[ehayes0567]

Ok I finally did it i stopped drinking pop all together the other day. Now If you knew me you'ld know I was a pepsi addict somewhat. And its been 2 and a half days without a pepsi and I'm so going thru withdrawl. I drink lots of water and green iced tea. But I don't ever think I'll stop wanting a pepsi. I need serious help lol im addicted to pepsi.

[AmyMCGS]

In my case it's Mountain Dew, but, I totally understand where you're coming from. I drink it morning, noon, and night. I gave it up completely when I was pregnant, but, once I started drinking it again I haven't stopped. I go through spells where I'm down to one a day, but, other times, like today, I'll have three or four.

Hang in there! My friend gave up Pepsi, and she said it took two weeks, but after that, she felt great. In the meantime, remind yourself how many calories and how much sugar you're giving up-- that's sure to be good for weight loss-- maybe that will help! Good luck!!

[almostheaven]

Why give it up completely? Would it be easier to have it occasionally rather than completely dump it altogether or go overboard on it as a daily drink? Try limiting it and having it a few times a week so you don't have such withdrawals. As you become comfortable with not having it all the time, you might find you don't even particularly need it those few times you cut back to.

[dakotamidnight]

You might try doing what I did.

I couldn't have any pepsi until I'd drank 64 ounces of water first that day. And switching to diet will help too.

[squiggly]

I am having a hard time with pop as well. I was doing really good for a while and limited myself to one 20 oz Pepsi per week. I am unfortunately back to 44 oz a day. I started it back up again while on vacation and with the mindset that it was vacation and I was going to enjoy myself. I'm going to try to cut back on it as well. I know it does take a while to get used to not having it. I agree with almostheaven though. Don't completely cut it out but use it as an occasional treat and make it small. I know that when something is completely forbidden for me then i want it even more and am more likely to fail and do more of what I'm not supposed to do. I wish you well. YOu can do this and so can I.

[MorticiaAddams]

I was a Pepsi addict myself.
and its like Crack.
You have to ween yourself off it.
I stopped drinking pop and went to a extra sweet Tradwinds Tea.Trade Winds Then weened my self down to the just regular sweet tea and now im lucky if I have a couple of those a month im down to just water and Orange Juice.
I know where your coming from and giving up the pop is one of the best things you can do for yourself. I wouldnt even touch their diet pop. Not after what their regular product did to me. I would say after giving up the pop I dropped some weight at least 8 pounds came off.
Stay with it and dont ever look back !!!!

[gingerjen]

Giving up pop can be terribly hard, and painful in my case. I used to drink 4-6 20oz bottles of Diet Dr. Pepper a day. Back before Christmas I tried to stop cold turkey, I ended up with a migraine the second day. So I told myself I was going to ween myself off it slowly. That worked for a week before I was back full blast. When i decided to eat healthier and lose weight I knew that pop had to go completely. At this time I was down to about 2 a day so I knew I could cut it out completely. On May 24th I drank my last pop and haven't looked back. I now drink tons of plain tea, and water. I did have a drink of my husbands pepsi last weekend out of desperation cause we were in the car and my water was gone. It about brought tears to my eyes, so sweet and the carbonation was so much stronger than I remembered. I am glad I gave it up and the thing is I don't miss it anymore. Good luck.
Jen

[Canadian_Mickey]

Oh I totally hear you on the withdrawl....I decided that to cut back gradually is way better, then cold turkey. I used to drink about 4 bottles a week, and am now down to 1 1/2, and I've gone to Caffine Free Diet...so it weens me off the caffine and the headaches, but still feel like I'm getting Pepsi. It's a little better for you. Next week, I'll go down to one bottle a week, and the next, none....and see how I do.

[Knitting_a_Conundrum]

I used to be a coca-cola addict.

I have stopped drinking coke. What I have discovered I really like is Pepsi One, for some reason, and diet Mountain Dew...but I don't drink as much of either as I used to drink coke.

And when I found out how much sugar equivalent was in them, I stopped drinking the non-diet pops.

For me, it's tea, coffee (which I sweeten, but two teaspoons of sugar is a lot less than 17 teaspoons of sugar in a 20 ounce coke, so I don't feel guilty at all). and lots of water. And I feel better. One or two diet drinks a day.

I used to drink at least a 2 liter of coke a day when they first came out...which is one reason I am in the shape I am in.

But I did diet down once when I was about 20 to 125 lbs and drank a coke every day as my special treat. It is possible.

[ehayes0567]

Thank you all! It's nice to know I'm not the only one with this addiction. And as for gradually getting off it as opposed to cold turkey I know I'd crack with the Weening or few times a week. I'm a strong minded person but waeak when it comes to controling intake. Hence the reason I'm this weight.

[Universityprincess]

I am proud to say that I have been Diet Coke free for over a year now! It was hard at first, but I did it. Now its a sinch. As an aide in recovering from a Diet Coke addiction, I drank juice, flavored water and lots and lots and lots of tea. Pop or soda as you may call it, is really bad for you. The caffeine in it is terrible for your bones and some of the ingredients in it can actually rot your teeth! If you drink the kind with sugar in it, you end up drinking worthless liquid calories which we all know are not good when you are trying to lose weight.

