How to get unhooked from soda

(Ben Davis) #1

Been keto for about a year now. I know that artificial sweeteners are controversial on keto, and some create an insulin response and others do not. Before keto, I was a sodaholic. I went to diet soda, mostly diet root beer and sometimes diet Pepsi/Coke - and I’m still not completely away yet. I drink a lot more water than I used to and I discovered bulletproof tea which I have as a treat most days, but I still can’t stop drinking soda. It’s totally a mental thing. When I drink it, it doesn’t make me feel good. It makes my tummy a bit sour. But I still crave it like an addiction. When I don’t have it and I just refill my bottle with water again, I feel saddened that I’m “sacrificing” and having water. I am totally good with no more sugar or carbs and never cheat there, and I want to stop drinking diet soda, but I just can’t get there. It doesn’t help that my workplace has a free, unlimited supply of the stuff.

Any mental tips for me to convince myself to not drink diet soda anymore? I know I don’t truly like it and it’s not the best thing for me, but I also don’t believe it’s really hurting me much either, so that’s my fallback to the abusive behavior. Soda and I have a very disfunctional relationship and I just want it to be over. Help! :smile:

(Mary Ann) #2

Hey there. I went cold turkey on diet soda a few months ago. For me it didn’t prevent ketosis,weight loss, etc. But I felt so addicted to it. I was addicted to it. I would get headaches if I didn’t have my Coke Zero even if I was supplementing with other forms of caffeine!

All I can say is that for me I had to go cold turkey. And here’s something that I didn’t anticipate-- after about a week normal water started tasting sweet. I don’t mean sweet like soda. But now drinking water is a treat! I never thought I would say that!!

Maybe if it’s difficult you could commit to giving it up for a week or two only. You can then promise yourself you could go back. It’s always good to get a baseline of what soda is doing for you or not doing for you.

(Siobhan) #3

Exact same situation!!! I find coffee with butter, good quality tea, water, and some sugar free electrolyte powder with carbonation helps a ton!

I used to drink 4 cans a day on weekdays because of the dang unlimited supply at work.
Every time I go up to get some soda I stop and remember I do NOT actually like it. I am drinking it out of habit or boredom or whatever.
If a craving gets really bad Ill take half a thing of electrolyte powder with a bottle of water, and get some carbonation and salt which seems to help.

I have taken it from 4 a day, to 1 at noon and 1 at 3. So 2 a day… I intend to keep weaning myself off until it is a very very rare treat.

I have heard lacroix is also good! Carbonated water only no sweeteners
Zevia I find also does not make me crave (uses stevia as a sweetener).

Above all I congratulate myself when I pick something instead of diet soda.
On the upper hand my water intake is way up

(Siobhan) #4

Coke Zero has Ace-K which stimulates insulin and glucose production! No wonder you felt addicted!

Very dangerous stuff

(Sheri Knauer) #5

I quit drinking soda cold turkey over a year ago. I used to need at least 1 diet coke a day. What I recently started drinking though, (not because I missed having or started craving soda) is a bottle of Perrier and a bottle of Bai mixed together. I keep it in a container large enough to hold both and will pour a glass of it once a day or every other day too. My kids like it too and I let them drink it since I tell them no to soda. The perrier gives you that bit of fizz and the Bai gives the flavor. I like Bai but think it can be a bit too sweet so the Perrier cuts it perfectly. Bai does have carbonated flavors but I don’t particularly like the ones a tried. Maybe a way to transition yourself off of soda. Plus, you can add as much or as little of the Perrier as you want if you prefer it a little sweeter or not as sweet.
P.S. Costco has both Bai and Perrier on sale right now…

(Mitchell Broadway) #6

I was a Diet Mountain Dew addict, I mean bad. I would stop on the way to work and get a 64oz fountain diet dew, have a couple 20oz out of the soda machine at work and then probably another 64oz for the ride home. I knew it was bad for me; aspartame, yellow #5 etc, but I just kept drinking the stuff.

