Everyday Systems

I have a long battle with diet soda. I really want to quit but never seem to be able to. I'm toying with the idea of including the soda in the no sweets, no snacks, no seconds list. I have tried several times to quit and I'm thinking that this might help me to do it and it won't taste very good once I get away from it for a bit.

Has anyone had success doing this?

Jo

And again my universal solution for nearly everything:

Exercise!

Exercise and drink plain water after it.

By exercising you will invoke a real thirst and make it a habbit to quench it with water. The water "tastes" better if you are thirsty and becomes a real alternative to soda.

4islandgirls wrote:I have a long battle with diet soda.
I really want to quit but never seem to be able to.
I'm toying with the idea of including the soda in the no sweets, no snacks, no seconds list.

Sounds like a bad idea to me.
A waste of a potential modification.
Hear or read what Reinhart's podcasts have to say about extra restrictions.

I agree with BrightAngel. I wouldn't try it until I had at least a couple of months or more of mostly green N days without the added restriction. In four years, I've never given up using stevia during the week in between-meals lattes and mochas. Some people wouldn't say that is against the rules, but others say it's just prolonging the attachment to sweet. I just know I haven't been willing to face it! And when I'm out and about and can't use stevia, I succumb to sweet toxins.

It does seem that long termers on No S end up reducing their intake of manufactured foods in general, though most don't restrict themselves to that right off the bat. I've clung to my non-purist stance, but probably eat WAY more whole foods than the average American bear. You probably will, too, if you stick with it.

I used to be a diet cola fiend, but I had cut down a lot even before No S. It was because I finally heard of a health problem associated with it that I actually believed and wasn't willing to keep taking the chance of tempting even if it was wrong. But I still have them sometimes.

If you really believe diet cola is poison, you'll stop drinking it or cut way down, at least. If you're basically kidding yourself in order to convince yourself, I gently suggest you stop torturing yourself. Enjoy it when you really want, and see if your desire wanes as time goes on.

I think food is very different from booze or drugs. Strict moderation is probably enough for the hordes when it comes to food, especially when it's everywhere.

I'm not sure if you've tried zevia before, but it's supposed to be a naturally sweetened soda with no calories. It says that it's made from the Stevia plant and once you get used to the flavor, it's pretty good. When I need something sweet or I'm sick of water, I drink a Zevia and it usually works for me.

For the health issue I was talking about, it's not the sweetener that makes the difference.

oh, okay Sorry, oolala53. That would kind of stink to not be able to have even a substitute for regular soda. I understand though that you have to do what you have to do for your health. Even if it means giving up all types of sodas

Actually, it's not much of a sacrifice to me anymore, but thanks!

Hiya, I stopped drinking diet soda (and by default soda in general) after about 1 1/2 years of good compliance. The way I stopped was giving it up for lent and when I got through lent I never really wanted it again. Weird, eh? But it's actually quite disgusting, which you would notice if you had given it up for long enough for your taste buds to get more sensitive again.

Anyways, when it really starts to annoy you then by all means give it up but I would just do a 40 day challenge instead of making it an S because that would keep you wanting it and it's an unnecessary extra restriction, while if you just don't have it and lose the taste for it, that's different.

Notice eschano did the challenge after a year and a half of No S...

You could do it early by starting it during Advent. But I don't know what you'll have with your rum at those Christmas parties. Guess you'll have to stick to hot toddies.

Yes, exactly as oolala said (thank you for clarifying as I would have hated to be misunderstood): it was well into NoS and I don't recommend doing it too early. Advent sounds like another brilliant suggestion of oolala's as there'll be plenty of hot drinks to substitute it with

I am a soda addict, though I prefer the full-sugar variety. It is one of my emotional addictions. I crave it when I am stressed or anxious - it can get pretty ugly. I count all soda (including diet) as an S to be avoided during the week . I have also noticed that when I actually manage to stay away from it during the week and have it on the weekend, it starts tasting too sweet and syrupy. Then for me it is a matter of acknowledging that the taste has changed, rather than insisting on drinking it just for the sake of drinking it (or drinking it because I don't want to waste it.)

I would say try making soda an S-item during the weekdays and see what happens. Then on the weekends, think of it as a choice among many other options. I am doing my best to have available more of a variety of drink choices on the weekend (my new iced tea mix, juice, Koolaid, sweetened coffee) instead of just running out and buying a 24 pack of Coke and binge drinking it.

Good luck on whatever you decide.

