I admit, I am addicted to soda/pop. Not so much for the taste, but for the caffeine. I tried cutting it out but I get the worst caffeine-withdrawal migraines! So I then decided to try switching to diet for now, at least just to avoid the empty calories while still getting my caffeine fix, but this caused migraines too. I think I may be sensitive to aspartame??
I am not a coffee drinker because it hurts my stomach, and don't like tea without sugar and cream (so much so that I get asked if I would like some tea with my cup of cream and sugar!). Does anyone have any low-calorie alternatives that contain caffeine but no artificial sweetener?
My sister had the same issue when she was trying to cut out soda, the lack of caffeine would give her migraines and it was not pretty. She managed to ditch the soda by taking a light dosage of caffeine pills.. maybe not the healthiest of all options, but for her it was better to do that than drink tons of soda every day or to transfer the addiction to coffee (which still would be more caffeine than she's consuming now in the pills). Just something to consider!
Hmm, I didn't think about pills. Like yous said, not the best option, but certainly better than all those empty calories! Maybe I can take them until I have a long weekend off from work and school and just deal with the crazy withdrawal migraine alone at home for a few days lol.
Haha yeah, if you can wean yourself off of it that's definitely the best option! But my sister absolutely insists that she cannot function without at least a little caffeine, so one pill in place of like six sodas a day is a decent trade off I think.
Another way is to cut back over time instead of cold turkey. You might try cutting your normal amount in half or by one third for a few days. Then, cutting it in half again...etc until you are drinking only a 12 oz can each day. Then, go to those little 8oz cans or a can every other day. I have done this before and it works. You drink just enough to keep yourself from getting a headache. After 10-14 days you should be able to quit completely without getting any headache at all.
Green tea with lemon. It's not the kind of tea that you need to add cream to, it can be served cold and you can throw in as much sweetner as you want but you dont need to add any.
I quit cold turkey and it was so rough! I was a massive Mountain Dew addict! I am proud to say I have been Dew free since before January!
I had to quit cold turkey. I couldn't wean myself off slowly because I just "couldn't drink a little less." I tried that and it didn't work for me. I hope it works for you!
Once you ditch the soda and break that hold it has on you, you will feel so good!!
There are lots of different teas. I didn't like tea either, but when I finally got off soda, I switched to tea. One important trick: don't overbrew it. For most teas, 3 minutes is plenty -- I use a timer because otherwise I forget about it.
Here are some teas, I've liked:
chocolate creme tea (sold by a local tea lady at the Farmers Market)
Blueberry and Pomegranate Green Tea (Trader Joe's)
Lapsang souchong (a traditional tea made from smoked leaves)
And, of course, the more tea I drink, the more I get used to it, and the more I like tea.
Last edited by gardenerjoy; 08-31-2013 at 09:30 AM.
I sooo could have written your exact post a few years ago except for the migraines. Also, I have severe hay fever type allergies and both the allergies and the antihistamines I treat them with make me a bit tired, so I use caffeine to counteract them. Here is a few things I have found:
I still think black tea is nasty but sometimes I just gulp it down to get the caffeine.
I have found some green teas that I don't exactly love but they are tolerable and mild so I drink them. Find some with added ingredients that you do like. I personally am a sweet tooth and so I look for ones with fruit added. I think my favorite that I have found is a Mandarin Orange Green Tea by Lipton. I also like the Private Selection (Kroger Brand) Citrus Green Tea. Another good one is Tazo Green Tea with Spearmint. Just experiment until you can find a green or possibly a white tea that you can tolerate.
Second, look carefully through the various varieties of Crystal Light and Lipton and other similar brands drink packets, you know, the little powdered "mix with water" things. While most have artificial sweetners, there are a few that are sweetened with honey. They do have some calories but it would still be drastically less than soda. If I recall correctly, the ones I have had vary between 5 and 20 calories for an 8 oz serving. Also some have artificial sweetners that are not aspartame. I just went to my pantry to find my favorite one, Lipton Tea & Honey Iced Green Tea in Mango Pineapple and it is sweetened with honey granules, citric acid, and sucralose but has no aspartame and is 5 calories per 8 oz serving.
Good luck, I hope you find something that works for you.
Sometimes I make my own soda with seltzer water. I dissolve stevia in water, add a dash of vanilla or lemon juice, and pour the mixture into the seltzer water. It's not exactly the same as soda, but it's a good substitute! My dad (who is a total junk food junkie and regular soda-drinker) said my vanilla seltzer tasted really good - like cream soda!
If you only like hot tea with cream and sugar, why not switch to cold-brew/iced tea? Still has caffeine and if you get the right kind it's flavorful without added sweetener/sugar.
My problem isn't soda in general, it's mostly just cola. I love diet coke! If I could find a way to have diet cola without all the crap in it, I would totally do it. I always hate when people say, "Drink water or tea!" instead because what I love about diet cola is the fact that it's carbonated and has the cola flavor that I enjoy, and there is no real substitute for that that would satisfy my craving. So I just say screw it and drink the damn diet coke. XD
I'm still a soda addict, but trying to go the diet soda route for the time being. I have cheat days on weekends, so I usually drink regular soda on those days, but I'm slowly cutting it out on even those days.
It's hard and I too get headaches, and the caffeine helps when I need to work overnight at my job(s), but all of that sugar and calories is not helping me lose weight, and that's what I think about the most.
Migrane strength aspirin is pretty effective for me. It has a fair amount of caffeine in it. I try not to take it every time, because at some point you just have to push through it. But if the headache is really bad, or I have something to do that it's holding me back from, I'll take the aspirin.
I appreciate all the replies and advice. I'm definitely going to try some tea flavors that were suggested...those sound yummy. As for green tea...I was a flight attendant for 12 years and I traveled to Japan extensively. We brewed and served green tea on those flights like it was going out of style, so now any time I smell it it nauseates me! It's really too bad, though, because I actually used to like it way back when. Oh, and in case anyone's wondering, my flight career is how I became a soda addict, unfortunately. Countless hours inflight with not much to do in between service = absent-mindedly eating sodium-filled airline food and drinking tons of soda that is available in unlimited quantities.
For the person who mentioned Excedrin Migraine, that stuff is amazing. For my typical pre-TOM migraines each month those work wonders, but for some reason they didn't make a dent in the migraines I suffer during caffeine-withdrawal.
I would love to be able to just push through the migraine pain for a few days and finally be free of this addiction, but I'm an RN student and the amount of reading and homework I have to do is insane, so I know right now I couldn't deal with that.
Soda-holic!
