Hey everyone! I hope you all are having a good morning!

I am trying to start with some small goals to get me back on track. Right now I started with one huge one for me! I am cutting out soda. I realize I am drinking SO many calories! And that stuff is so bad for me.

The only thing is I really feel so addicted to it and I get headaches. Does anyone know how long it lasts?

I don't like diet drinks. And for some reason aspartame and me do not get along! I get really sick from it.

So, what did you use for a substitute to drink besides water?

Yes it is amazing how many calories you can drink!

Personally, I love diet coke. It's actually a bit of a problem I think, but right now I am tackling one problem at a time, so I'm not worrying about it. However I do also try to switch in crystal lite here and there...and I believe the sweetener there is splenda, I don't know how you do with that one. I also drink tea once or twice a day with splenda too...I find that flavour really helps me to feel I'm having a treat.

Hopefully others have better suggestions of healthier drink and/or sweetener options (maybe I can learn too!).

I like the diet coke with splenda, And I drink tons of coffee.

It's so funny how different we all are.

Even at my heaviest, I never drank my calories. I liked chewing them. I was one of those who would devour a huge amount of food and wash it down with water. Drinking my calories always seemed like such a waste.

Anyway, I do like my water. But there's also seltzer, plain and flavored. I'm a big fan of hot herbal tea. I like Nestles 20 calorie hot chocolate. And I do drink diet sodas.

You can absolutely, positively conquer this. You might have a few rough days, but they will pass. Push yourself. Work past the discomfort of losing old bad habits and establishing new healthy ones. The rewards are just that great, it is worth any and every inconvenience you may have.

This is a great first step. Keep putting one foot in front of the other and you will get there.

I drink plain old black coffee...and if I'm really being daring I might put a teaspoon of vanilla in the pot after it's brewed. And today my cup was sitting close to my oatmeal when I sprinkled cinnamon on it and some of the cinnamon ended up floating on top of my coffee. Wow, that was good! Might have to do that a little more often.

Oh and Diet Rite cola is caffeine free and sweetened with splenda if you can tolerate that.

Thankfully I was never a big pop drinker...unless there was a big splash of whiskey in it. And even then, I've always drank diet since the old TAB and Freska days. I'm old!

I'm a big fan of green tea. Tastes good (to me) hot or iced with a bit of splenda.

I get terrible headaches when I stop drinking soda also. I'm used to the taste of diet coke/pepsi, however I MUCH prefer coke zero and pepsi one - tastes closer to the regular stuff (but still has aspartame - have you tried zero and one?)

Honestly, I only drink water. I've never been a coffee drinker so diet coke was always my "go to".

Perhaps you can limit your soda intake? One a day or every 2 days? I Know buying cans instead of liters GREATLY reduced my intake. I can easily go through 1 or 2 liters in a day, but with cans I limit myself to one or two, if any.

The headaches are from caffeine withdrawal. You can get caffeine from coffee or black tea (not herbal tea) and wean yourself off it. (I drink several cups of coffee in a day so I am not a person to be talking about weaning off of caffeine!) If you can't stand coffee or tea, and you want to kick the soda habit while managing the caffeine symptoms, you can take Excedrin. Specifically Excedrin - not Advil or some other brand. Excedrin is a blend of caffeine and acetominophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol). The Excedrin will help you cope with the headaches at first.

Also, for a substitute for the feeling of soda, try some flavored (no-calorie) sparkling water. There are many different brands, and many different flavors that all taste good to different people. Some are sweetened, and others are just flavored without sweetness. I think the Poland Spring orange and lime flavors (not sweetened) are not too bad, but you may have to try a bunch of different ones to find one you like.

It's ironic that caffeine can both cause headaches (if you're addicted to it and stop) and help them (migraines, if it's not caffeine that causes them in the first place!) You should check if there's caffeine in those sodas you're drinking.

Luckily, I've never been a soda drinker (although that also means I can't quit drinking it to help me lose weight LOL). What I do enjoy aside from water is herbal teas (hot or cold) and fruit juice with soda water. And coffee, been drinking it since I was about three, and had a caregiver who though cafe au lait was no worse than pop or hot chocolate (she was right!) . Strangely enough, caffeine doesn't bother me and I can quit drinking coffee for weeks with no ill effects. It's drinking it without cream that's getting to me! So yeah, coffee, regular or decaf, hot or iced.

