Wow, I always check to see if anyone's started any interesting groups I'd like to be a part of, and BAm! You started one Goodwin38! Diet Soda, was large part of my diet. I put down, a 12 pack a day on average. Weekends a little more. It's crazy, but I would be "chain" drinking them all day it seemed like. Then in Feb, I decided I was going to drop soda cold turkey. I'm at 24 days of No Soda whatsoever. When I see the 20 oz. Sodas at Walmart, part of me wants to reach over and grab one in the checkout line. Then I have to remind myself of the mission. It's really like being an addict. I know if I go back I'll probably never quit again. Such is the power of soda.


That's supposed to read "Diet Soda" on the title

I would love to join, but I'm still trying to determine whether this is something I could even do. Although I don't drink a ton of Diet Soda, I do partake in too much artificial sweetener overall (coffee, tea, pepsi, etc). My current strategy is to drink as much water as possible, hoping I don't miss it.

Good luck!

I recently went cold turkey. Kind of.

After years of drinking soda I worked up to the point of drinking 6 cans of Coke Classic a day. That's 930 calories a day! On liquids! With no nutritional benefit! *swoon*

About a year ago I started to think about getting healthy (yes "thinking about" I'm like a glacier, in many different ways), one of the most immediate and easiest changes I could see was my Coke addiction. I switched over to Coke Zero and about 3 months later I had lost 15 lbs. That's not too bad! Then, after plateauing on my Coke Zero diet I started to look for help in the very confusing world of nutrition and exercise. I found the Body-For-Life book at a half priced/used bookstore. Best $11 I ever spent. After a week following the plan I asked myself why I was willing to keep putting fluids into my body that gave no benefit whatsoever while I'm busting my ass in the gym. Well, a light bulb went off and I told myself I had to stop. And I did. Cold turkey. After only a year.

Diet Coke was a crutch for me, the sweet taste and the wonderful caffiene high that helped to fuel my day. 5-6 diet cokes a day, 7 days a week. WOW. What a difference without the soda since I have been following the EFL meals. Has anyone else felt the effects of eliminating the caffiene?? I still have 1 on my free day, otherwise my relationship with diet coke is over!!!!!

I would recommend everyone try the new Vitamin Water V-10 line of drinks- the V-10 stands for only 10 calories and is packed with vitamins. I am a Coke man ,(literally),so i know what I am talking about.

Wow, I've tried to quit coke and diet coke several times in my life. The most I've ever made it was 5 months, but I wanted it every day. I'm not ready to join y'all yet, but its a crutch I would love to give up this year.

As I sit here drinking my diet coke, I have decided to give it up starting tomorrow. I start Challenge 3 tomorrow so what better time, right?! I am not looking forward to the headache that I usually get when going without one however. Hope it doesn't last long!

I am a major Diet Coke drinker and need this badly - not sure I want to try and tackle this quite yet but it will be soon....

I can relate to all of you! Maybe I can give you some hope in this fight. I have been off Diet Coke for eight years now. I really do feel like it was a major addiction in my life. I would wake up and have a diet coke. My family would laugh at me, but I decided it couldn't be any worse than having coffee in the morning. Of course I didn't just have one dc. I would have several all day!

The turning point came when I became pregnant with my first child. I gave up all caffeine cold turkey! I am happy to say that I haven't had a dc since.

I occasionally have a decaf diet coke. When I say occasionally, I mean I have one every three or four months. I don't miss it anymore. I really enjoy how refreshing water is.

I know you all can do it! What a great group to start! I'm sure there are many people dealing with this issue.

