Help me break my soda habit - I’m failing!

[Anonymous]

I’m not clear what habit you’re trying to break. Sugar? Caffeine? Carbonated drinks? Something else?

Others have made excellent suggestions. You might want to start by simply not buying Cokes, so they won’t be in the house. Or you could decide that you’re comfortable with a measured amount of Cokes, but notice that you’re drinking them reflexively, just because they’re there. If that’s the issue, then get smaller sized cans or bottles, and have one for breakfast, and one or two more during the day.

I used to have Coke for breakfast when I was in grad school, and what made me drop the habit was that the taste changed, and my tastes changed. What did it for me was trying Coke bottled in Mexico and kosher for Passover Coke. Both of those are made with cane sugar and bottled in glass. Switching from those back to “regular” canned Coke was a no go for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I switched form a lifetime soda habit to sparking water a few years ago. It wasn’t easy...sparkling water used to taste like punishment to me.

Sorry, I hit submit too soon. What I did to ease the transition at first, because I hated the bland taste of sparkling water, was to squeeze fresh lemon and fresh lime juice into a cold bottle of Pellegrino. Eventually I weaned myself off the juice, and now, miraculously, Pellegrino tastes sweet to me.

Since you are also a Coke drinker you’ve got the double barrel caffeine withdrawal issue. I do continue to drink very strong black Irish tea with cream minute in the mornings. It’s low carb, which goes along with my keto diet. I could not have given up sugar in my tea where it not for replacing the milk with cream. It is very satiating. But breaking a sugar and caffeine have it at the same time is really difficult. I would recommend that you choose one or the other. Either stick with a bubbly drink in the morning and then also have a separate caffeinated drink, or break the caffeine habit first.

[Anonymous]

I am like you OP. I have decided that a small soda habit is something I can live with as my major vice. I do worry about the calories, so I have become very regimented in when i have a coke and how much I have. So I am pretty strict about having only one small coke in the morning and another mid afternoon. I view it as my total caffeine and most of my sugar for the day and would rather give up dessert than my coke. I have worked on finding sparkling sodas that I like (La Croix lime is my favorite) that I substitute that for all my other times that i might be tempted to drink soda and sometimes do unsweetened tea at restaurants. So I would try mitigation and then deciding what you can live with. Even if you want to quit entirely, I think stepwise is a better approach than trying to go all at once. Sort of like hardcore diets, those kinds of all or nothing approaches don't tend to last long term.

BTW, I just had my bloodwork done at the doctor and the one area I have no issues at all is diabetes/prediabetes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am like you OP. I have decided that a small soda habit is something I can live with as my major vice. I do worry about the calories, so I have become very regimented in when i have a coke and how much I have. So I am pretty strict about having only one small coke in the morning and another mid afternoon. I view it as my total caffeine and most of my sugar for the day and would rather give up dessert than my coke. I have worked on finding sparkling sodas that I like (La Croix lime is my favorite) that I substitute that for all my other times that i might be tempted to drink soda and sometimes do unsweetened tea at restaurants. So I would try mitigation and then deciding what you can live with. Even if you want to quit entirely, I think stepwise is a better approach than trying to go all at once. Sort of like hardcore diets, those kinds of all or nothing approaches don't tend to last long term.

BTW, I just had my bloodwork done at the doctor and the one area I have no issues at all is diabetes/prediabetes.

If you are not worried about spike in your blood sugar,
the other bad thing for your oral health.
Calories will be the least of my concern.

[Anonymous]

This is one area I am doing better with working from home. I buy 1 16 Oz at my once a week shopping trip. That's it. The rest of the time it is seltzer or water with a splash of juice. I hope I can keep it when I am back at the office with a vending machine.

[Anonymous]

Switch to diet?
I dropped the Coke Zero habit in 2015. Didn't touch it since. I bought into it is bad for you because aspartame is the devil.
I have since realized that it was no big deal to drink diet soda, and it helped me not gain weight.
I switched to lemonade!!! with sugar and gained weight! Brava for me!
Since I dropped the lemonade, and drink coffee, though that is become of chronic Lyme to keep me awake.
I also hated coffee but got used to it somehow, black, nothing in it.
So honestly, switch to diet, but I would not bother with stopping it fully.
DH drinks Dr. Pepper, skinny healthy dude he is!

[Anonymous]

If you can't go cold turkey, start with switching to smaller can in the morning.