I can't have artificial sweeteners either, so I had to give up pop as well. You get used to it. I drink water and green tea (cold) with stevia. Green tea has the caffeine, so it can replace the pop.

Being poor was the best thing that ever happened to me, in terms of drinking my calories. In my first years of university I drank a lot of fruit juice, a lot of Kool-Aid, milk, and iced tea. I have never really loved soda, so I had it sometimes but not often, and I liked it flat and warm, so I barely bothered with it if it was cold and fizzy. My third year, however, I had a more expensive apartment, a smaller student loan, more expenses, and basically less money to burn. What this meant was I stopped drinking pretty much everything except water. I would buy milk, but use it sparingly. At first it was a budgetary thing, but it soon because a habit I love and have kept up since. There is always a pitcher of water in my fridge, nice and cold, and I have a water bottle on me at all times so wherever I am I can fill it up. I don't even get anything else at restaurants. It's free to get water, which is why I started ordering it, and now it's all I want! Not sure if you can apply the same things to your situation, just wanted to tell my experience with cutting out the liquid calories.

I will admit, however, that I have a real penchant for Starbucks that I had to temper while I worked there... I realised I had become a once or twice a day Starbucks customer, ordering lattes and mochas and frappuccinos... they add up fast, especially when you're getting any size you want for free throughout your work day! I made a list of Starbucks drinks under 200 calories that were my only permissable indulgences, and that became habit too. I never order anything beyond that limit now! It's just planning and dedication, I think.

I was a huge Dr. Pepper addict. It was some serious stuff. It's a running joke in my family that I could drink for the rest of my life and never eat again. I had to cut back gradually and then I was able to switch to diet drinks. I had horrible headaches for weeks, but I made it through with the help of liquid gel Advils. I do drink some caffeine free diet Pepsi and Coke Zero...I actually can hardly tell the difference now. You may be able to tolerate the diet sodas with Splenda.

Sorry--didn't really answer your question. Iced tea with Splenda helped me feel like I was drinking my "treats" and it kept my burning desire to drink soda at bay....now I drink mostly water with lemon.

Aaack! I LOVE Diet Pepsi! Morning, noon and night! Ice cold and fizzy, it's my very bad habit, so it is hard to quit it. I understand completely!

I quit cold turkey once when I did Atkins. I survived, I know I can do it, but the thought of not being able to have it, just killed me everyday. Pile on the caffeine headache from the withdrawls and it just made me want it MORE!

I have allowed myself one Diet Pepsi at Dinner. It is my reward for not having it all day. I relish it. I sip it and try not to guzzle it down with my food, because like my food portions I have scaled it down and only get one.

I thought I hated water. I don't. I will drink anything as long as it is ICE COLD. So I make sure I pack my water with lots of ice in the morning to last me till lunch. And then I go to the cafeteria and fill up a big Styrofoam cup with ice and continue drinking water.

I have also just started making my own herbal tea and drinking them cold with a little sweetner. I like that Lipton Diet citrus tea, but its too pricey to buy on a regular basis because my kids will down it in no time flat. So I bought one, drank that and then saved the container. I brewed green tea in it and peeled the rind off some oranges and stuck those in there too. I left it overnight and in the morning I added some sweetner (stevia) to a big glass with ice and it was FANTASTIC! My kids even loved it! Since then I have tried Pomegranate, Peach, Honey Vanilla Chamomile and a Vanilla Caramel that is a Starbucks substitute. They are better than soda and cheaper and taste pretty darn good with a lot less calories than a normal soda would be.

Maybe you could experiment and try something like that too?

I drink TEA!
Iced, Green, Green & Iced!

It's cheap and all natural.

Once I started keeping track I found out that I was drinking 2000+ calories a week in 2% milk, and another 2000+ a week in beer and wine.

I lost almost 10 pounds instantly when I stopped those!

Good luck

Thanks everyone! Great ideas!

I looked the other day at a Large coke from a fast food place and OMG! 300-400 calories! Insane! And that is just one drink! Think of all the others you could drink a day.

Again thanks! : )