Everyday Systems

On a NO-S day, is it forbidden to have a glass of Dr. pepper with lunch? Im trying to get vanilla no s down pat and am having some troubles. do i have to only drink a soda pop on s days?

Yeah, I would consider sugar soda a pretty clear "S." It's got an obscene amount of sugar (over 9 teaspoons in a 12 oz can). Drink diet during the week if you must -- or better yet, wait till the weekend and enjoy the real thing with a clear conscience. It'll be hard at first, but with a little practice you'll no longer crave the stuff constantly. Habit is stronger even than dr. pepper.

Reinhard

Most people consider soda is a sweet - it has so much sugar in it. You can add TONS of calories through soda.

Some people drink diet. Some don't. (I don't - fake sugar is still a "sweet" to me.)

This one wasn't hard for me - gave up soda years ago - but it's a struggle for many. Some people "mod" with cutting back to only one, etc.

Good luck in figuring out a balance you can manage.

PS - I didn't mean to give up soda, but I chose not to drink it while pregnant... and after going without it for that long, it tasted absolutely NASTY to me. So, you can lose the taste for it over time - even inadvertantly.

Ok thanks guys. I actually found that my propensity for snacking into the evening hours (after dinner) was markedly stronger when i was consuming diet coke than when i drink regular coke. It's weird, but diet coke for all these years was making me hungry all the time. I find myself satisfied with one 'regular' pop as opposed to 6 or 7 diet ones that i used to drink. But I like the idea of waiting until the weekend to enjoy a can of the real stuff without guilt!

Jumbotights
There is no doubt in my mind that when I drank diet sodas they made me INCREDIBLY hungry. Voracious. I was a clinical dietician at the time and kept religious food records of my own consumption. If I drank a diet soda, I felt driven to eat more. Lots more.
Scientifically, it could be because my body responded to the sweet taste of diet soda by producing more insulin. We do know that increasing insulin in the blood makes a person hungry.
Whatever.... I know that for some people, sugar free sweetners cause increased HUNGER. Who wants that?

Good luck,
Masher

This one habit is what keeps tripping me up. I have been a soda drinker for *years*. No snacks, no problem. No seconds, no problem. No sweets, no problem...well...except soda. It's a very bad habit that I've supported for a very long time and it's proving very hard for me to quit.

Two things I'm learning about myself through No S.
1. If I can make it past the third day, I'll be ok for the week.
2. If I have any soda on my S days it will ruin my chances for success the following week (...which turn into weekssss) because I have to start my whole "3 days to overcome struggle" all over again.
So, I'm deciding that this is one thing that will, for me, have to be off limits, always.

Heidi

This seems like one of those "your mileage may vary" areas . . . I have, for years, used diet cola as my sole source of caffeine. I drink one glass in the morning, the equivalent of a bit more than a can's worth of volume, and I didn't stop that when I started No S. It's not such a high volume that I'm worried about being killed by the not-sugar stuff in there, and I don't find that it's messing up my taste buds so much that it interferes with "no sweets". I've also never experienced the increased hunger others are mentioning, from the diet soft drinks, but I certainly know people who are affected that way (my wife, for one).

I can't stand coffee or tea (or to drink them I'd have to add so much sweetener that it would defeat the purpose), so I'll be sticking with diet cola for now. I don't think it's inherently incompatible with No S -- as usual, it depends on your own reaction to it.