[seeker5]

Originally Posted by RRR

you should go back and try a soda...they are soooooo gross when you aren't addicted to them. After I stopped drinking pop I went back and tried a Dr. Pepper after a few months....revolting...absolutely revolting. Congrats seeker. Did you lose a bunch of weight stopping drinking pop? I lost ..10..15 pounds just from that one behavior. it actually spurred my 90 lbs of weight loss.

Wow congrats! For me it was the beginning of losing about 45 pounds too . I also only probably lost 10 pounds or so when I stopped drinking sodas while the rest was lost from making other dietary changes. However, giving up drinking soda was the very first important step to being able to make the other changes I made that led me to losing that other weight.

Originally Posted by dmauder

Hey Seeker5 - that is FREAKIN awesome!!! Congrats!

Thanks .

I've tried a few times myself to quit soda and/or caffeine (coffee), but I keep going back. From your account of the process, it sounds like the secret is to make it THE most important thing in your life and focus on that one thing until it is achieved.

Yeah, that was important - making it the most important thing in the world. It meant I had no more excuse - if I was too tired to work because of the caffein withdrawal, it was ok. If I couldn't concentrate on my work for a few weeks because of the headaches, because of any negative effects from quitting coke, it was ok as I mentally became willing to be fired in order to give up this habit. It meant I wouldn't worry about anything else, and I became wiling to endure any bad effect that I would temporarly get from quitting this habit.

I ended not being fired, and I ended not suffering as many bad effect as I thought I would. It actually went easier physically then I expected, however that mindset of making it more important than anything else in the world was important because I stopped being worried about how quitting this habit would interfere with anything else since everything else wasn't as important as quitting this habit.

The crazy thing is, I can read tons of research around the dangers of aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, and caffeine, and yet I STILL keep consuming the stuff!

I actually did the same thing. I think maybe for my third attempt, I read a lot of things about how bad coke was for me. I even combined all of them together and printed it out, thinking it would motivate me. It didn't help beyond a few days.

On my successful attempt to quit coke, I ended up feeling so frustrated about being a slave to sodas, that I emotionally linked quitting coke with gaining my freedom. It no longer became an issue of becoming healthy, or losing weight or any of that, it became an issue of being free of something I long wanted to be free of. Even now writing as I go back into how I felt when I set out on this trial, I feel a chill as I remember the huge determination I felt back then when I set out to free myself from this.

Anyway... So what do you drink now? Just water, or do you allow yourself green tea, juices, etc?

I pretty much drink water all day long. I carry water of bottles around with me most places if I'm going to be there for a while. I do sometimes drink fruit juices, but rather rarely. I also drink smoothies from time to time, and I try to make sure it's only the ones that are pure fruit ones. (As opposed to smoothies made with artificial stuff).

I'm going to read your other post(s) in the hopes of being further inspired to make another attempt for myself.

Hope it helps