give up soda

I’m not trying to do this cold turkey, it’s going to be a multi-step process for me.
Recently, I’ve drank upwards of five cans per day, so to completely stop might send me into a downward spiral, then withdrawal, and then I’ll go straight back to the pop (it’s pop, not soda; I am from the Upper Midwest) to get rid of the headache.
So I am on step one right now: I have decided to limit myself to 2 dark-colored pops a day for this first week. If I want more, it has got to be Sprite or Sierra Mist, neither of which I care for. This rule has helped because I reach for water instead of the clear pop. Which leads me into step 2, only two pops (clear or dark), and the rest water.
Hopefully next week I can cut down to one pop a day, which will be step 3.
Finals week will suck. Then, Christmas break will be hard, because when I go home, my family keeps pop everywhere! We’ll see how it goes, I should probably tell my family in advance to keep as much pop out of the house as possible.
The ultimate goal is water and juice only. I’ve been keeping bottles of water everywhere, and it has been working quite well.

I don’t drink it that often. And I’m going to work on at least changing it to all natural sodas soon at least, but I like pop!!

And I’m really hooked on adding 7 up to the cheap gas station Arbor Mist Merlot and Zinfandel to give it a punch cocktail-ish feeling….

I need to start focusing again….

My last soda was on Sunday Oct 5th… I’m drinking water, coffee and soymilk.

I do not have any soda at work or at home, so this is a good time to start.

Weekends that I go home are the ones where all of my good diet habits are thrown out the window. I drink soda, I eat fast food, I don’t listen to my inner skinny Bethany at all.

But I just spent the last 4 days at home and barely drank any soda. I was really proud of myself. I usually buy something to keep at home to drink for the weekend cause we never have anything. And instead of buying a 12 pack of soda, I chose a pack of Propel water (which by the way, was extremely tasty. Try the raspberry lemonade kind).

So yeah, I think I’m making progress.

Pretty much got over soda after having 3 cans a day. I’ve avoided it completely (for the most part) since June. I had my first soda yesterday in a month and it tasted NASTY!!!

I still do crave sweet drinks though, I usually will have lemonade or fruit punch, it’s really hard drinking only water and I’m tired of Propel and Vitamin Water.

It helps if I bring something to drink to work. The water in Pittsburg tastes like crap.. I’m not exaggerating, we’re practically known for it. So if I don’t bring something to drink like a bottle of water or juice or something, then I end up drinking soda. But work is practically the only place I drink it now and that is rarely ever.

I think I’m actually giving up soda!

I’ve been successful at home by always keeping a 2-liter bottle of homemade herbal iced tea and having another one filled with water in the fridge. My neighborhood has many people from eastern Europe, so there is a large variety of inexpensive ethnic foods around. I found loose herbal teas, like sour cherry, forest fruits, and raspberry for only 1.39 a package. First boil about 2 cups of water on the stove in a saucepan, add about 1/3 cup of tea and 1/2 cup of sugar, turn off the heat and let it steep for about 15-20 minutes. Then I strain the tea into the bottle of cold water from fridge. It’s ready to drink. I always keep a backup of cold water so if I run out, I can make more and it will be cold already.

I’m doing better, surprisingly. Soda isn’t tasting as good as it used to and if I open a can or make a drink at work I usually barely drink half of it. I think I’m slowly giving it up, willingly and that’s a lot better than quickly giving it up forcibly.

I just can’t seem to do it.
I love Coca~cola… it’s delicious.