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Now that I have your attention, lol, let me clarify:
SODA! I am addicted to Coca-cola, it's all I drink from the minute I wake up until I go to bed, literally. I have been somewhat successful in the past at giving up soda for a little while, but my addiction always comes back to rear its ugly head. I don't want to become addicted to diet sodas either, so my New Year's resolution is to cut sodas out completely. HELP!!!!
I know a lot of you bees love water and drink it like crazy, but I can't stand the non-taste of it. Is Crystal Light a healthy alternative, or is the fake sweetener in that something I should shy away from as well? Do you think quitting cold turkey is the best way to go? I'm not looking forward to the monster caffeine withdrawal headaches. Oh God, this is going to be hard. I need some support & encouragement, ladies!!!!
I quite coca cola cold turkey a few months back because it wasn't worth the extra calories! Now I only drink water (crystal light tastes like chemicals to me) but occasionally I'll have 1 soda on the weekends, that's all I allow myself though. You can do it! And I used to hate water too, but now I actually crave it...the more you drink the more your body wants!
When I cut back on soda, I drank the flavored sparkling water. The carbonation and flavor helped the cravings better than just water or crystal light.
ps - invest in excedrin for the headaches (it has caffeine in it), or ease off with tea.
You could do what I did, drink copious amounts of Southern Comfort, Bacardi, vodka and coke, and then proceed to get the sickest you've ever been in your life. I cannot even smell coke without feeling nauseous now!
:)
On a more realistic note, I would try to cut back a little at a time instead of stopping cold turkey. That should minimize the caffeine withdrawl.
@daydreamwanderer: Or midol/pamprin! I love PMS pills, haha, way better then plain ibuprphen!
LOL! You are so funny.
I know how bad the addiction to soda can be. I stopped cold turkey this past year for Lent and it was not fun. If you can quit cold turkey it would be great. If not, I'd try cutting down to two a day, one in the morning and one at dinner; from there I'd try cutting to one a day and then cutting it out all together. I also hate water...there's no taste, color, it's just blah. I like drinking Crystal Light and there are so many flavors, I'm sure you can find one you like.
But you CAN do it!! I also need to change so many things about my diet and soda is one thing I have to cut out :( Just think of the weight you might lose by cutting soda out...that's something I look forward to!
This is so my life - no advice for you cause I'm trying the same, but good luck!
maybe try water with a little bit of lemon juice or a slice of lemon or lime? i drink water all the time, but do that sometimes as an alternative. or i put fresh mint leaves in. it adds a little flavor but no (or negligible) calories. also sparkling water might ease the transition. you'll prob crave the caffeine too--unsweetened ice tea is better than soda.
I second the sparkling water idea. I used to be insanely addicted to Dr. Pepper, but I realized that it was the cool carbonation I wanted more than anything. Now I drink a ton of lemon and lime flavored mineral water (Trader Joe's makes a great one!) and love it. Just be sure you are getting flavored water that just has a hint of fruit oil in it (check to make sure it has 0 calories) - lots of flavored waters (especially generic grocery store brands) have as much sugar as soda!
I did this a few years ago, but rather than saying I was going to quit all together I just vowed to stop buying it for the house. So that meant water only from the grocery and that is what I drink when I'm at home. I'll have coke when I go out to dinner occasionally (which we do about 1/week). I try not to do it more than every other time... so basically I'm down to like 2 or so meals/month with coke.
Re: not liking water... I used to hate it too. I'd say maybe vow to drink ONLY plain water for 2 weeks and see if your taste buds re-align or something. Once I got off the habit of expecting a fizzy sweet drink and got used to water I actually don't mind it at all.
Gosh, I went into the kitchen to get a Coke and come back to a bunch of great comments, lol, thanks! It's good to know I'm not the only one struggling with this, so good luck to us all. I will definitely check into the sparkling water drinks, but too bad we don't have a Trader Joe's in my area. It seems like a great store.
When I think about all those empty calories I'm drinking in, it frightens the hell out of me. No wonder I've packed on so many pounds (thanks to a very sedentary lifestyle, too). So this is my first attempt at getting healthier (gotta lower this damn high BP) and happier and sexier. Thank you all for the advice & encouragement!
I'm a Diet Coke addict. Apparently the phenylalanine (NutraSweet) boosts dopamine levels, and caffeine does the same. One of my New Year's resolutions includes cutting back on the soda and drinking more water!
I add a little (like 1/4 cup to one of the 1 L bottles) cranberry juice to my water to give it some flavor and I love it! It's also supposed to be good for your metabolism (according to my trainer). But you have to buy the expensive organic cranberry juice, not the cheap, sugary stuff. It's $8-$9 for a bottle but you go through it slowly when it is only a 1/4 cup at a time.