Wow, thanks for all the replies. Exercise makes no difference. I have exercised consistently for the last 20 years and also drank diet coke for that entire time. The two aren't related in my mind.

While I have only been NoSing for 5 months, I feel pretty solid in my habits. It just clicked for me and I don't look as cheating as an option. Knock on wood, but I haven't had a red day yet. This has been through 5 months of not easy stuff. I went on a cruise, my mother passed away & I spent 2 weeks away dealing with that and I am going thru a divorce and having some major custody issues. Not being able to use food as an emotional crutch has been a major benefit to me, as I have had to deal with the real issues. I had a couple of S days where I got back into emotional eating and it just made me more of a mess, it didn't help matters at all. While life has been hard, I feel like I can handle things so much better without trying to eat my problems away.

The last month or so, I have been desiring to improve the quality of food on my plate. I'm kinda sick of a plate of anything I want and the junk food I deprived myself of for years is losing it's appeal. The same thing is happening with diet coke, I want it out of my life. I was just thinking about how NoS has really helped with what I thought was a major sweet addiction. Sweets have lost their hold on me and they don't even taste that good anymore. But part of that is because they aren't forbidden, I can have them, I just don't want them that much. Not sure if it would transfer to diet coke, it might be a different monster?

I'm so delighted that NoS is a positive thing in your life. It all sounds like one of those extremely tough times and it's great to have a healthy routine to anchor you.

If you're sick of diet coke then it's the right time. I suggest replacing your daily diet coke with green tea for now (or whatever tea you want) and just kick it. Unlike food diet coke is not good for you, even moderately. If you need a Nday/Sday transition go for it, otherwise I suggest you try going without it for 40 days and while desperation hits around day 20 if you make it through it won't taste anything but disgusting by day 40.

That said, be kind to yourself, as you seem to have enough going on without the diet coke withdrawal.

Thanks Eschano. I made it yesterday without any diet soda. It's weird after all these years of daily intake and there really is no physical dependency. I just want it when I'm stressed, but I don't have any headaches without it. The hardest times are between 11 and 2. Once I make it past that, I'm home free for the day. Well, unless I go out to eat at dinner, that might be hard. I had tea yesterday and I can already tell that the bloat is beginning to decrease. That was my biggest beef with it, I felt like it made me really puffy all the time. Plus all the damage it was doing that I couldn't see.

I am marking 40 days on my calendar and am anxiously looking forward to having this habit behind me for good!

~Jo

Well done for the first day! Yay you!!!

And I would apply the same principle to the 40 days as to NoS - if it's a red day mark it and move on. Don't throw out the progress you already made

If you like podcasts, right after I heard this one:
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/atlc ... toff/14520
a few years back, I quit drinking diet soda that very day.

There's some interesting information in here. Most notably, they discovered the formula for making splenda when they were researching making pesticides. Gross!

Wow, I'll have to check that podcast out when I get a quite moment.

Today is Day#4 without soda and so far, so good. I think that NoS has given me confidence that I can live without certain foods and it is no big deal!


~Jo

Just wanted to give an update. It's been 42 days since giving up diet soda. I did have one during that time & it tasted really flat & I didn't finish it.

I have tried many times to give it up & I never even made it a day. I credit noS for the confidence that I could do it. After going without sweets, snacks & seconds for 5 months, without dying, I had the confidence to give up the soda.

And it was even hard.....

~Jo

It was or wasn't?

Either way, if that's what you wanted, good for you! Though we are coming in to summer now... I still like a soda sometimes when it's really hot. But I don't have them mindlessly anymore.

I'm glad you've had such a good run, and that this was relatively easy for you

I gave up drinking all types of soda a few years ago when pregnant with my son, and just never really took it up again. It's strange that something that once felt so compelling can now feel like such a non-issue. Plus it is a lot cheaper this way.

Once, at about 30 weeks pregnant, I drank a full sugar orange soda at a party and the bub started bouncing off the walls. I didn't experiment with that again!

My garden yielded a lot of strawberries this year, so I made strawberry syrup and rhubarb syrup to make my own sodas. Very delicious, but very unwise as I'm the only one who drank it. I have to stick with jam.

Even tho' I'm having a hard time with eating right now, I'm am learning about what works and doesn't work. Now to apply it...

I have a sodastream--which I adore. I make bubbly water every day and flavor it with natural essences. I love meyer lemon juice in it--but you can buy other essences which have no sweetener. The grapefruit one is great. Or sometimes I buy the highly highly concentrated juice bottles (I love the pomegranite one) and just pour a teaspoon in. Just a thought.