it isn't, either! (This year's wonderful thing is next year's class action suit, after all!)

    I do think that it keeps your palate acclimated to sugar. You don't get used to tasting things without sugary additives, natural or artificial, because your mouth is being bombarded by the perception of "sweet". So you have to have the sweeteners in other things for them to taste "normal".

    If you can eliminate ALL added sweeteners to your diet for a period of time (a few weeks?), I think you would not like them anymore, because your "normal" will have shifted. If you must have carbonation, try club soda w/ a twist of lemon, perhaps.

    I am getting ready to put this theory into action for myself. I like sweet. A LOT! But for me, i think it must be all or nothing.
  • alleyag
    alleyag Posts: 142
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    I'm not sure diet soda is toxic. Mind you, I'm not sure that it isn't, either! (This year's wonderful thing is next year's class action suit, after all!)

    I do think that it keeps your palate acclimated to sugar. You don't get used to tasting things without sugary additives, natural or artificial, because your mouth is being bombarded by the perception of "sweet". So you have to have the sweeteners in other things for them to taste "normal".

    If you can eliminate ALL added sweeteners to your diet for a period of time (a few weeks?), I think you would not like them anymore, because your "normal" will have shifted. If you must have carbonation, try club soda w/ a twist of lemon, perhaps.

    I am getting ready to put this theory into action for myself. I like sweet. A LOT! But for me, i think it must be all or nothing.

    The ph content in diet soda is closer to battery acid than water.. toxic?
  • dietpop
    dietpop Posts: 37 Member
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    I used to drink two 2 liter bottles of Diet Pepsi a day for like 15 years. The regular wasn't strong enough, so I drank lime and cherry flavored DP.

    Just like you, I got sick last spring ( flu - high fever, sore throat ) and pop tasted horrible. I quit pop cold turkey.

    Find a new source of caffeine and you will be fine. Now I drink Chai tea and crystal light (once in a while) for caffeine.

    BTW - Pop isn't natural. Now I can see it for what it is, a bad habit.
  • HMonsterX
    HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
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    For me it's one of the things that makes this sustainable!

    Mind you, I've never been a huge drinker of it. Just a pint of either cherry tango or 7 up free with my dinner. Account for the calories, no need to cut it out.
  • jarrettd
    jarrettd Posts: 872 Member
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    I'm not sure diet soda is toxic. Mind you, I'm not sure that it isn't, either! (This year's wonderful thing is next year's class action suit, after all!)

    I do think that it keeps your palate acclimated to sugar. You don't get used to tasting things without sugary additives, natural or artificial, because your mouth is being bombarded by the perception of "sweet". So you have to have the sweeteners in other things for them to taste "normal".

    If you can eliminate ALL added sweeteners to your diet for a period of time (a few weeks?), I think you would not like them anymore, because your "normal" will have shifted. If you must have carbonation, try club soda w/ a twist of lemon, perhaps.

    I am getting ready to put this theory into action for myself. I like sweet. A LOT! But for me, i think it must be all or nothing.

    The ph content in diet soda is closer to battery acid than water.. toxic?

    Orange juice = 3.5ph, kiwi = 3.0, grapes = 2.8, vinegar 2.4. Toxic? Ph value won't determine a food product's toxicity, except to your teeth! ;-)
  • scraver2003
    scraver2003 Posts: 528 Member
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    When I want something bubbly - I do 12 oz of seltzer with 2 oz. of cranberry juice (100% juice). I had to start half and half with the juice selzter and work my way down. Now drinking straight juice is like a sugar punch to my face.

    I know this is so weird, but I wish they would do lower sugar sodas. Like HALF the sugar... or even a quater. (But with NO artificial sweetener to compensate) Sometimes I want a soda, but why does it have to have a 1/4 cup of sugar in 12 oz? That is just gross.

    It is my understanding that the artificial sweetener in diet soad affects your blood sugar like it was real sugar - so your body releases insulin and then there is no sugar for it - so then you blood sugar drops low and you crave sugar. Therefore making diet soda just as unhealthy.

    Sometimes when I want a little something for a treat - I go for the Honest Ade or the Honest Tea. They are still about 85 - 100 calories for a bottle - but compared to tother things that are 240 - 360 a bottle, it seems like a good deal.
  • MandaJean83
    MandaJean83 Posts: 677 Member
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    I seriously wonder how much of my "podge" is due to drinking carbonated beverages every day. I have tried to give diet soda up so many times in the past, but have never been successful. I crave it like a drug. Haha.
    Hello, my name is Amanda, and I am a diet soda addict... LOL!