@MandaMack: Oh man, that is SO true--I've been forcing myself to drink a ton lately, and your body really does start to crave it. It's weird.
True Lemon! It's awesome and delicious- all natural.
They sell it in one grocery store where I live, but if you can't find it, order it online, they always have specials. They also have lime and orange, but I think the lemon is the best. :)
Rather than try to quit cold turkey or cut down the number of cans per day, you could try mixing regular coke and caffeine free coke. Start with 3/4 regular, 1/4 caffeine free, then move to 1/2 and 1/2, 1/4 and 3/4 then totally caffeine free.
Next do the same thing with sugar free coke. Sometimes it's too hard to quit 2 things together- caffeine and sugar.
After you are done with the caffeine and sugar, then switch to water. PP's have posted some great suggestions for flovored water.
It had to happen cold turkey for me. The first 2 weeks were really tough, but I felt soooo much better not drinking it all the time! Now, I allow myself to have it when we eat out (which isn't often) but don't buy it for the house. That keeps me down to like one glass a week!
I will say that I LOVE pop... I only drink diet now, regular once in a blue moon. I have cut back to only 1 pop a day and the rest of the day I consume LOTS of water. I used to think the non-taste of water was boring, but if it's ice cold, it truly is good... plus it makes you feel so much better! It's crazy. I have been on a water kick for awhile now,... I mean drinking like close to 100 oz a day! I love it. I think I just love it b/c I know it's good for me:)
I've been cutting out soda and alcohol, and what has worked best for me is club soda and lemon juice. It has the carbonation of a soda but I drink it in a glass like I'd drink a Tom Collins in... which it essentially is, minus the syrup and gin!
Do you like non-sweetened iced tea? That helped me in 2007-2008 break my Diet Coke addiction. Water with lemon and/or lime helps too.
Unfortunately, back in 2008 about 3 weeks into grad school I fell off the Diet Coke-wagon. I don't drink nearly as much as I used to, but definitely need to start weening off of it agin.
Good luck! You can do it!
Oh and I forgot to say - since I'm again in the process of kicking Coke (which I have been successful with for about... 6 hours now) and I hate plain water, I run out and buy a big thing of water bottles and my favorite Crystal Light flavor packets (half strawberry + half lemonade is delicious), and then make myself drink a glass of water for every glass of Coke I have. Even halving how much you drink cuts your mental addiction to it, and you don't have the immediate caffeine effects like if you go cold turkey :)
I'm a diet coke addict. Its REALLY bad. Its something I know I'm going to have to break at some point. For me, its not the taste that I crave, its the actual caffine. I think alot of people don't realize that caffine IS a drug. It has awful side affects when stopped cold turkey. If I go a day without any caffine I get major migraines. Something that I have done before to cut back is take an Excedrin Migraine in the morning with a half a cup of Diet Coke. That gets me through half the day. And then at dinner time I would let myself have another Diet Coke for dinner.
Its all about weaning. Your body will go into shock if you deprive it of something it has gotten addicted too. Good luck! I know this is so hard!!!!
I used to be unable to stand the non-taste of water too! But you can learn to love it! I quit drinking so much pop and juice by being a poor college student. Water is free, and I always brought a big Nalgene bottle full of it to school with me. Now I prefer the non-taste of water over pop or juice, which I find too sweet now.
I don't know what you can do about the caffeine aspect though. Maybe drink tea instead?
I am actually astonished at how many people feel they are addicted to pop (diet or regular). My FMIL is totally addicted to Diet Coke and it makes me shudder every time she opens a can of it.
I can't seem to locate the exact article now, but I remember reading about a woman who sued Pepsi after her cancer diagnosis was linked to the disgusting chemicals in the Diet Pepsi she had been drinking. I guess she ended up getting money to pretty much 'shut up about it' in the end.
On top of that, there is this article about soda and other sugary drinks that I would recommend taking a look at.
I feel really fired up about this particular issue because I was just talking about it with SO the other night and it just freaks me out how many people don't realize how bad these drinks are for their bodies. Not to mention issues like the ones presented in this.
I will mention that I used to drink tons of coffee but quit cold turkey one day and it obviously wasn't a great feeling at first, but I knew that suffering through the migraines was better than to keep drinking coffee.
ETA: Just try adding a slice of lime or some fresh mint leaves to water. I used to hate drinking it too, but it's clearly just something we need to get over.
Coke has so many chemicals in it... it's nothing like it used to be years ago.
