So Long, Soda Pop (A Quitter's Journal)

[calluna]

After much soul-searching and reading the recent thread on soda-drinking, I've decided to quit my beloved Pepsi for once and for all. And, since I need a little accountability, lest I slip back into my vat of fizzy brown liquid, I figured I'd start a thread of my own.

Anyone out there who is in the process of quitting is welcome to join me here.

I've been drinking soda as long as I can remember. (My father has often said that my mother drank so much soda when she was pregnant with me that he was surprised I wasn't born with the Pepsi symbol imprinted on my forehead.) My intake used to be about a six-pack of cans a day, down lately to about 3 cans a day, or one of the 24-ounce bottles.

I wish I could say I was motivated by health concerns -- I lost almost all my teeth by the age of 23, you'd think that alone would have made me quit -- but no, I'm quitting because I have recently developed a soft, squishy midsection. A soft, squishy, ghostly-white midsection. It is not attractive.

I quit caffeinated soda several years ago. I've always had frequent, severe headaches, and cutting off the caffeine did help control the frequency. So I shouldn't have the nasty side effects of caffeine withdrawal.

And I do like other beverages. I can drink water, especially if I keep it in a wide-mouth cup or bottle and especially if it's cool. I've found lately that I like other things diluted with water -- juice, Gatorade in summer, iced tea. I adore lassi in all flavors, particularly mango. I just need to re-train myself to grab one of those things FIRST.

I have quit before....usually I last about a week. Then, something stressful happens, or I'm in a store and I see a good sale, and BAM! I'm back where I started. Hopefully, having to "report" will keep me in line.

I don't want to tell myself I can never have another Pepsi, ever again, but I do want to quit for at least 30 days and then see how, or if, it still fits in my life.

So: I had my last soda on Saturday afternoon, and since it was a fountain-drink I'm happy to say it was disgusting and gave me no pleasure at all. It was a good way to end it. I'm tired -- I've come to rely on those sugar rushes to power me through the day -- and cranky and vaguely headachy, but since waking up at 4:30 this morning, I've downed a good 20 oz of water, which in the past is more water than I've had in a week.

Calluna

[escapee]

I've found lately that I like other things diluted with water -- juice, Gatorade in summer, iced tea.

Congrats in making the change, but beware of other "natural" sweeteners like fructose, HFCS or sucrose on canned fruit juice and pre sweetened ice tea . There are equally bad though not the level of soda.

In medicine, the first alarms about the link between sugar consumption and heart disease were sounded by Yudkin in the late 1960s. At the time, he was chairman of the department of nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College, London. Disturbed by inconsistencies in the evidence linking animal fats to heart disease, Yudkin began searching for another dietary factor.


An expert in carbohydrate metabolism, he initially focused on sucrose consumption. In laboratory and human tests, he found that sucrose increased blood levels of cholesterol, triglyceride, uric acid, insulin, and cortisol - all associated with an increased risk of heart disease. Sucrose also raised blood pressure and increased the fragility of blood platelet cells, making them more prone to clotting.


As dramatic as those findings were, the real surprise came when Yudkin substituted fructose for sucrose in his experiments. "The effects of eating sucrose in the quantities we eat are magnified with fructose. Fructose is the dangerous part," he said. In contrast, glucose did little more than cause cavities.

YouTube - Your Kids Are Being Deceived

[MamaDuck]

Congrats and best wishes to you!

[Justis]

Calluna,

I too have been trying to kick the soda habit, but it is so difficult. I also have a little bit of a "soda stomach," but the dark fizz is powerful. I don't drink it for the caffeine either, I just really enjoy the taste. Anyway, you've inspired me enough to try to kick it once and for all again. (I've tried this before)

Keep us posted as to your progress, so that I might be able to keep motivated this time. My biggest problem is that I'll kick it for a few days, but then (just like you said.....) I'll have a bad day at work, and I'll end up rewarding myself with a soda. So we'll see.

Good luck on the challenge.

Justis

[da1prophet]

Originally Posted by Justis

Calluna,

I too have been trying to kick the soda habit, but it is so difficult. I also have a little bit of a "soda stomach," but the dark fizz is powerful. I don't drink it for the caffeine either, I just really enjoy the taste. Anyway, you've inspired me enough to try to kick it once and for all again. (I've tried this before)

Keep us posted as to your progress, so that I might be able to keep motivated this time. My biggest problem is that I'll kick it for a few days, but then (just like you said.....) I'll have a bad day at work, and I'll end up rewarding myself with a soda. So we'll see.

Good luck on the challenge.

Justis

As I wrote in another thread on a subject, I've eliminated virtually all soda (as well as other forms of caffeine and sugar from my diet). If I go out to eat or something I'll occasionally have a Coke and here's the good news--the less you drink the better it tastes! Back when I was guzzling Coke all day it was just out of habit more than anything else and I was pretty oblivious to the taste. Now when I have a Coke damn it tastes good!

