My sweet addiction - advice please!

5kidsforme
5kidsforme Posts: 131 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone!

I'm addicted to Diet Mt. Dew. I drink about two 20 oz. bottles everyday. I get headaches if I don't drink it. I'm addicted to the fizz of the pop/soda and to the caffeine.

I am not a coffee drinkier but I do like tea.

Has anyone out there had a sucessful experience with cutting diet pop/soda out of their lives? What did you do? Any great natural subsitutes that have that fizz I'm looking for?

Should I just go without caffeine? Or should I drink tea instead?

I'm very good about drinking my water everyday.

Looking for help on how to get off of this stuff!

Thanks!

P.S. Please don't tell me how terrible aritficial sweetners are. I already know!!:bigsmile:
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Replies

  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
    Sounds like a caffeine addiction. You can get the fizz from low calorie sources- sparkling water or club soda or seltzer with a splash of fruit juice does the trick nicely. The headaches are from the caffeine withdrawal. Your choices are to either reduce your caffeine intake or make sure you get enough caffeine to avoid the headache. If you are going to reduce/eliminate the caffeine, gradually lessen how much you drink to avoid major headaches.
  • brneydgrlie
    brneydgrlie Posts: 464 Member
    Start cutting your Mt Dew with seltzer water. You can start with maybe a third, then half, and work your way down to water altogether.
  • 5kidsforme
    5kidsforme Posts: 131 Member
    bump!
  • Unknown
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  • 5kidsforme
    5kidsforme Posts: 131 Member
    Is your Diet Mt Dew making you crave other sweets? Are the rest of your calories OK? Yes, it's true artificial sweetener isn't great (especially aspartame) but two 20oz bottles a day isn't really that big of a deal. You are drinking your water, as you say.

    If you truly want to cut back, try switching to black tea to get your caffeine boost. Or, you may just have to go cold turkey on the caffeine. I did that a few years back to cut down on my caffeine. The headaches lasted for about 2-3 days but then I was fine.

    For fizzy, there's lots of flavored waters (Sparkling Ice is good) and there's that new appliance/gadget that allows you to make your own "soda" at home.

    Good luck!

    No, the Mt. Dew doesn't make me crave other sweets. That is pretty much under control. I'm doing fine with my calorie intake as well. Rarely have bad days. Usually stick with about 1,400-1,700 calories per day. I'm 5'9" tall, 45 years old, female and weigh about 156 lbs. I exercise 5 times a week and always eat about two thirds of my calories back.

    Thanks for the advice!
  • cwelch2677
    cwelch2677 Posts: 69 Member
    If you need the caffine try switching to diet green teas. I tried this for a while and it was a good substitute. Still has enough caffine to take the edge off :) Eventually, I fell back on my old reliable, diet coke, but I try to limit my intake to one can a day.
  • Discoveri
    Discoveri Posts: 435 Member
    Drinking soda in moderation is fine. This worked for me and you might want to give it a shot: I stopped buying sodas for the house and will only allow myself a diet coke if I am at a restaurant or in the car for a while. This really helped me get over the mental addiction to diet coke because I am still allowed to have it, but its no longer an all the time thing. You will get a headache the first few days but that goes away quickly. You will also be suprised by the fact that you will lose some pounds quickly just by cutting out the soda. I used to have 7-9 diet cokes a day and now I have 2-3 a week tops. Good luck!
  • 5kidsforme
    5kidsforme Posts: 131 Member
    I checked out Sparkling Ice online. It looks like it is sweetned with Splenda. Isn't that just as bad as aspartame?
  • ocukor1
    ocukor1 Posts: 66
    Start drinking coffee and sweeten it with Stevia.
  • caraiselite
    caraiselite Posts: 2,631 Member
    i love diet pepsi (not so much diet mountain dew, but i love the full sugar kind) and i don't think i'll ever stop drinking it.
  • caraiselite
    caraiselite Posts: 2,631 Member
    you could try zevia, but i think it tastes like (nasty) flavoured vodka
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  • ntaylorut
    ntaylorut Posts: 31 Member
    I have the exact same addiction to Diet M Dew. I drink 2 20oz bottles per day, I have to set my limit at that or I won't get my water in. I also make sure I get my water in, especially before and after I work out. I have no problem staying within my calories because Diet Dew has zero calories (or 10 per 20 oz bottle). As long as you don't crave chips or something else every time you drink it, you get your water in and you stay within your calorie goal I think it is just fine.
  • trudy45
    trudy45 Posts: 83
    I drank full fat coca cola since i was a child (and i never put on weight) i drank it out of my baby bottle and i am now 24 and still have no fillings!