During the day when you are getting the craving stand up and go for a 5 minute walk. Get a glass of water. If you need something a little sweeter, I might make a pitcher of iced tea from tea bags and sweeten it with 1/4 c of sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water.

They way I broke my long habit - I sat with my dad as he was getting chemo and watched what the chemicals were doing to his body. I thought to myself - why am I making the decision everyday to put chemicals into my system?

Now every once in a while I will get a coke. But it is a treat on a very hot day out of a can or glass bottle over ice.

IMO fake sugar/sweetner is no better than real sugar.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for all of your thoughtful replies. Today begins day one. I’ll report back in a week or two to see what tricks worked for me.

[Anonymous]

I started by only allowing myself fountain soda so that stopped my home and work can habit. I still have one once in awhile at a restaurant or if I’m feeling hung over (McDonald’s Coke is the hangover cure!).

[Anonymous]

I drink a cup of grapefruit juice mixed with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in the morning. The taste is a jolt ( in a good way) and it feels like a good way to start the morning.

[Anonymous]

Omg, I’m a Coke in the morning person too! I love it.

Actually I usually have two Cokes first thing. I’ve been able to cut down to one by substituting a new caffeinated seltzers—I like Bubly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am like you OP. I have decided that a small soda habit is something I can live with as my major vice. I do worry about the calories, so I have become very regimented in when i have a coke and how much I have. So I am pretty strict about having only one small coke in the morning and another mid afternoon. I view it as my total caffeine and most of my sugar for the day and would rather give up dessert than my coke. I have worked on finding sparkling sodas that I like (La Croix lime is my favorite) that I substitute that for all my other times that i might be tempted to drink soda and sometimes do unsweetened tea at restaurants. So I would try mitigation and then deciding what you can live with. Even if you want to quit entirely, I think stepwise is a better approach than trying to go all at once. Sort of like hardcore diets, those kinds of all or nothing approaches don't tend to last long term.

BTW, I just had my bloodwork done at the doctor and the one area I have no issues at all is diabetes/prediabetes.

If you are not worried about spike in your blood sugar,
the other bad thing for your oral health.
Calories will be the least of my concern.

People are so weird about soda. It's not good for you, don't get me wrong. But lots of things aren't good for you. I think soda's reputation is partly about class. People associate soda with poor people and uneducated people, and so it's deemed as worse than many other vices that are more popular among the highly educated.

It's no worse for your teeth than anything else. Just brush your teeth! It's more important to floss and take good care of your gums than avoid soda or candy. Soda is no more harmful than red wine or coffee in terms of acidity and tooth decay. And again -- presumably you are brushing it off.

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm a huge Coke fan and like a couple PPs, I've just accepted that it's my main vice. I barely even drink alcohol anymore either, so it really is the main "bad" thing in my diet and I've decided I'm okay with it.

That said, I was able to break myself of drinking Cokes in the morning, because as a general rule I don't like drinking soda around my young children because I want to set a better example and because they aren't allowed to have it. I was able to successfully convert to being a tea drinker in the morning. It took some trial and error. The keys for me are to buy good quality tea (I like Harney & Sons and a few of the Twinings teas), to add honey and milk (I have a sweet tooth and the milk mellows it), and to really get into the ritual. I really think my Coke habit is 90% ritual as well -- my brain responds very positively to just the sound of the soda pouring over ice and the fizz. So I just really committed to my tea ritual and eventually I didn't feel deprived at all. No I really look forward to it. Try the Harney & Sons London Fog! It's so good.

Another upside to the tea is that it is much more heavily caffeinated than Coke, so I find it sustains my caffeine craving better in the mornings. Especially if I don't sleep well or wake up with a headache, a cup of tea is much more effective at getting me through until lunch than Coke.

So now I mostly just drink Coke in the evening after my kids go to bed. It's a nice treat at that point. I feel so virtuous given that I used to drink 3-4 Cokes a day for years.

[Anonymous]

Spindrift Sparkling Water. Lemon is my preferred flavor. Haven't had more than a handful of Cokes, total, since I started drinking Spindrift. It is just carbonated water and lemon juice. No sugar or caffeine. I don't miss either.

[Anonymous]

I was a huge soda drinker a few years back. I spent a fortune on soda! My bones became really brittle and I was diagnosed with later at a really young age! Scary! It took time but I weaned myself completely. It was for my health. I replaced my soda addiction with guava and mango juice. I couldn’t get into plain seltzer water. Think of your health.... that’s how I fought it. It is an addiction! Good luck!