Kicking my Soda pop habit

[Radii]

Congrats Kodos! I'm up to ~3 1/2 years without a soda as well. Like Kodos, it had to be cold turkey, moderation was never something that worked at all for me. Its amazing how much my weight and overall health have changed in those 3 1/2 years. I've had to make other major changes too and I'm not completely done by any stretch, but the soda habit was the foundation of all of my problems and was definitely the one thing I had to get right before I could have any success at all.

[Kodos]

Yeah, I still want to make it into the 170s, but the mid-180s are much better than the mid-210s that I was in several years ago.

[Kodos]

[lighthousekeeper]

I had a very bad soda/diet soda habit. I was drinking 6-8 cans every single day for my entire adult life. It was impossible for me to go more than a few hours without soda. I drank soda with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and right before bed. More than the volume of soda intake, the power that soda had over me was crazy. I literally thought that life was not worth living if I couldn't drink soda. I know it sounds silly or histrionic - you might say that someone can't get so psychologically addicted to soda - but these are thoughts that gripped me. I would get chills and cold sweats just at the thought of not drinking soda. Sometimes I would try to stop drinking soda and think (even after the caffeine withdrawal headaches subsided) "if this is what life is like, why bother?" [I know it sounds fucking retarded but that's what it was] After many attempts to stop, I had completely given up hope that this could ever change.

Then something weird happened: I let Jesus Christ into my heart (nah...just kidding). But one day in July as I laid on my couch, with no energy to get up, something in my brain just flipped and said "enough is enough - you drink these to have energy but are tired all the time". And for some strange reason this was different than the other times. And I knew somehow it was different. This time, it's not like I was trying harder to stop and summoning more willpower than previous attempts, but all of a sudden my body just decided to stop letting soda have such control over me. And this time, stopping wasn't even hard. It just happened. The cravings and addiction simply went away.

So since July I still do drink soda, but I only have about 4 sodas per week as opposed to 50. But its not the number of sodas that matters (well a doctor might disagree) but the power. I can now go out to dinner and drink water and not have it ruin my experience. I no longer start my day with a soda. I can go through a day without a soda and not be miserable. And I just have the feeling that I'm more in control of my life. It's been great.

I wish I could say that I lost weight (I haven't) or have more energy (I don't). But one unexpected change that happened - hey whaddayaknow - I'm no longer a night owl and now find myself being more of a morning person.

[Kodos]

That's great, Lighthouse! And you've got to be saving a lot of money too.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

I no longer start my day with a soda.

That was the hardest part for me. Now I keep a pitcher of water within reach at all times.

[frnk55]

I can quit soda, it's coffee I can't.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by frnk55

I can quit soda, it's coffee I can't.

Unless you are dumping loads of sugar into every cup I think the opinions on coffee being bad for you have changed an awful lot in the last 10-20 years. A decent number of studies have described benefits from it.

[Kodos]

Yeah, if you need to drink one or the other, choose coffee. Or better yet, tea.

Unfortunately, I hate all hot beverages. So chocolate bars are my only source of caffeine.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Bump. I'm on day six without soda. So far, so good. I have had some weak moments, but have stuck with water. I'm noticing it does make me feel better. No heartburn.

I've tried a few times before and have always fallen back in by slowly allowing more and more exceptions until I'm drinking two twenty ounce bottles and a can each day.

Baby steps.

Huh, looks like my timeline is slightly off. According to this, I stopped on 3/7/2013, not 3/15. Maybe I slipped up and restarted on 3/15.

[EagleFan]

Well done. I have been since the day before Memorial Day, so a little over six months.

[Easy Mac]

I've been pretty set on 1 a day for the past 4-5 months. Sometimes I cheat or if I'm just feeling like crap I might have more than 1. I've noticed I get annoyed if they fill up my drink early at a restaurant, because I'm trying to be fairly exact about how much I drink. I've tried to space it out, but I just haven't been motivated enough yet. I'm still losing enough weight with it, but it will be the first thing to go if I just can't get to my ideal weight with it.

[Kodos]

Welp, since this was bumped, I'm now up to 2,426 days without soda.


2426 days can be converted to one of these units:

209,606,400 seconds
3,493,440 minutes
58,224 hours
2426 days
346 weeks and 4 days
664.66% of a common year (365 days)


Not too shabby.

Edit: looks like the spambot post was deleted while I responded.

[Brian Swartz]

Great job! The final straw for me was 1) getting healthy enough that I didn't need it for the energy kick, and 2) learning that high-fructose corn syrup - which of course is in a lot of other things as well - is considered literally not fit for human consumption by the health services in many countries. Unfortunately the calories are just the beginning.