    What did put weight on me was the eventual bad eating habits i took up while being ill and being stuck on steriods for 4 years solid, so now i have to cut back on everything :(

    What I did was, i cut it down because i got the shakes and had headaches too! I kept to having a glass for meal time at dinner say, if i needed more I took a drink but didnt down the whole bottlle! It has took me about 6 months to fully come off it but even now sometimes I crave the caffine! as i dont drink tea or coffee! But now i drink loads of water and coke doesnt seem to satisfy my thurst anymore!

    Just my 2 cents!
  • KellyL23
    KellyL23 Posts: 81 Member
    I have been caffiene and diet soda free for almost four years, and have never felt better. I drink decaf coffee (I know it has a little caffiene, but it is minimal), and I drink canned Polar seltzer water for fizzy drinks. They have so many kinds now. Plus I drink lots of plain water with lemon. I gave up caffiene for pregnancies, and liked how I felt not having it in my system. No more headaches and I am not jittery. <3
  • patchesgizmo
    patchesgizmo Posts: 244 Member
    I was like that with my morning bottle of Classic Coke. I stopped cold turkey, dealt with the withdrawals, by drinking straight black tea witha little sweetener sometimes. In about 2 weeks I was free of it.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    I'm a Mt. Dew addict and it was damned hard to cut it out after 37 years. Take it slow. Limit yourself to one bottle a day, then one every week, and so on. It's slow as a snail, but worked best for me because I didn't go nuts dealing with withdrawal symptoms.

    See if you can find a substitute, such as a fruit juice or carbonated water or tea. When you learn what it is about Diet Mt. Dew that you enjoy, you can find something to replace it.
  • AZKristi
    AZKristi Posts: 1,801 Member
    You can get carbonated water if you enjoy that. I would say to just slowly reduce your soda intake rather than trying to go cold turkey.
  • _Mimi_
    _Mimi_ Posts: 233
    I was a Pepsi-aholic, then a Coke Zero-aholic. If I can break the habit, anyone can!

    I honestly think the best thing for the sugar addiction is to get as much sugar out of your diet as possible...especially artificial sugar.

    As for the caffeine, the headache will go away. Tea is fine, hot or iced, as long as you drink it unsweetened. Again, this is just my approach. I found that artificial sugar was a HUGE trigger for me. Now that I haven't had more than a handful of sodas since the beginning of the year, an dNO soda or artificial sweetener in a month, I feel so much better, and more in control of my eating. The only sweetener I add is local honey.

    Likepretty much everything else, all you need in order to do it, is to want to do it. Good luck! You won't regret breaking the habit!
  • LindaCWy
    LindaCWy Posts: 463 Member
    Hi everyone!

    I'm addicted to Diet Mt. Dew. I drink about two 20 oz. bottles everyday. I get headaches if I don't drink it. I'm addicted to the fizz of the pop/soda and to the caffeine.

    I am not a coffee drinkier but I do like tea.

    Has anyone out there had a sucessful experience with cutting diet pop/soda out of their lives? What did you do? Any great natural subsitutes that have that fizz I'm looking for?

    Should I just go without caffeine? Or should I drink tea instead?

    I'm very good about drinking my water everyday.

    Looking for help on how to get off of this stuff!

    Thanks!

    P.S. Please don't tell me how terrible aritficial sweetners are. I already know!!:bigsmile:

    aLOT OF people have this addiction. My friend had it and decided to go cold turkey... she had a migraine for two weeks, cold swears, irritability, you name it. Her body was detoxing, just like a drug addict. They say to go cold turkey but to keep consuming caffeine so that your body doen't go too crazy. Either way it's going to suck for you, I would just do the cold turkey and pop advil.
  • 5kidsforme
    5kidsforme Posts: 131 Member
    I was a Pepsi-aholic, then a Coke Zero-aholic. If I can break the habit, anyone can!

    I honestly think the best thing for the sugar addiction is to get as much sugar out of your diet as possible...especially artificial sugar.

    As for the caffeine, the headache will go away. Tea is fine, hot or iced, as long as you drink it unsweetened. Again, this is just my approach. I found that artificial sugar was a HUGE trigger for me. Now that I haven't had more than a handful of sodas since the beginning of the year, an dNO soda or artificial sweetener in a month, I feel so much better, and more in control of my eating. The only sweetener I add is local honey.

    Likepretty much everything else, all you need in order to do it, is to want to do it. Good luck! You won't regret breaking the habit!