[WastedThermos]

I was just thinking today that my Diet Coke "habit" is starting to make me feel like an addict. I think I started drinking so much so I could stay awake in class but now I like to drink it before/during work and pre-work out.
I had to stop drinking Diet Mountain Dew for a while because I started drinking so much that I would get dizzy at work!
I feel like I'm constantly walking the thin line with caffeine of being awake and being sick.

[almostheaven]

Another method you could try. What I did was to first change to caffein free. I already drank diet, but a case or more a week. After drinking caffein free for a couple or few weeks, I switched to the carbinated fruit waters, then from there to Fruit2O without the carbination, then to plain water. So I adjusted as I went along.

[haleys]

I don't really understand the whole addicted to soda thing because I don't really get a pick up from the caffeine, but oh well...Anyways, along with all the sugar and calories in soda, think about how bad it is for you in general! I've heard police officers sometimes keep Coca Cola in their car to help clean blood off of cement. I've also been told I need to dump Coca Cola on my battery because of the build-up of gunk. Why would you drink something that is so bad it can get build-up off of a car battery?? Maybe I just don't get it and I'm sure the drinkers of other sodas are gonna be like "wow thank goodness I don't drink Coke" but the other sodas are just as bad! Get some water and if you need some caffeine get some hot tea with caffeine.

[almostheaven]

Originally Posted by haleys

I've heard police officers sometimes keep Coca Cola in their car to help clean blood off of cement. I've also been told I need to dump Coca Cola on my battery because of the build-up of gunk.

http://www.mythbustersfanclub.com/ht...ied_alive.html

101 USES FOR COLA

Myth: Cola can be used for anything: cleaning blood, degreasing engines, cleaning chrome, dissolving a tooth, shining pennies - it can even be used as an effective spermicide!

Experts:
Dr. Paul Turek from the UCSF Medical Center weighs in on the myth of cola being used as a spermicide.

Quotable Moments:
Jamie: "It's aluminum foil."
Adam: "What did I say?"
Jamie: "Tin foil."
Adam: "Tin foil, aluminum foil...it's all the same!"
Jamie: "I thought you wanted to be scientific?"
Adam: "Just be quiet and scrub, Cinderella!"

Action/Results:

Test 1 - Cola as a blood stain remover: The boys spray some animal blood all over the parking lot outside and let it bake in the sun for a couple of hours. Once it's dried they treat one side with cola and the other with just water. They declare cola helped to remove the blood, but not much.

Test 2 - Cola as an effective chrome cleaner: The boys put cola to the test on an old truck's chrome bumper by comparing it with the leading chrome cleaner. They determine that scrubbing the bumper with aluminum foil and cola did a better job than the leading brand chrome cleaner.

Test 3 - Cola can free rusty bolts: Adam and Jamie soak a rag in cola and leave it on a rusty bolt on the truck's engine. After a few minutes they try to loosen the bolt, and are unable to. They find that cola doesn't do much to free rusty bolts, aside from making them sticky.

Test 4 - Cola can shine a penny: Cola is put up against pure phosphoric acid in the battle to shine a penny better. After 24 hours of soaking, the cola penny did appear to be brighter than the penny that soaked in acid.

Test 5 - Cola can dissolve a tooth in 24 hours: Two teeth are soaked for 24 hours, one in cola and one in phosphoric acid. The acid tooth is reduced to half it's original size, but the cola tooth just turns an ugly brown colour. Neither completely dissolves. Myth busted.

Test 6 - Cola can dissolve a T-Bone Steak: Two steaks are put in decanters, one covered in phosphoric acid and one covered in cola, and left for 48 hours. When time is up the boys try to pull the moldy steaks out of their respective containers and find that the acid steak falls apart, while the cola steak seems fairly tenderized (rancid, but softer). Neither steak is completely dissolved, so another myth is busted.

Test 7 - Cola can clean battery terminals: Adam and Jamie pit cola against baking soda and a toothbrush on two dirty car batteries. They find that cola and baking soda do just about the same job, but it's hard to tell if plain water doesn't do just as good of a job. Cola doesn't do anything spectacular.

Test 8 - Cola can remove greasy stains in your laundry: Jamie puts on a pair of clean coveralls and rolls around on the truck engine. Adam does his best to help Jamie get dirty. They put two different swatches of greasy coverall in different decanters, one with cola and one with a laundry detergent solution. After soaking for 48 hours the most the cola did was turn the material a nice brown colour. No grease was removed.

Test 9 - Cola as an engine degreaser: The boys cover the truck engine in cola, wait a spell and then rinse it off. They find that the cola may have removed some of the rust and corrosion, but didn't remove any of the grease.

Test 10 - Cola as an effective spermicide: Adam and Jamie take sperm samples (origin of samples unknown) and place them under a microscope. They add cola to some slides and saline solution to others. They count the number of live sperm in 60 second intervals and find that the number of live sperm in both saline and cola was relatively the same. With the help of Dr. Turek they determine that cola doesn't do much more than dilute the sperm.