Hi all,

this is my second post. I'm new here but from what I've read you all are absolutely amazing people. Besides my question, I'll just briefly introduce myself..

My name is Emily and I'm 18. I currently weigh 317.5 lbs. I've been down the weight loss road many times, just like a lot of you. 2 years ago I lost a lot of weight and then gained it back plus more.. I guess that's a fairly typical story even though most of the time I feel so alone.

I've been doing well for the past week but one thing I've noticed in the past is each time I have lost some weight my diet pepsi consumption drastically increases. This gets expensive after a while and all the aspartame kind of scares me, but I'm just so addicted I guess.

I'm thinking about weining myself off of it completely and just drinking water (along with 2 glasses of 1% milk a day for the calcium.. even though I'm not nuts on milk ).

Is this a good idea, or what are your inputs on this? Have any of you done this and how did it go? Are you healthier without the diet pepsi? Less tired? etc. Any advice or comments are very much appreciated.

Regards,
-Emily

Welcome!

With me it was diet Coke, and I feel much better without it besides saving money. I quit cold turkey, and if you do that, I advise having a big bottle of Advil or Tylenol on hand because, more than likely, you'll get a major headache. You'll feel tired at first, but you won't have those big highs and lows and eventually your body will adjust and you'll feel much better, IMHO. I haven't had a diet Coke in years now, and drink water only. I like it with a slice of lemon.

If you don't like milk, how about fat-free yogurt and some calcium supplements? Or make a smoothie with skim milk and frozen berries?

I gave up caffeine once (I only have small amounts now). I was drinking a whole lot of Mt. Dew everyday. I had some really bad headaches from it and really bad fatigue when I gave it up. I can't remember how long that lasted. I don't think it was to bad. Giving up the Diet soda is a good thing. I don't choose to give up diet soda all together yet, although I do drink more diet sprite now to cut the caffeine. I still like to have Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke in moderation.

I used to drink 6 cans of coke a day (I was super addicted) and then one day I stopped cold turkey and I drank nothing but water for a couple months. After that, I started to drink diet sodas, iced tea, and other sugar free drinks and I was fine with that. (Sadly, I didn't even lose any weight when i stopped drinking coke)

I think the principle may be the same if you are trying to quit drinking sodas (diet pepsi), just quit and don't tempt yourself with it and try that for a couple months and see how you feel.

Like everyone else said, you're going to have headaches for a few days when you quit cold turkey. It's the caffeine withdrawals; it's the same if you give up coffee. One thing you will notice, though, is that water retention and breast tenderness around that time of the month will decrease drastically. I always notice that the more caffiene I drink, the worse my periods are.

You won't get the headaches as bad if you switch to UNSWEETENED iced tea--NOT DIET.

It has some caffeine, and 0 calories. Much better for you. I am a big cheapskate, so I buy mine powdered & mix it up.

http://www.nestea.com/product_disp.asp?prod_id=3

Good luck!!

I got so into the habit of drinking water that that drinking Diet Coke got really rare and I barely noticed (I used to down that stuff like there was no tomorrow). I can't go cold turkey with the coffee though- but I've cut back. I DO notice that I'm not as jumpy/nervous (even though I kind of am by nature, it definitely magnified it!) anyway, welcome and good luck!!

Well its funny that I'm reading this post now, since Steve just handed me a Diet Vanilla Coke on Ice. However, I can totally relate with all you, I used to be totally addicted to Pepsi, I would crave the taste more than anything if I went without it. When I restarted my plan at the end of June, I gave it up... switched to Diet Pop and now I don't notice the difference. BUT... I'm not at the point where I can give it up yet. I only have the 1 can per day with my lunch, however the aspartame does worry me as well and Steve gives me heck about it. But, my response is its probably healthier to have a little aspartame than being very overweight?!

Sooooo, congrats to those that gave it up! And, good luck to those that are trying! Im sure I'll be joining you soon but I'm not ready yet, as its something I rely on while trying to stay on plan. I can't drink only water.. I will feel deprived!

Hi Emily
I was a Cherry Pepsi woman.(non diet) When I started WW I knew I had to stop drinking it. I read about aspartame on one of the threads here. It scared me! So I looked for a diet pop with out it. I only found one so far. Diet Rite. (Black Cherry is my fav.) It's sweetened with Splenda. Which is maded from sugar. http://www.splenda.com I liked it so much I went out a bought some to sweeten my tea. I have a hard time drinking just plain water. So I add cut up lemon, lime or oranges to my bottled water and a bit of splenda. I really like it! Plus it's 0 cals. I didn't get headaches maybe because I was drinking tea.
Once again welcome to 3FC
Mez

I wanted to echo Mezmerize's advice to add lemon or lime to your water...my whole family, even my iced tea-loving father, drinks water with lemon juice and ice. It is incredibly refreshing without having that "waxy" flavor that the cut-up fruit can sometimes add.

I also wanted to welcome you to this wonderful gathering, and I look forward to sharing in your journey.

Thank you all for your responses and advice!

I had my last diet pepsi last night, and I've already had a bottle of water this morning, I think I will take your advice and try a bit of lemon in it and see how it tastes.

Hopefully I don't withdraw TOO much, and I do have a bottle of advil incase the headaches start (thanks for the heads up). So here goes...



-Emily

First off, WELCOME! It's great to have you here among us! As for the Diet Pepsi, good job on cutting it out of you diet. It's CRAP and it is NOT your friend! You'll get used to the water, I promise....and you'll end up devising creative ways to flavor it in a way that's good for your body. After drinking literally NOTHING but water for 4 months, I decided to add the lemon juice and some other juices that don't disrupt my low-glycemic routine, like the leftover juice from my thawed frozen unsweetened blueberries, raspberries, strawberies, and mixed berries. Just a teensy bit goes a long way to give it a burst of interesting flavor. (Of course, to me they're all pretty exciting to me after nothing but water! )

Soda just holds no appeal to me now -- it's nothing but chemicals and additives. If I want something bubbly, then I drink carbonated lemon water...and I'll add a teensy bit of the aforementioned juice if I feel like it. Usually it's completely satisfying with just the bubbles and lemon flavor though!

Stick it out, and give yourself a chance to adapt to the change --- your body will thank you for it, I promise.

Oh yeah, one quick thing I forgot to mention: if you do buy bubbly water, make sure it's not full of sodium. Some of them are, and you want to be careful not to go that route.