Well, as you can see by the thread name, this is what i suffer from the worst. I have NO willpower when it comes to pop, and the one that i love the most? Pepsi. Thats right, for me nothing hits the spot better then when i have my daily pop fix.
And i have been noticing that i have been drinking more of it on a daily basis. I try to cut down. Drink one can a day, go to coke zero or diet coke, but i love pepsi so much...
I feel like a druggie who doesn't get their fix in the end of the day if i haven't had a drink.

I really need help.

Has anyone else have something that wasn't good for them or their diet and had to give it up? i really need some pointers on this one.

I know exactly where you're coming from. My biggest craving is Coke and it's not because of the caffeine, because I drink the caff-free stuff. I just love the taste and always have-but not the "new" Coke from the 80's! All I can say is that I just have to not drink it. I keep the pop in the fridge in the basement so I don't see it when I cook. I order water in restaurants and just don't drink any kind of pop (no diet, either, because all that does is make me crave more sweets). Some days, it's harder than others, but I think I do better than some because I had to cut out the caffeine years ago-now that was a difficult transition-headache for 2 weeks! I do feel better when I don't drink the pop-the bloating and excess fluids go away.

I use to love soda. I still have it ever so often. It wasn't so much the taste as it is the bubbles. They made it more fancy than water, or juice. But then I found out the stuff that goes in Soda... look it up sometimes. Some of it just looks plain nasty, why would I even want that in me? I figure I may as well drink roach posion for all the good the junk in soda is doing for me.

I stick to tea and water now. I don't miss soda because I get the carbonated (spelling sucks) water with natural flavors so I get no calories, no fake stuff and all the bubbles I want ^_^

I hear ya honey! I am a 28 year old mother of 2 children ages 1 and 3...and I LIVED on Mountain Dew until about 2 weeks ago! I had decided it was time to give it up given the fact that the mixture of soda and child birth sucking nearly all of my body's calcium had begun to rot my teeth...but I had no idea where to start. I'd read "just quit" a million times and the reality of it never seemed to hit home with me. A friend of mine had kicked the habit years ago and I asked him his advice and it was simple: DO NOT KEEP IT IN THE HOUSE! If you need it so badly that you have to leave your house to get it, then you deserve it. It worked very well for me as I would have to get myself and my kids dressed to go out to get it...and all of the sudden I didn't need it THAT badly! LOL I have to admit to you that I haven't kicked the habit completely, but I have gone from drinking about 3 liters of the evil crap a day to 20 or MAYBE 40 oz. of it a WEEK.
Good luck my friend...you're definitely NOT alone!

I understand exactly where you are coming from. Me and my friend were just talking about this yesterday. We just had to quit. Because we know if we say we can drink just one we will turn that into many more. I actually walked into the gas station where I used to go daily to buy them and walked straight to the back without even thinking. I had to say 'what am I doing here' and didnt buy a thing. It is the hardest thing for me to do but I just had to say no more.

Well the good thing is, that if it really is an addiction, it CAN be controlled. Alcoholics and drug addicts (and yup, food-aholics too) all learn to "manage" their addictions. So there IS hope for you.

Soda was never my issue, but I know with other addictions, mine being carbs and sugar, cold turkey is best. You just gotta rough it out a couple of weeks as difficult as that may seem. Once you get past that 2 week period, probably less, it will be much, much easier. And you will be thrilled beyond belief that you've kicked the habit and actually wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

Maybe have some substitutions available. Sugar free gum, hot tea, seltzer, water.

Also perhaps try a reward system. For every day without the sodayou put aside X amount of dollars and then at the end of say, 2 weeks you reward yourself with a new bottle of perfume or piece of costume jewelery or something.

Good luck. And know for sure that you CAN do this, because it is a DOABLE thing.

I guess the painful question is.... "Do you want to give it up?"
If you only think you "should" give it up that is not enough motivation to do it.
You said that you have NO will power when it comes to pop. If you believe that you cannot stop drinking it, then you won't be able to. If you decide you want to give it up, and that you have the power to give it up....then YOU CAN!

