No More Soda... Whose With Me?

I had completely cut soda out of my life a year ago. I don't know how I got back into drinking my caffeine-free, diet coke, but I have. It's not a lot (one 20oz. bottle a day on avg.), but considering I have the hardest time drinking anything throughout the day, that's bad. I'm still sipping on a cup of coffee I made at 7:00 this morning - it's 11:12AM! I've always had a hard time with drinking and eating.

OK. I'm about to drink the rest of this coffee...done! Water only at least 64oz. for the day, starting....NOW!

Yep. You read it here. My declaration. My vow.

dont beat yourself up over the 2 sodas yesterday. It is not an easy task to give up an addiction. Trust me.

I am addicted to food.....I had gastric bypass surgery and was forced to give up my addiction....an addiction that one needs to survive.....the mind does not know it is portion size...it just knows that its addiction is gone....how will it survive......ok so it is hard.....

I told a woman in the gym I was helping work out.....(she was upset by only being able to do two crunches.....she is a very large woman and this was her first day in the gym...she had tears in her eyes as I of my own free will went and helped her on every machine)......I said....".the two crunches you did today is progress compared to the zero crunches you did yesterday"....it clicked with her...she realized at that moment no matter how small a step it was a step in the right direction.

So you drank 2 yesterday.....have you had any today? How did that make you feel at the end of the day yesterday? Did you feel like you let yourself down? You slipped up!! I dont care what anyone says I truly feel that soda is an addiction just like smoking....anything that stimulates the brain can be addictive...because it makes you feel good.....just like the runners high....it makes the runner feel good.

So....now you will get back on track at this moment and not look back...only forward....I have been struggling for 3 damn weeks....if I can do this than you can too.....I am the most stubborn hard headed bi**h on the planet...I am not giving in and neither are you!!!

Get some sugar free gum...preferably something strong and start chewing.....

now dust your pants off..... and start over!!!!

I drink at least a 12 pack a day....

:ohwell:

I haven't had a soda since I got pregnant with my first child 6 years ago. I find that now I don't even miss it.

to everyone taking this challenge, you can do it!!

i used to have 2 or 3 sodas (pepsi/7up) every day and gave them up cold turkey this year. now i only drink water and sometimes milk or a mistic juice here and there, but mostly just water. you'd be surprised how addictive water becomes too! maybe i just have an addictive personality and get hooked on things easily....:laugh:

i honestly cant say giving them up has helped any with weight loss but i sure feel healthier not drinking them and breaking the habit!! :happy:

dont give up! :flowerforyou:

I am brand new to the forums and this website but this is a great topic for me. I drank up to a 12 or maybe more Diet Mt. Dews a day. Was talking to my chiropractor today and I told him I was weaning myself off of them and he told me that I could actually gain MORE weight on the diet drinks than the regular soft drinks. This is due to the body thinking it is getting sugar (the artificial sweetner) so it secretes insulin. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle, and stopping use of fat as an energy source (Okay I copied that last sentence). But it made sense. My body thought it needed to secrete insulin therefore keeping me from burning fat.

So.....NO MORE SODAS FOR ME!!!!!!! I dont need the sugar in regular soft drinks and I certainly dont need my body telling me not to burn fat by secreting insulin when it doesnt need to.

Headaches...I welcome you because I know I can burn this fat off now!!!!!!

I gave up soda almost 2 weeks ago. I drank mountain dew just about 1 everyday. i had half a bottle the other day with pizza. YUCK it def didn't taste as god as i thought it would. but i am def glad i dont drink soda anymore..

I know what you mean. I usually drank a 44oz of Mt. Dew a day and about 2 weeks ago when I found MFP I limited myself to 1 can and now I really don't like the taste of it. It's almost like it's to sweet for me. I have also discovered after drinking Mt. Dew that I seem to crash a couple hours after drinking it. Something that I didn't notice before because I was always tired.

Good luck to everyone!!! I'm working on no soda all together. i mostly drink water and unsweetened ice tea with lemon.

XENANOO....dont switch to diet...thats transfer addiction.....and they are known to stimulate the appetite. Just quit it all. But that is your own personal call.....you may need to switch if you are struggling after a week or so. Sometimes we have to ween ourselves and sometimes we have to switch to something and ween from that.

I do not will not and never have liked diet soda.....to me it even smells....I now have a super sense of smell since my gastric bypass...odd I know....but a diet soda smells ver very sickeningly sweet. I will not even taste them now....ewww it makes my skin crawl.

So anyhow.....Sunday will be my week 4.....I did want one last night but I think that is cuz TOM is visiting...yall know TOM right??? Time Of Month!! I hate Tom, he sux.....I wish he would go away and never return.....almost there....peri menopuase is a pain in the *kitten*....

anyhow.....I over slept....just got up at noon.......drank some water....it will be ok.