Water is of course the best thing you can drink, but there's a lot of other good healthy options. When I want something cold I now drink either iced green tea (without sweetener--I recommend Tazo Zen) or cranberry juice (again unsweetened). If I want something hot I'll have a chai latte with soy milk. Oregon Chai now makes individual packages of their concentrate in powder form--you can buy them at most decent grocery stores in a box of 8. Green or other herbal tea is also a great hot drink...

The moral of the story is that your effort to give up soda will be much more successful if you find a healthier alternative that you like instead of just forcing yourself into denial of anything brown, sweet and fizzy...like I said, I still enjoy a Coke from time to time but I can't say that it tastes any better than iced green tea, a fruit smoothy or a chai latte...

[Kendoran]

Props for deciding on making such a huge change.

I stopped drinking soda (except for Mondays) about a month and a half ago, and all is good.

Although, I didn't do it for personal health reasons.

[calluna]

Thanks, everyone, for your comments and support. And glad to have you aboard Justis!

I needed some immediate pay-offs, and I got them.

As I said, I've quit soda before, but this is the first time I've really tried to load up on water and other drinks. Between water and diluted cran-raspberry juice (without high-fructose corn syrup, I checked!), I figure I took in between 50-60 oz -- which for me is a huge level of hydration.

Although I was tired last night after a 10+ hour workday and not much food, I did feel a lot sharper mentally. Usually, my brain slows down in concert with my body, and I have trouble doing anything at night but sit on the couch and watch TV. Last night I did manage to make dinner, clear the table, and clean up the kitchen. Doesn't sound like a lot, but for me, historic.

And when I got up this morning, I didn't have my usual sore throat and I DID have an appetite for breakfast. This usually only happens when I'm taking Prilosec OTC. So sans-carbonation, my acid reflux could go potentially go away.

Unfortunately, we lost power at our house just before we got out of bed and did not have enough time to dig out our camp stove to make any breakfast, nor did we have anything we could eat cold, so I couldn't actually feed myself right away.

In any case, I needed an incentive to keep going with my experiment, and I got it.

Off to refill the water bottle,

Calluna

[ndc]

I quit both Diet Mountain Dew AND meat on January 16th. I'm trying them both out for 30 days. The reason it was Jan 16th is because the meat part was meant as a New Year's Resolution but I had so much of it in my house, I decided to consume it rather than waste it. I did end up giving a few things away because I was really motivated to get started. The meat part is moral and the mountain dew was because of heartburn.

Good news is that the heartburn has lessened (still get it occasionally but not everyday like before), and cutting out meat isn't as hard as I thought it might be. It really isn't and I'm suprised. Granted it has only been about 20 days or so, but I'm still pretty proud. The weird thing is is that I've told my family about the pop, but not the meat. Maybe I'll confess after the 30 days is over because I'm pretty confident it's going to be permanent.

Oh one more thing. I went bowling about a week ago and I ordered a Diet Dew and some chips and didn't notice what I had done until I got halfway thru the pop! I wasn't too hard on myself because I honestly didn't do it on purpose. It kind of gave me a chuckle!

[ChefSalad]

It's forty-seven straight days since I drank a pop and I couldn't be happier. Exercise has gotten easier, weight gets lost faster and food tastes better. I love it. And this is coming from a man who used to drink (no joke!) a 12-pack a day minimum. Sometimes as many as 24 cans in a day. And, no, I didn't just switch to something else. I drink pretty much only water (although I do have a chai now and then and I still occasionally drink coffee and tea (unsweetened, of course)).

This quitting pop is probably the easiest thing I've ever, once I did it. Thee way I did it was simple. First, I planned to drink 12-ounces of water every time I thought about drinking pop. Second, I didn't give myself the option of drinking pop. I told myself that drinking pop was along the same lines and shooting humans; it's just not something that I'm capable of doing. It works. It really works.

[lolly]

Well it seems congrates on in order. This is the first step in getting healthly i believe. So keep at it and you will succeed. I have only been soda free for two weeks but i can do it.

[calluna]

Well, the bumps in the non-soda-drinking road had to come sooner or later...

My husband and I work long, hard days (not by our own choice, it's just the way our jobs are for a moment), and I guess I've been relying on those sugar jolts even more than I realized. I've been exhausted, unable to do even minimal exercise to try to rev myself up, and reaching for other forms of sugar to try to keep in forward motion.

Quitting soda is great, but eating a candy bar for breakfast is not.

So clearly, for me, this is just one piece of the dietary/lifestyle puzzle. You cannot withdraw 1/4 of a cup of sugar a day from your diet and then replace it with whatever sugar or carb you have on hand. Increased water intake alone isn't going to do it. With a little extra rest today, I might be able to figure out what to fill those holes with.

