I cannot kick my soda habit..and I truly believe I am addicted to the stuff just like people are addicted to nicotine..I bought a 6 pack of coke zero so I at least be drinking zero calories but I still bought a real coke when I got to work and had the coke zero with me...help has anyone else been through this or have a solution????
I was addicted to Nutella (1 jar a day) last year and bread (1-1.5 loaves a day). Now I can hold a jar of Nutella and not really feel anything. The bread is also getting better, I haven't had it for a week I think.
Just don't have it for 2 weeks. If you feel horrible after that, try going for the low cal version, or eat less of other food so that you can still be at a deficit, but give 2 weeks of NO soda a try. Even if you feel horrible, think of it as a bad period cramp-if you wait long enough, you won't even remember/care about the pain after it passes - and hte midol kicks on haha.
I have also used the fruit juice and carbonated water mix and it does well to replace the need for the sweet and fizz.
Long before I gave the pop up completely, though, I gave up the caffeinated type, so I drank the decaf. Coke (not diet). I think the fact that I had dealt with one addiction/craving (caffeine) first made it easier when I decided that I simply could not be healthy or lose weight if I kept sucking down the Coke.
I no longer crave the cola or any pop. I drink water all the time, all day, every day. I do have a Coke every now and again (maybe once a week, probably less), but it's not a craving that I have to fulfill like I used to (I had a 4 can a day habit at one time).
Best wishes! You will feel better when you're off the pop, but it does take time and diligence.
Cut it back gradually ... you can do it. If you go cold turkey, you'll feel not only the emotional loss, but a true physical loss. How many cans were you drinking per day? If it is 6, cut down to 5 for a few days in a row, and for that 6th missing soda, drink a tall glass of seltzer, club soda, sparkling water. After a while, you get used to the fizz without the sugar. Add some lemons, limes, orange slices if you must. Then 4 cokes for a few more days, supplementing 2 seltzers, then 3 and so on. When you get to 1 can per day and are mentally ready to kick it to the curb, maybe you can do 1/2 cans for a few days until you're done.
Personally, I used to drink diet pepsi--it was so bad--I would literally crave it, especially with some pretzels or popcorn. I cut it down, then cut it out. I have always enjoyed seltzer with citrus, so that was easy for me, and I drank seltzer as my "go to" for a lot lot lot of years. Only for the past year have I given it up too in favor of water. Now I drink only tea and coffee, perhaps 1-2 cups per day, skim milk in it, and water is my go to drink. Water and more water.
You can do it. Just don't go cold turkey and expect to feel well, b/c you won't. Ween. Good luck.
I saw on dr.oz that a good trick for weaning yourself off soda is mixing half coke and half carbonated water/seltzer and that's a nice way to start cutting back on it, that it taste basically the same but since for lent I gave up all soda I have not tried that trick
I've recently kicked a diet soda habit. I drank at least 10+ cans a day for years, and now am down to 1 in the morning.
Here's a good question to ask yourself, "Am I addicted to the soda itself or am I addicted to having a drink by me all the time?"
For me it was having a drink by me all the time. It had to be there, in the car, at my desk, tv, wherever. It couldn't be in a plain glass either, had to be in some bottle or can.
Just that knowledge so far has enabled me to be able to replace it with water, which I now have everywhere with me.
My friends used to call me a sodaholic, because I found eating food difficult (pizza was impossible) WITHOUT having a large sugary and bubbly soda to wash it down. I have since bought a soda siphon and carbonate water and add fruit juice to it. If I'm not at home, I buy sugarfree/fake sugarfree/NO sodium soda water from a nearby store. My switch to carbonated water and fruit juice (although now I'm okay with just water most of the time) along with a plant based diet has helped me get over my soda cravings.. which is fantabulous since I had been doing so much damage to my teeth for years.
I used to be a diet soda addict and I still think the prevailing idea that diet soda makes us gain weight is wrong and I still would drink as much diet soda as I want over full sugar soda, but for several months have been drinking a LOT more plain water with once in awhile adding some Crystal Light powder but usually just plain and oddly, I don't have a craving for the fizzy soda anymore. I think it is because I am better hydrated. Maybe just drinking more water would help you? I wasn't trying to get off of diet soda, I just started to feel a craving for the water.
im in the exact same boat. my room mate just gave up smoking and i act the same way and say the same things she says just mine is about pop.. id challenged myself before to give it up and i let it go for 6 months... i thought i could handle putting it bak in here and there and lost total control i dont know how to get off the stuff or be balanced with it
I'm a fan of the cold turkey method of giving up addictions. I'm a former smoker and a recovering alcoholic, so I do have experience with this subject. You have two choices. You can slowly wean yourself off which will prolong the pain of giving up soda, or you can opt for a fast and brutal cold turkey. It's like having to remove a bandaid- you can rip it off or you can gently tear and prolong a more mild amount of pain. I am not the type that can wean off. I have never been able to wean myself, and I find it more painful and difficult in the long run. So, decide which type you think you are and try it. If you find yourself having trouble with the weaning method, you might want to try cold turkey or vice versa.
The water and juice idea sounds like a good one and deciding between a gradual reduction and cold turkey will probably be the hardest part! It's different for everybody but some people can quit cold turkey and be just fine (I'm one of those). We all know the impact soda can have on our health so ultimately it's about making an informed decision and sticking to it.
I quit coke cold turkey and was surprised that luckily I didn't suffer anything like the horror stories I'd heard about sleepless nights/cold sweats/headaches and such. Now I wasn't drinking gallons of it by any means but usually 3 to 4 cans of the full sugar stuff a day and it was a habit I'd had for years and had been very committed to! Diet versions taste horrible and I hated the taste of just water so if it wasn't coke it was gonna be juice or something as equally calorific...but one day I just decided it had to go.
Very occasionally I miss it, not crave it as in 'I NEED A COKE!' but miss it like thinking 'this would taste better with a coke'. When you're ready you'll be able to do it whichever way you choose.
So I used to have a hard core diet coke/coffee habit..like 12 a day..seriously, I got stomach ulcers. It just started to gross me out, but now I can have one coffee in the morning and a soda a few times a week. I also buy regular pop and a bunch of club soda and I mix like 2oz of coke with 6oz of soda ice and have that as a 'treat'. It tastes yummy because it's real sugar and it only has about 30 calories.
I used to love soda! All kinds! I would drink around 3-4 cans a day. It got to the point that it was making me sick, literally. The excess sugar caused me to get infections (uti, yeast infections) now since that was the worst feeling I had to ever go through, I cut out sodas! I went from 3-4 a day to 1 a day to half a day to none. It gets easier, I promise. Here I am, over a year later and do not having a craving for soda whatsoever. Just start decreasing the amount little by little. It works.
I never really drank much soda, but when I did I always insisted on the full-calorie version because I can't stand the diet version.
When I started my diet, I tried buying the diet version again but I couldn't stomach it...so I added lime juice into it to finish off the pack. It is REALLY good. It takes away the weird aftertaste, it's refreshing, and I don't think you can tell whether lime juice was added to diet or regular soda.
I normally do that with Pepsi Max (IMO, the best tasting diet version) and lots of ice!
soda (real..undiluted..no diet) soda