Just tell yourself.....baby step and distract yourself from the craving. If It does get too bad chew gum, sugar free and something strong and minty or cinnamon.

take care my dear
Tammy

I cut out all caffefine last March (was a Pepsi-aholic) and experienced the headaches, etc. I ended up taking No Dose for a couple of days to get the caffefine and eliminate the headaches. In addition to the addiction to the caffefine, there's also the habit of drinking/tasting to break. I won't touch anything with caffefine in any more!

another day with no soda....

yes I will make it through today as well......


have a good day
hugs
Tammy

ANOTHER REASON TO STOP SODA CONSUMPTION


SparkPeople Sponsors help keep the site free! Health News
'Soda Tax' Wins Health Experts' Support
Researchers cite a win-win for health care and obesity, but beverage industry balks at proposal
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 16 HealthDay News) -- A national tax of 1 cent per ounce of soda and other sugary drinks could stem the United States' obesity epidemic, while generating $14.9 billion the first year alone, health experts say.

That windfall could help finance proposed health care reform, while also funding programs to prevent obesity, say a group of prominent researchers in an article in the Sept. 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The authors believe such a tax would deter people from buying non-nutritious sweet drinks, thereby helping Americans to lose weight and reduce their health risks.

The United States spends some $147 billion -- 9 percent of all health care expenditures -- on medical costs associated with overweight and obesity, the article states.

For consumers, the tax they suggest would increase the cost of a 20-ounce soft drink by 15 to 20 percent and lead to a minimum reduction of 20 calories a day per person from sweetened beverages. The revenue collected would benefit individual states and the federal government.

"There are certain products which make a strong contribution to the obesity epidemic while, conversely, there is no plausible public health benefit [from them]," noted Dr. David Ludwig, senior author of the paper and associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

"None of us are arguing that sugar-sweetened beverages should be banned, but the government needs to raise revenues where we have a huge national deficit," said Ludwig, who is also director of the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children's Hospital Boston. "We have critical health legislation pending and the requirement to do so without further increasing the deficit.

"What better way to accomplish both lowering health care costs through obesity prevention and funding expansion of health insurance coverage than to add a tax to unhealthy foods," he continued.

The idea of levying a "fat tax" or "Twinkie tax" first gained attention in 1994, when Yale University psychology professor Kelly D. Brownell made the proposal in an op-ed piece in The New York Times. Brownell is lead author of the current paper.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama said such taxes could help cover the cost of overhauling the U.S. health care system.

Meanwhile, studies continue to link consumption of beverages sweetened with sucrose (regular sugar), high-fructose corn syrup or fruit-juice concentrates to obesity, diabetes and heart disease, not to mention dental decay.

One such study found that each additional serving of sugar-sweetened beverage increased the risk of obesity in middle-school students by 60 percent, Ludwig said.

In another study involving 100 high-school students, eliminating such drinks led to a significant decrease in body weight.

"There are very few comprehensive interventions, let alone single dietary factors, whose modification have led to changes in body weight," Ludwig said. "Identifying a single factor is quite remarkable."

While the tax strategy has reduced cigarette and alcohol use, there's no guarantee it would work with food.

Dr. Stephen Cook, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, does not think this 1-cent threshold is enough to drive down consumption.

A wiser approach, he said, would be to focus on the programs such a tax could benefit and to offset the price of healthier foods and drinks, such as fruits and vegetables and low-fat, non-flavored milk.

The beverage industry opposes a soda tax and also disputes the connection between consumption of sweetened drinks and obesity.

"Excise taxes on soft drinks simply do not reduce obesity rates," the American Beverage Association said in a statement issued Wednesday. "West Virginia and Arkansas are two prime examples -- both have excise taxes on soft drinks, yet rank fifth and sixth highest in the nation for obesity rates, " it said.

"Taxing soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages to reduce obesity is simply the wrong public policy for such a complex problem," the ABA said. Instead of "demonizing any one particular food or beverage," the government should promote nutrition education, the trade association said.

Would a soda tax be just the first of many such initiatives? Not so, according to Ludwig, who stressed that he does not have "a long list of other products that I'm ready to suggest taxing."

"I don't think we can make the argument that ice cream has anywhere near the negative impact that sugar-sweetened beverages do," he said. "We believe this is in a class by itself. It is a very discrete category with no health benefits, very strong evidence of harm and high consumption rates."

Some other nutrition experts support the proposal.

"I think this would make an impact," said Marianne Grant, a registered dietician and health educator at Texas A&M Health Science Center's Coastal Bend Health Education Center in Corpus Christi. "I've been hearing a lot about the need to attack the obesity epidemic like we attacked tobacco and smoking, and the only thing that significantly reduced the number of people smoking was the price of cigarettes."


I found this on sparkpeople.com
have a good day......
another day with out cokes......its 221 pm and have not had one
Tammy

Friday almost over and no cokes for me!!!!!! Almost at week 4...Sunday......I am doing this.

How is everyone else doing???