Hey guys, new guy here.

Recently I've been inspired to really hop on the getting in shape/eating healthy train. I need to change my lifestyle now (at 21 years old) before I run into serious problems.

I was just wondering if anyone has any advice about drinking soda pop or rather how to stop drinking it.

I have really bad eating/drinking habits and at the root of these problems is that I drink mass amounts of soda pop. I tell myself over and over to stop but living with a large family, it is always in the fridge or hanging around, and I cant stop myself.

any ideas/suggestions?

My hubby had that problem. After many, many weeks, I finally convinced him to stop drinking it, but he traded it in for Hawaiian Punch! I told him that was healthier than soda, but not any better for weight loss. Finally, he went out and bought those sugar free things that you just dump into a bottle of water (lemonade, fruit punch, etc.). Now he drinks "water" all day.....water contianing the powder sugar free flavoring. He allows himself soda once a week.

Maybe you can try looking for alternatives to the soda that you like to drink. If you don't mind room temp water, maybe you could keep a case of bottled water in your room, and that way you won't have to go to the kitchen for a drink, where you might be tempted by soda. One thing that I do is to just always keep a bottle of water with me.If you carry it always, then you are more than likely to drink that if thirsty. The hardest part is getting through the first couple of weeks.

Hello Lach,

I was going to suggest the same thing Feuer said. Try some of those Nestea or Crystal Light powder packs that you just add to water and voila. I might pick some up myself this weekend because I'm addicted to soft drinks as well!

Good luck!

Reading this might help.
Diet, sugary sodas alike linked to heart disease factors - CNN.com

I quit cold turkey a couple of years ago for Lent. I switched to tea to help with the caffeine headaches and after the forty days couldn't stand coke for the most part because it was too sweet. I don't mind one every once in a while but it's hardly something I drink now-a-days.

Substituting a sugar free drink for sodas is probably the best way to go. Then start introducing lots of plain water into your diet. The more you drink it, the more body craves it and it will be the thing that quenches your thirst best. I probably drink a gallon of water a day now, whereas coke was the only liquid I used to intake beside maybe milk. After the first week it should get much easier to fight off the craving.

2 diet sodas that taste pretty good (assuming you like their sugar counterparts) are diet Mt. Dew and diet Dr. Pepper. If you haven't tried them, give them a shot.

Thanks for all the replies, I'll def have to try some of those suggestions. I'll let you know how it goes :P

It's hard, but I have done it cold turkey many times. I do it to not be used to the caffeine. I do get caffeine withdrawals though, its hard for the first couple days.

I have my phases. I'll go two months with, two months without.

When you go to the kitchen to get some soda, grab a water instead. Water is a great thirst quencher and diuretic. It'll be hard, but you can do it.

Really good alternatives I found for drinking Coke and other soft drinks are Diet Sugar Free Kool-Aid and Crystal Light.

Both come in many different flavors.

Also you can switch to diet caffeine free pop as well since it has no calories.

The other two drinks are like 5 calories per glass which is nothing in the grand scheme of dieting.

I would drink as much diet caffeine free stuff as I wanted instead of regular soft drinks and lost tons of weight each month as a result.

Because of the sodium in diet caffeine free soft drinks most health experts don't recommend drinking a lot of it because it retains water ie keeps water weight on ya to a degree but eh I didn't care.

As far as I was concerned the water weight didn't matter and would come off eventually, it was the fat I wanted to lose mostly and switching to this and drinking a lot of it instead of regular pop helped with that.

Sure diet pop has got a bitter taste at first but once you get used to it for a few weeks its alright and in fact some people are lucky enough not to taste a certain chemical that is in the aspartme that sweetens the diet soft drinks but makes it bitter so for them it tastes just like regular soft drinks.

I quit a few years ago and never looked back. I think of Water as my "pop". I mean if you drink enough of it you will get addicted to loving it. I pretty much only drink water and I have pop less then once a year now. Just drink tons of water and you will begin to love it.

When I need a "fizzy drink" I get club soda (which is just carbonated water) and mix it with lemonade or limeade, or sometimes a fruit juice. Makes it feel like soda in my mouth, more flavor than water, and better for you than a soda. I find I do not need it more than every two months or so. When you get used to water, you will crave it. Then when you try to drink other things, you will realize right away that what you really want is water.

First off...Big Green stole my tracker~

#2.... Brother...I drank over 10 diet cokes a day for at least 5 years. You try working next to a soda fountain and choosing the flimsy water lever over the easy push of the bubbly goodness we all adore.

I haven't had one for 2 weeks (I started this weight loss plunge 4 weeks ago...and only drank what I had left in my fridge).

How?

Buy bottled water.

Keep it ICE cold.

And don't drink the powders if you can help....they all have calories or chemicals...both of which are things we do not need from our drinks...we get enough in our foods.

I know it's just statements you've told yourself...but I am telling you...one GREAT THING: The first week you cut soda out completely...you will look 10 lbs lighter....yay for less bloating!

Solon

Oh!

The greatest invention of man (other than the rubber coated plate weights)

!!!!!!!!!!!!MINI-FRIDGE!!!!!!!!!!

I used to drink soda constantly throughout the day. Looking back, I can't believe how dehydrated I was making myself. When I decided to give up drinking it, I would read about all of the "evils" of soda and the benefits of drinking water.

I started ordering water when I ate out. I carried (and still do) a 340z nalgene bottle with me full of water everywhere I went and just drank it throughout the day. Now I no longer have the soda cravings and absolutely love water. Water is the first thing I drink in the morning.

I've always been addicted to soda. My mother litteraly let us have coke in our bottles as toddlers... and it went on from there. When I was 15 I switched from regular coke to diet and dropped 20 lbs with no other diet or exercise change!

That being said I'm still a soda fiend and probably always will be. But here's what I keep the fridge stocked with:

Coke Zero (no calories and tastes great)
SoBe lights (only like 25 calories for a giant bottle)
Cascadia Strawberry Sparkling Water (0 Calories and it is delicious)

The other hint is to switch to water when your not eating, but still allow yourself something sweet with your meals. (I can't stand drinking water with food) :P

This may be bad advice since I'm not telling you to stop cold turkey. But this is a realistic alternative for addicts like me