soda vs. food
 

I have a question. But first the backround info on my question.
When i am craving food i usually reach for some kind of drink to satisfy my stomache w/o eating cals. I drink a lot of soda cuz water gets really boring cuz of lack of flavor.

Well, i know that soda, diet or regular, is bad for you so i decided to stop drinking soda. So the roles switched. When i wanted a soda i would grab some food. :chockiss: :burger: (I do drink water but you can only drink so much in one day b4 u get sick of it). Well, i noticed that when trying to quite drinking soda i ate more than usual. :corn:I dont want his cuz i dont want to gain weight but i dont want to continue drinking soda.

Does someone have a solution to my problem? Food, or soda? Which is the better choice? I keep relating this to smokers:smoking: who almost always gain weight when they quit (even though im not quite that addicted.) What would be better to replace my food/soda cravings? Ive recently discovered green tea, so i drink a lot of that, but what else (that doesnt contain cals) is there other than water and tea?

Can't help ya much. I drink black coffee, green tea, water and diet coke.

Try Crystal Light. I like the Wal-Mart brand because it comes in grape, my favorite flavor. I dilute it quite a bit with water, add tons of ice cubes and drink it through a straw in a big 24 ounce plastic cup. Yummy. I don't let myself have one until I've filled the cup with water and dranken all of it though, first. Good luck!
Pam

Ok, I know this may sound kind of weird, but I swear I've gotten used to this and now miss it when I don't have it. A cup of 100% natural, unsweetened cranberry juice watered down to a half gallon. When I first started drinking it, it was at the suggestion of a particular diet plan author. It is supposed to help with flushing your system and keeping certain bacteria at bay, as well as changing your taste so you don't crave sugar so much. I find it really does help break up the monotony of plain water and I will even drink it hot in place of tea or coffee and occasionally will add some stevia to sweeten it like hot cider. :hug:

Maybe it's the carbonation in the soda that fills you up?

I drink a little tea, water, soy milk, and occassionally I'll buy higher quality juice - so 100% juice not from concentrate and yummy flavours like black cherry, mango, pineapple coconut, and so on.

Something I really enjoy is cold tea. Not left sitting out, but when you brew very strong fruit tea and then mix a little of the very strong brew with water/ice cubes. I find it tastes like a flavoured drink but is all water. You can sweeten it too - if you are cautious about calories that way, there are sweeteners that do not have calories - even stevia, as Karen just said, is healthy and does not contain any cals.

I quit soda cold turkey last January and "learned" to like plain water. I know it sounds like a pain-in-the-*** kind of "duh" advice, but it worked for me. The no flavor thing? It's an acquired taste, especially for the spoiled people who rely on sugary drinks, and in the long run it is better for you. As for the soda? Man! All through middle and high school I drank AT LEAST 2 bottles a day and several cans at night, then double that when friends were included. I loved the way the cold fiz hit the back of my throat. If I couldn't have it, I was sad, and unimpressed with boring water. I ate less whole food because soda fixed my cravings and filled me up for a while. I realized that sort of dependency is not healthy. Cold turkey is best, or slowly trade out- drink smaller cans of soda or juice and add more and more water. If tap doesn't suit you, try bottled, and if none of those do it? Try it iced. If that is too far of a stretch... you could resort to a no calorie additive.

If it's the carbonation that you're looking for, how about trying seltzer, either plain or it comes in a lot of flavors, lemon, orange, raspberry just to name a few? And it's zero calories, no artificial sweetners.

Yeah, I definitely don't suggest replacing soda with food. If you really can't handle plain water (and I used to hate it, too, but now I typically drink about 4 liters a day), I really like sugar-free Kool Aid (grape and fruit punch flavors are my favroties!).

On a side note, have you actually had any problems related to your consumption of diet soda? If your diet is nutritious and well-rounded in other areas, diet soda might not necessarily be the evil you believe it to be. Lots of people drink diet soda daily and never have problems because of it--just a thought :^:

Water can get boring after awhile. I add Crystal Light (on the go) or sometimes Wal-Mart's brand (on the go). Here lately I've used mainly Wal-Mart's cause it's cheaper. They have a new flavor out called Cherry Limeade. YUMMY!!

I am trying to give up diet drinks completely. I'm down to about 1 can a day. Buying the on the go packets have helped me cut down and back on the soda.

You will get used to drinking water if you do it - if you say it is boring? how can that be, do you mean tasteless? replacing it with food is certainly not the way to go or the soda routine either. Your body requires pure water to function. All the additives make your body work harder to get what it needs. Too many carbonated drinks can cause kidney stones...I had one 20+ years ago and haven't drunk anything carbonated since...worst pain in the world.

I'm also wondering if your cravings would lessen if you ate smaller meals more often.

There also are differences between 'taste hunger', 'head hunger' and 'growling stomach hunger'.

I use the crystal light on the go. About 1/2 a pack will give me the flavor I am looking for.

You can flavor your ice water a bit by adding frozen fruit to it - I like frozen raspberries or strawberries, sometimes lemon chunks. Do that to fizzy water and you've got almost-soda, but much healthier.

I've overcome my addiction to soda. As a teenager I used to drink 6 cans of soda per day. In the past few years I was down to 2 or 3, but it was still too much sugar and calories with no benefit.

At first I only allowed myself to have soda when I went out to eat (2 or 3 times a week). Not having it in the house was probably the best thing I did for myself. I tried everything I could think of to try to kick the habit... club soda (for the carbonation), tea with splenda, crystal light, sugar free koolaid, watered down juice, you name it. Eventually I think I managed to retrain myself. Now I know when I'm actually thirsty, and I reach for water. For some reason I like water better with ice cubes (maybe it's more entertaining).

I still crave carbonation, and for that reason I think when I want soda I will try diet. I've always hated the taste of aspartame, but now that I've weaned myself off full sugar soda, maybe it will seem better than it was before.

Maybe you're still having trouble realizing when you are THIRSTY instead of HUNGRY. I had that problem for a long time (and I probably still have it a little). It got better when I switched over to water. Suddenly I knew that water (not food or sugary soda) was what I wanted. I never just drank water growing up.

It took me a year of experimenting with other beverages to finally make peace with water.