Its the carbonation for me that I love. My DH can't have caffeine though, so we don't keep soda in our fridge, and I purposefully steer myself away from the soda section in gas stations. When I really, really want one, I get one. I drink it really slowly so I enjoy it, and then switch back to water.

Like others have said, it was the carbanation that I loved the most. But kicking the habit can be done. I gave up soda at the beginning of the year. At first it was hard, but I really started feeling alot better. I drink it every so often now, but all I taste is syrup. So, yes it may be hard at first, but plow through it, becuase you will notice a difference in how much better you feel, not to mention all the calories you will be saving. Good Luck, I know you can do it.

I'm also a consumer of huge quantities of soda. My preference is regualr Coke or Pepsi. For about 8 months I didn't drink a single soda. I didn't find it to be too difficult to go cold turkey, so to speak. I was very motivated to eat well and chose healthy options. I've recently started to drink soda occassionally and it was amazing how quickly it I became dependant on it again. My worst times are evenings as it seems to be when the old habits come back. I'm recommitting to giving up soda and working towards increasing my water intake a little every few days.

OMG I am the same way! I am addicted to the carbonation the most. I've tried the carbonated waters but they remind me of alka seltzer and make me sick! So I gave up soda for a few months and switched to aquafina flavor splash but all the artificial sweetener in it gave me indigestion so say the least. So I got hooked again to soda and I've recently switched to diet. Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Pepsi (love pepsi btw) but coke zero and coke plus isn't bad either. I need to get away from soda and dark beverages all together like snapple (diet) well for that matter-- anything sugary! I just get so bored with plain ole water. So I bought crystal light packets and propel packets to add to it and has helped me reduce the soda intake (from about 8 sodas a day to about 2 or 3)! So I'm here fighting the battle with you, if you find any good tricks let me know!! Good Luck!!

For me it's Starbucks -- I just love a Venti Iced Carmel Macchiato but at 360 calories ( I can drink 2 or 3 a day) I had to give it up. It's really hard because there are literally 6 Starbucks in a 2 mile radius from my house and I work in a casino where we have one that is open 24 hours!!!! I figured the only way for me was to go cold turkey--and yes it did suck!!! I asked my coworkers and hubby for help to keep me AWAY!! LOL Now I stick to water, water and more water...

alright what i do is the only time i can switch to soda from my water is if i drink my minimum of 36- 48 ozs of water first. and believe me i can drink that water that quickly some days. once it gets warmer out the water amount goes up. i use it as a reward for drinking my daily water.

I gave up soda when I started my weight loss journey. I went cold turkey. It really is the only way. I drank my favorite bubbly mineral water (Gerolstiner) with lemon or lime in it until the cravings went away. Then I switched to plain water.

What is interesting to me is what happens now if I drink soda. I avoid hfcs and artificial sweeteners, so I very rarely will drink a coke from Mexico (real sugar no hfcs.) The last time I did, it didn't taste good and made my teeth feel funny. I felt like my teeth had been stripped. It was gross. I don't think I'll be drinking soda again. Basically what I'm saying is tastes can change. It's all what you're used to. It may be hard and take awhile, but you can ween yourself off of soda.

Yeah I feel your pain - all of you! Dr. Pepper is my favorite, but I'll take any. To me it is probably the sweetness/sugar more than anything. I love it best after lunch... no wonder I get sleepy in the afternoon!

I guess the question is, how much can you control it? if not at all, may be time to think about kicking the habit completely. For me I know that if we have it in the house, I will drink it. I'm not quite to the point where I can have it around and not go bananas with it. So I switched to just drinking it whenever I am out to eat... except at restaurants, they usually give you a huge glass that is 2-3 times a soda can serving! So that didn't work... only thing that really helped was keeping diet soda in the house.... I don't really like it and so I have to be desperate to open a can.