Best to all of you!
Christine

Well, I officially quit drinking Diet Coke twice!! in Sept of 2008 I gave it up pretty much cold turkey, replaced the DC with water and everything was good... So I thought.... Go to find out my 110 over 70 blood pressure within about 3 weeks sky rocketed to 150-160 over 110... I became really hyper tensive and was put on water pills to help with the tension.. Doctor believed my body was so dependent on the caffeine and what ever else I couldn't function with out the Dyaretic. Didn't really cut my blood pressure down at all, so I started drinking a DC or two a day to help.. it did a little, but not near enough.. So the Dr.. put me on a good blood pressure med, which ultimately brought my bottom number down but the first number stayed 130-150.. So now I take the water pill every day and a blood pressure pill to keep it under control. July 31st I quit DC again as part of my starting my own Transformation on August 1st... I am sure stopping the pills will be around the corner as I am constantly around 110-65 I hope that the meds have helped the body regulate and with the exercise Iam doing now I will be able to function again normally!

Scott

This was a recent success for me. I had been addicted to diet pepsi for over 10 years. I just quit around 8 weeks ago. When you set your mind to actually doing it it is not so bad. Good luck everyone else! I wish you success!

I do this also. I am not ready to give this up yet. I want to though...

Hi everyone!

For as long as I can remember, I drank Diet Coke and/or Diet Pepsi whenever I had the chance. I've never really liked water or any other carbonated drinks available on the market. I used to drink well over a litre of pop (aka "soda" in the US!!) a day. Last year, on January 5th, 2009, I decided to cut it out of my diet cold turkey. I'll be honest with you: it took me well over 6-7 months before I can say the cravings were gone!! My ultimate goal back then was to make it to 365 days without any kind of pop... I MADE IT!! The most difficult part for me is that I used pop as a crutch... whenever I had a chocolate craving or wanted to eat junk of any kind, I could usually subside the craving with a Diet Coke. Last year, I struggled a bit with my challenges because I no longer had that pop to get me through those cravings! Regardless, I feel much better today, drink more water, milk, vitamin infused drinks and tea. People ask me all the time what my plans are for the future with regards to pop. For now, I've decided to never go back to Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi. However, if I have a glass of non-alcoholic punch and it contains 7-up or Ginger Ale, that's OK. In the past year (during my 365 day mini challenge) I wouldn't have even considered drinking that punch (or whatever else) if it contained pop!!

Good luck to all of you and I can assure you that, if I can do it, ANYONE can!!! My family will vouch for that...

Renelle xx

Still off the diet pepsi, one demon off my back! Not suffering at all. Don't even miss it. John

growing up, it was a tradition in my house to make pizza on saturday nights. The perfect companion is a coke, or chinoto drink. That was the only day of the week i actually drank soda. I'm not a beer drinker either. I thought I was safe with a non-carbonated choice like ice tea. Low and behold, iced tea also has a lot of sugar. Most restaurants do not carry diet iced tea. I was never really addicted to the sugary drinks. Juices also are high in sugar, without the fibre and good stuff of the whole fruit. I was Just unaware of the bad choices I was making. Nowadays, I order a bottle of water, or mineral water with a slice of lime to change it up once in a while.

It seems that I go in cycles when it comes to sodas. During my wife's pregnancy, she craved Coke, so then I craved Coke. Before that, we were Sprite/7Up drinkers. Since we've had our baby, the Cola cravings are still there for her, but I've switched to those 7.5 oz. Diet Cokes. I just have one or two every week. It's like a treat. I love water, but I just have to have something else to sip on every once in awhile.

I was addicted on diet cola for 5 years. Ended up with bladder cancer in Sept. 2006 from all the chemicals, dye and artificial sweetner!!! Was shocked because it is marketed as such a fun, refreshing all American drink. By the grace of God and Chinese herbs I was quickly and totally healed in just 3 months. Honestly, I have still had bouts of drinking it during hot weather (although limited to just one bottle and drank lots of water to hopefully negate some of the negative effects). Was thrilled when the new smaller size bottle came out last summer. However, I really know for me that this stuff is deadly. This winter I switched to one cup of organic coffee in the morning instead and am now free from soda. It feels great to no longer have that compulsion and to make healthier choices instead. - Nancy