The week before starting Keto I decided to go cold turkey. It was a miserable week, worse than Keto induction by far. Headaches, body aches, no energy, it was nasty.

3 weeks later I am totally over it. I can walk by a Diet Dew no problem now, so grateful I’m done with that mess. For me its the same as Keto, I have gained control of what I am putting my body. Anything thats so addictive that its starts to control you needs to go.

Eat natural, drink natural and leave the science projects alone.

(Alison) #7

Hey Ben, I’m a total newbie, just started May 27th… but the first thing I did was break up with Diet Coke (2 liter a day habit for 20 years - 100% addict - would’ve crawled to store if I’d had to if I was ever out of Diet Coke) and champagne (2+ glasses daily, depending on weekday or weekend) and all artificial sweeteners. I NEVER thought I would be able to give them up, and imagined feeling SOOO deprived. HOW could I ever do it? Diet Coke + Champagne were my lifestyle, I was actually known and celebrated for this! I made a decision I wanted to fix my metabolism, and really give my body a chance to repair it’s systems. I wanted this to ‘work’. I just jumped in and cut them out cold turkey. Shockingly, this totally worked. (I was stunned and am still in a bit of disbelief) I no longer desire them, think about them, or feel deprived. The hardest bit was the first three days, during which I didn’t actually crave soda or champagne, but craved the 5 calorie stevia sweetened fruit flavored waters, oddly. I added fresh squeezes of lime juice to my water for the first few days, that helped. I drank a lot of perrier for the carbonation, that made the water feel more special too. Then, I lost the desire for the lime/flavor/fizz, and somehow naturally began craving plain tap water. It feels quite foreign and bizarre to me, and like the impossible has happened.

I highly recommend trying cold turkey (I’ve tried moderation and ‘kind of’ quitting several times before and that’s when I felt totally deprived and fell off the horse) and focusing on enjoying citrus or carbonated water, or even fancy glasses to make the water pretty and special, if you eat and drink with your eyes like I do. (even a special mug with a saying you like) Make your option way more appealing than the soda supply at work, just blow that work soda off as though it’s not high quality or good enough for you anymore - you eat only gorgeous whole foods… diet soda doesn’t make the cut. If a dash of lemon or lime appeals to you, stock them everywhere, at home, at work, in the car… keep a knife handy too. (If you’re doing fast food for a meat patty, be sure to bring your own water or you will actually feel deprived and disappointed, fast food water tastes awful!) You can totally do this! The first three days, yes, are pure will… and you may have to steel yourself to just power through… and then, if you’re like me, a miracle will happen and you just won’t care if you have the stuff any more, my ‘Beast’ just disappeared. I wish you all the best, and if you try cold turkey, I hope you find the same results!!! *The Bai is the one I was craving in first three days, so I personally have to avoid it altogether, I think the artificial sweeteners may trigger unwanted responses in me, either chemically or mentally, or maybe both

(Jennifer) #8

Dt. Mt. Dew was my poison too. I stopped years ago and I pretty much just drink tea. I don’t like coffee, so I need to get my caffeine somehow. lol…

LeCroix is good and I like the Bai Bubbles, but I could see cutting the regular Bai with a complimenting LeCroix flavor… Hmmm, I will have to try that.

Sweetness triggers eating with me so I still stay away from all sweeteners when I fast.

(Crow T. Robot) #9

Maybe try making something that can take its place and it could be good for you as well: Ketorade.

You can play around with the recipe, but I find it did the trick for me when I felt like a drink that wasn’t water. The recipe is on the site somewhere, AKA ‘ketoade’ or ‘keto-ade’.

(KB Keto) #10

I found my lure was less to the drink and more to the fizzy-bubbly. I’ve replaced it with lacroix or other flavored sparkling waters (no artificial sweeteners, etc.)

(Ben Davis) #11

Wow - thanks for so many in-depth replies and so quickly!