My suggestion, either switch to a "whole food" cola with cane sugar and natural ingredients, or swap out with seltzer water and juice mixes.
I'm not too keen on the artificial sweetener/artificial flavor stuff. This country has really gone downhill with both obesity and medical problems and, frankly, I think a lot of it has to do with genetic engineering/chemicals. :/
@artichokesalad: Is there really like an "organic" cola? Does it still have caffine? I agree with all the artificial stuff that is put into food makes it horrible. I *try* to live by the rule "If there is something on the ingredients that I can't pronounce or know what it is then I don't eat it". I'm not too good at following my own rules though =/
I had to quit cold turkey. To stave off the caffeine headaches, I drank a lot of green tea, which I later cut back on (I have one cup a day now). To satisfy the carbonation and sugar cravings, I drank sparkling water mixed with fruit juice. The few times I let myself have a little bit of cola, I went all crazy and had to start over again, so I can't gradually cut back.
@MissFlipFlops: Do you ever shop at Whole Foods? They sell Blue Sky Soda, which is all natural (uses real sugar, has no caffeine), and some of their sodas are organic. It has more calories than Coca-Cola, though. Their diet soda is made with stevia, which is also a natural sweetener. It tastes exactly like Diet Coke (which I can't stand ;).
I'm planning to give it up cold turkey for the new year. I can enjoy for a couple of days. LOL I've tried before and agree with the exedrine tip.
@MissFlipFlops: Whole Foods has some, and there are various mom and pops that carry them, too. It's amazing how different they taste - after a while you get used to it, and I doubt you'd drink Coke again. If I buy a can of Coke now, I have like 4 sips and end up tossing it. 6 years ago I'd drink a 20 oz bottle, no problem.
Same thing with most other 'enhanced' foods. As soon as you switch to the healther option, you start noticing the chemicals and fillers used in the mainstream products.
My fiance I thought I could never convert, but now he can taste the difference between things... surprisingly, because not only does he love his junk food - he also can't cook. It's seldom he'll even eat packaged anything unless we get it from Trader Joe's or it's made with whole ingredients.
I feel your pain! I am an addict of Coke Zero. I would drink 4-6 cans of diet soda a day. I also get kidney stones like no other, and my FI was concerned at the amount I drink each day. I also do not like drinking water.
However, I got over it. I got some water bottles that I love (they're made by CamelBack). Putting my water in that made it seem like a treat! I was much, much more likely to drink it then. I also kept it really cold, too. Sometimes, if I missed having flavor, I would mix Crystal Light with diet white soda, so there was still some fizz and carbonation, but no caffeine.
It was tough for awhile, but the water bottle trick was what really helped me. I'm down to about 1-3 sodas a week. It's been a little higher with the holidays, but it hasn't been too hard to go back.
I stopped for a few months and noticed how dramatically different I felt. I had such few tummy aches it was great. I did it cold turkey and it was hard but after a while when I had a soda it tasted really thick and wierd. Now I am drinking only when I go out to eat or only rarely at home. Good luck! Im gonna try stopping again too!!
@florence: Whoa, those are some thought-provoking & scary articles, thanks for sharing. I appreciate your suggestions along with everyone else's comments & support!
Thanks, bees, we can do this! I'm off to go look up some cool water bottles now, lol.....
wow, those are a lot of great suggestions from the PP's!
One thing i wanted to add is that i used to hate drinking water. Then when my FI moved in, he convinced me to try getting one of those water filters that hooks right on to the faucet. It made such a big difference! I dont know what's actually getting filtered out of our city's water, but i can taste the difference, and almost exclusively drink water when i'm at home these days!
I love love Coca Cola. Especially in the can, it's the best. Only regular though. I hate Diet and Caffeine Free, Cherry, Lime, etc. Yucky. Don't even talk to me about Pepsi or the store brand Coke. 
I use to drink WAY more in my teen years. Probably 6-7 cans per day. Now I'm down to maybe 1 glass every couple days. I could never quit Coke cold turkey! Except during pregnancy. :)
I believe in moderation. :)
City water is sooo gross... ours is at least! can't stand it. We have a filter container that goes in the fridge but I dont' even drink that (I have a weird phobia of drinking out of cups) I stick w/bottled water!
I used to drink a ton of soda and one day decided to quit since it's so unhealthy. I craved it so badly for the longest time, but eventually you stop craving it. Occasionally I'll let myself have one soda at a party or something, but for the most part I just stay away from it so I don't get hooked again.
drink fruit juice instead. and by fruit juice i mean 100% juice rather than the cheapie juice cocktails than only have one drop of real juice mixed in with lots of sugar, coloring and artificial flavors.
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