petflunky

Ugh. I went to see my Dr. last week for a check up. MY B.P. was a little high, and asked me how much pop I drink. I told her, and she yelled at me! The nerve! Anywho, I need to quit all caffinated beverages, as well as exercise, diet and lose weight. I'm glad this thread popped up, because I tried quitting a couple of months ago, and didn't even make a day without a soda. I went all day, and on the way home, I bought one. People became nice again, the sun came out, birds started singing. LOL, quite the change in one little bottle, eh?

aidanpryde18

Sounds like me with cigarettes. Depressed rage freak to peaceful best friend in 3 puffs.

pointatopointb

I'm also trying to quit, won't embarass myself with how much I drink. Here's what has worked for me so far: switched my coffee from sugar to sweetner. got used to the taste, can't handle the sugar now.

switched to diet soda, coke zero. In addition, every time I want a soda, I drink a big glass of water first. I am hooked on the taste, but there is a thirst factor as well. drinking water first makes me crave it less, and makes me feel unwell when I drink the fizzy pop afterwards. because my work is physically demanding (construction) I have to always be conscious of my hydration. I've also found that keeping single packs of crystal light (or whatever off brand you like) in my lunch box helps me stave off the flavour fix. I've gone from 5 cans a day to 5 a week.

Captain Insano

I've been a type 1 diabetic for 31+ years now, and have been a diet soda drinker for about that long. The first diet sodas (anyone remember Tab?) could gag a maggot, but when there aren't many choices, you go with what's available.

Anyway, I got to the point where I was drinking 6-7 diet Cokes a day, every day, for years. Got the jitters, the twitch under the eye, and was peeing a LOT (because of the diuretic effect). I knew it wasn't good for me, and tried to stop, but would only last for a little while. Then, I entered one of those "biggest loser" contests at work. It was a 12-week contest, and the guy who lost the most weight plus the most body fat percentage took home the prize. I didn't lose much for the first few weeks, until I (reluctantly) dropped the diet Coke, and switched to water only. It's like a light went off! Lost 15 pounds, 4% of body fat, and would have won the damn thing if some young whippersnapper with a fast metabolism hadn't nudged me out at the end.

I'm to the point where it doesn't appeal to me any more, which is a far cry from just six months ago. I took up cycling, I'm losing more weight, and life is good. What more could you ask for?

turtlewoman

I did the opposite of Pointatopointb, I switched from artificially sweetened cola to regular sugar cola. From there I went to sugary lemonaide powder. Now I still drink some of the lemonade but I drink much more water along the way, too. I was addicted to the sweetener. I also switched from sweetner to sugar in my coffee. I was afraid of all the negatives you hear about sweetner. I'm not drinking the coffee every day and I have had no ill effects, i.e., I haven't gained any weight, gotten headaches, etc. This is just what worked for me. I hope to be off everything but water soon.

gitarzan

When I was in High School a friend of mine was talking about Lent and told me he gave up ************. I told him I gave up drinking soda pop. He looked at me and said, "Aw man, I wish I'd have thought of that!!!" I still get a chuckle thinking about that after all these years.
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Back on the main topic, Diet Sodas aren't your father's diet soda. Even Tab tastes pretty good nowadays. Why? Aspartame and other new sweeteners. Some flavors taste better than others. Diet Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper, Fresca, Diet A&W all taste great. I also buy store brand diet grape, diet lemon tea, diet black cherry. And if it's caffeine free - so much the better for re-hydration.

Regular soda (around here it's called pop) tastes like I'm drinking syrup to me.

funrover 

My wife started drinking Diet Dr Pepper instead of Pepsi. Now she is almost totally sode free.. Just took a single 12 pack. She had it bad for Pepsi (3 -4 a day) and now she doesn't miss it at all. Heck we still have some of the Dr. P left if you want to try it LOL

woodchuck69

Christmas vacation 2008 I had a real sugar Mexican Coke and said goodbye to soda and anything else with corn syrup in it.

After about 4 months I could really tell a difference in how I felt, as if all the metabolic garbage that builds up in your system from your liver trying to process that toxic crap had finally been flushed out to a great extent.

Anyone reading this should do some research on Advanced Glycation Endproducts so can fully understand the damage corn syrup and artificial sweeteners do when your body trys to metabolize them.

In 2007 I got to witness first hand why they call diabetes "the silent killer." My father had developed type 2 diabetes and didn't have any idea he was in trouble. No one knows how long he had it because he never showed any symptoms and literally melted down within the course of a couple months which left him with a huge infection in his colon which in turn paralyzed him after his surgery. The rollercoaster of recovery started when he made a miraculous turnaround and got off the ventilator and his kidneys started coming around... only go through a few cycles of hospital infection/recovery until his immune system was shot.... 4 months in the hospital, he passed away just before his 67th birthday.

Go cold turkey on that garbage, seriously.