Calluna

[escapee]

What about filling the hole with grapes
Grapes are tasty and nutritious. Grape skin is loaded with Resveratrol

David Sinclair of the Harvard Medical School has found that resveratrol increases the production of a protein called SIRT1, though it has not yet been confirmed in humans. In theory this could increase human lifespans dramatically.[2]

[calluna]

As it happens, I am very fond of grapes.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[ChefSalad]

Calluna: Fruit is definitely what you replace pop with. Grapes work pretty well, but are somewhat expensive (at least where I live) compared to apples, oranges, bananas, etc. And you can always keep small pieces of hard candy around in case of emergency. Just don't hooked on the candy lest you have to quit that next.

[ElizaJ]

I hardly ever buy soda pop, but drink it on rare occasions. There's a spanish saying that says: Once a year, have no fear. Meaning that anything that is done irregularly should be harmless.

[nantucketsunset]

i haven't read any of the the quitting soda threads, but i have one word:
neurotoxins!

aspartame is really a powerful thing.

i was a diet coke addict for 20 years. starting when i was 14 drinking Tab and working at a fast food restaurant part-time - it was free, and i would have big cups of it all day. the night before big exams in high school and college, i would drink a 2-liter bottle of diet coke while studying. later i cut back to 2 cans a day but religiously i had those 2 cans, for years and years.

2 years ago due to health problems/concerns i stopped having it and it was hard. i can still look at a glass full of bubbling liquid joy and just want to guzzle it down, but i have been cold turkey in all this time. i still crave it.

i also stopped having artificial additives, colours, sweeteners, flavourings. yes it is incredibly hard to find food, especially prepared food that i can just grab off the supermarket shelf, but my health is worth the bother.

regarding MSG, i have always gotten migraines and thrown up from even the tiniest amount of MSG, but when i learned that it comes in 60 different chemical names on food labels, and that even "organic" "additive-free" foods can have MSG-related chemicals in them, i was forced to pay very close attention or otherwise suffer these frequent headaches and periods of ill health. there are websites out there with all the different chemical names it can be called on food labels if you want to look into it.

i think aspartame/nutrasweet does a huge number on our bodies, especially our brain cells. it mimics brain chemicals, which is why people with the brain chemical disorder phenylketonuria can't drink it. i think it alters the serotonin balance.

if you are interested in learning more about what some people have against aspartame/nutrasweet/artificial sweeteners/msg, there are books and websites about it - some of their writings & rantings can seem a bit far-fetched, but people whose bad, honest experiences are not believed or honoured by the majority often can get a little strident in their tone.

even if a product is "approved" for human consumption by the FDA (just as the cancer-causing red food coloring was for decades) of course the FDA is not perfect, is not immune to political bias, is not immune to commercial interests. donald rumsfeld was the CEO of Nutrasweet when Bush senior's government forced the FDA to approve it even though it's the most-complained about substance in FDA history.

you've got to judge for yourself. do a steve-type experiment for 30 days and see how you feel.

personally i feel a hundred times healthier after giving up all the artificial additives, especially my beloved diet coke.

i lost 17 pounds as well, which i've kept off for 3 years, but i don't think that was due to stopping drinking diet coke. i actually think the weight loss was due to stopping exercising so much, paradoxically (see steve's post of about a year and a half ago about weight and food and exercise - it's not simply calories in, calories out the way some think it is)

to ease my craving for carbonation (which carbonated mineral water does NOT do for me), i drink 4-8 ounces every once in a while of additive-free tonic water, which is delicious and bubbly.

the additive-free kind is hard to find. even normal soft drinks (non-diet ones that are loaded with sugar) like Schweppes normal tonic water have saccharine and aspartame in them now. it's a chemical onslaught on consumers for no good reason... now, i wonder why they put aspartame and saccharine in a sugar-filled drink that was made and happily consumed for 40 years without it? would it be for the stealth physical effects of it on consumers? this stuff is not without effects.

when i think about what we are allowing growing children to consume, i am not surprised at how mixed-up, disordered, distressed, and obese many of them are. and we as adults are. why is the richest country in the world so unhealthy and unhappy? it is such a shame.

[calluna]

Hi All,

As of tomorrow, I will have completed my fourth straight week without a single Pepsi. A personal best.

What's even better is that I have no real desire to have one. I can walk past a cold case or a big grocery store display without even a twitch.

The only challenge I haven't met yet is going to a restaurant, because I always have soda at a restaurant, no matter how fancy (pathetic, I know) but I don't think that will prove to be a huge problem. The craving is pretty much gone.

I'm still not hydrating as much as I would like, but I'm pretty much sticking to water and heavily diluted (no sugar or HFCS added) juices.

The next goal is to go another four months at least. My birthday is at the end of June, so that would be the logical goal -- to say I could have one on my birthday if I wanted it. I may not even want it.

Calluna