    Yes! You are so correct. I need to really want to do this. Right now it is my kids that are pressuring me to "kick the habit". They know artificial sweetners are not the best for you and they want me to be healthier and I want to set a good example for them. My two youngest daughters ALWAYS want pop and I only let them have it once a week BUT they see me drinking it all the time!!:embarassed: So I'm setting a pretty crappy example for them. :sad: Thanks for all the advice everyone!
  • theologynerd
    theologynerd Posts: 264 Member
    It is HARD to quit, but worth it. I tried all the replacement tricks that people talk about, but unfortunately, none of them worked for me. Sparkling water with juice was disgusting to me, but maybe you'll like it. Tea doesn't do anything for me other than to help with the caffeine headaches. Two months after I quit, I still wanted to punch someone in the face to get a Diet Coke. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I did make it. Now I can have one here or there and not go back to it, but it's still a battle. I always want one the next day after having one, and I have a mini struggle to "quit" again, but it is just a mini struggle. Good luck with it; it's for your health, and doing this will prove to yourself that you think you are worth all the trouble!
  • pinkgirlie4
    pinkgirlie4 Posts: 3
    i am drinking flavoured water sometimes sparkling sometimes flat which helps me quite a lot
  • 5kidsforme
    5kidsforme Posts: 131 Member
    [/quote]

    aLOT OF people have this addiction. My friend had it and decided to go cold turkey... she had a migraine for two weeks, cold swears, irritability, you name it. Her body was detoxing, just like a drug addict. They say to go cold turkey but to keep consuming caffeine so that your body doen't go too crazy. Either way it's going to suck for you, I would just do the cold turkey and pop advil.
    [/quote]

    I'm formulating a plan...pretty sure I just need to cut out the Mt. Dew and replace caffiene with ice tea. I might also try seltzer water. Maybe water down my Dew and see how that works. Maybe I can cut out 1 bottle by doing that. I'll try just one bottle today....

    All of my kids will be out of the house at camps, grandparents, etc. on July 9th. I'm thinking I will do this when they are gone!
  • pinthin87
    pinthin87 Posts: 296 Member
    I would say the best thing to do is kick it cold turkey. I used to drink Coca-cola everyday my sophomore year of college. When I decided to stop drinking it I did have headaches from the withdrawls. Get some Excedrine Migraine for when the headaches are really bad. One of the active ingredients is caffeine and it is just enough to stop the pain and help taper you off the caffeine. Hope this helps.
  • FuneralDiner
    FuneralDiner Posts: 438 Member
    I was addicted to caffeine my whole life. No kidding. Then I decided to cut it out because of health issues.

    I just went cold turkey. It's not as bad as it I thought it was be. First day or two is fine, then comes the headaches and drowsiness for a 2-3 days. That is the worst part and after that point, you have pretty much overcome your addiction.
  • 5kidsforme
    5kidsforme Posts: 131 Member
    It is HARD to quit, but worth it. I tried all the replacement tricks that people talk about, but unfortunately, none of them worked for me. Sparkling water with juice was disgusting to me, but maybe you'll like it. Tea doesn't do anything for me other than to help with the caffeine headaches. Two months after I quit, I still wanted to punch someone in the face to get a Diet Coke. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I did make it. Now I can have one here or there and not go back to it, but it's still a battle. I always want one the next day after having one, and I have a mini struggle to "quit" again, but it is just a mini struggle. Good luck with it; it's for your health, and doing this will prove to yourself that you think you are worth all the trouble!

    Thanks so much! I know I need to do this. My husband hasn't had a Mt. Dew in about two years and he still craves it!! He wont go near the stuff because it would be that easy to be hooked again for him. I need to do this for him too.
  • gamespriteicon
    gamespriteicon Posts: 66 Member
    I've never drank much soda but I do have the fizz cravings. I allow myself to have one can of soda once in a blue moon when I really want one, but I makes sure to limit to one can.

    I do have a substitute version which eliminates the guilt, which is sparking water with juice. You do need to add it to your grocery list or else you'll just go back to soda because it's available. I stay away from club soda's because the salt content is high. I normally by Perrier or Aqua Fina now has a sparkling version. They both taste good, and are even better mixed with whatever juice you have in the fridge. The portion of juice to sparkling water is up to your taste buds. I usually stop when the water has turned to juice color. V8 splash drinks, the lower calorie ones, are very good.

    I do recommend keeping the sparkling water & juice in the fridge as soon as you get them home. Ice waters the drink down so the less ice you need the better. If you want to dress it up some more add some fruit slices or frozen grapes or any other frozen fruit (take off the stem, wash, put into zip lock bag, then freezer), for fun. You can buy fruit in the freezer section also, they last for a longer time then fresh fruit left out on the counter or regular fridge.
  • vim_n_vigor
    vim_n_vigor Posts: 4,089 Member
    Have you tried slowly cutting back? I used to drink a lot and just phased it out over time. Now it is pretty occasional that I have one. I drink tea mostly which really compared to Mt. Dew may as well not have caffeine. I have heard people substituting sparkling water or that sort of thing to get the bubbles. I don't really like that though.
  • frogmommy
    frogmommy Posts: 151 Member
    I did a cold-turkey on my dietCoke, mostly to cut out the artificial sweetener. It was not easy, but after a couple days, the headaches went away. I still crave carbonation so I drink La Croix or low-sodium club soda. I still have an occasional diet Coke, but not several on a daily basis. I get my caffeine from unsweetened iced tea (and I am a coffee drinker in the morning).

    You can do it!

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