I am struggling to give up soda. I try to only have two meals a day and have found myself justifying the soda since I drink it with my meal and not outside meal times. I want to stop drinking it but have struggled hard. Any suggestions?
I smoked cigs for almost 30 years and during that time I “tried” to quit a countless amount of times with no luck. I finally decided to quit, not try to quit, and that is how I finally quit smoking. It was really hard at first but every time I wanted to cave I just reminded myself that I don’t smoke anymore and eventually I didn’t have to remind myself anymore.
You may want to get a soda stream and just carbonate some water when you feel the urge or you could just go cold turkey like I did.
I was suuuuuper addicted to Dr Pepper for a long time. I was finally able to quit when I replaced it with something else- sparkling water (La Croix, bubly, etc). I didn’t want the artificial sweeteners, so I skipped the diet soda route. I didn’t enjoy it for a while- but I made sure to drink it super cold and find flavors I could tolerate. Now I love it, and the few times a year I drink soda, it tastes like thick syrup to me. It just takes a while to change your taste buds, but it WILL happen.
I would suggest that you define what is it about sodas that you want to cut out. If it’s the corn syrup, there are naturally sweetened sodas, if it’s the calories there are diet options, if it’s the insulin response try carbonating teas. I have discovered hop water recently, and I absolutely love it. I think it’s very hard to give up what might seem like the last vice - I love carbonated drinks so I have carbonated water with bitters or carbonate teas.
I was addicted to regalar Coke - at least a can or two a day. Slowly switched to Coke Zero before IF. It was honestly a mindset shift and fully acknowledging that all the extra sugar wasn’t good for me.
But I’m not opposed to drinking a Coke Zero outside of my fasting time nor occasional normal Coke. But I only had about 3 all of January so that’s not too bad.
I was a mountain dew drinker my whole life. I stopped drinking that went with water and sparkling flavored water then went to Pepsi zero. I need to stop drinking Pepsi zero and just stop but it’s got foot hold on me