So here goes - I will use this thread as my accountability. :wink:

Here are my reasons why I no longer drink soda of any kind:

  1. I don’t like it
  2. It makes me feel bad when I drink it
  3. If I drink a lot of it, I pay for it later…
  4. When I drink it, I am supporting BIG SODA and that only hurts the world by helping their success.
  5. Some studies have shown that diet soda drinkers are not generally healthier than drinkers of the HFCS versions.
  6. I am accountable to people on the Ketogenic Forums that I will let down if I drink it!
(KetoCowboy) #12

Hey Ben,

I’m a recovering sodaholic as well. Kicking soda was the only resolution that came out of my reading The Case Against Sugar. I went cold turkey without a moment’s hesitation because Taubes made me understand how terrible it is to drink sugar.

As for diet soda, I don’t think there’s similarly compelling evidence about how bad it is for you, but I do buy the argument that most artificial sweeteners wreck our microbiome.

So maybe you can reprogram yourself to think about how diet soda may 1) kill off beneficial gut bacteria, 2) trigger cravings for more sugary drinks; & 3) cause an insulin spike in certain circumstances.

All 3 of those possibilities are too dangerous for me to flirt with, so I now drink uinsweetened iced tea like mad. I genuinely find iced tea more refreshing than soda because it’s so crisp and light, but if you know you’ll miss carbonation, then maybe you can find a low-sugar komboucha (2% sugar max) to have as a daily carbonated treat. Since komboucha is a probiotic, it might just reverse some of the damage that diet soda possibly did to your gut bacteria.

(Danielle) #13

I too am a recovering soda-holic. My drug of choice: Full Octane Pepsi (not diet, or caffeine free)… I’ve never been one to drink diet anything. Pepsi is my gateway drug. Usually this is the first thing I crave when I’m having a bad day or upset in anyway. Back in my CICO days; this was the first thing I gave up and the first thing I went back to when I needed comfort. I’ve been Keto/LC since Aug 2016. I think I’ve had a total of 4 12oz cans of Pepsi in that time. I try to use Pepsi like other sweets; as a treat for special occasions; and it seems to be working pretty well for me.

I drink a lot of water, and added sparkling water to my evening meal. I add some fruit juice, just an oz or 2 and this is very refreshing and I very rarely crave Pepsi anymore. My bad moments are in time of stress, but for the most part, I’m able to ignore these moments.

I would suggest asking your work if they will stock sparkling waters for you. I will tell you honestly, I did NOT like sparkling water when I first started drinking it; but I have come to enjoy it.

Good Luck!

(roxanna) #14

I never drink soda, but did like my sweeteners. I quit them cold turkey a few months ago. I actually enjoy the taste of coffee with no sweeteners now (took me a couple weeks to feel this way) but every time I drink coffee I think, hrm, this would be so good with sweetener. I just ignore it :slight_smile:

#15

I drank a lot of soda at one time (beverage of choice). I’ve never been a coffee person, so that was my goto caffeine source (other than when I was big into energy drinks, but the more soda like ones were my choice there anyway), and I liked the taste, variety, cheapness, availability, etc. However, I could never stand any kind of diet soda.

Anyway, when I went keto, I simply stopped drinking soda all together. After a while off of soda, I did try some zevia, but thought it was terrible as well, so didn’t try again. Pretty much I just went to water, with very occasional green tea (with maybe a bit of oil in it). I also would drink some low carb chocolate protein shakes, and still do sometimes (that’s not an every day thing, even though I could). But really, I find I just like water better than most other drinks now (at least decent water, and I can taste quality differences in water fairly strongly). Around particular occasions I go off keto for a bit (don’t recommend per se) and I’ve found often enough that when I initially try a soda I used to love, I find it pretty disgusting (way too sweet or whatever), to the point where I just can’t finish it. This is not the case with everything, but is particularly strong with soda. I guess my sensitivity to sweet jumps up a lot.

#16

I started keto Aug. 2016 and quit pop in October 2016 the same way I quit cigarettes… cold turkey. I set a date and said that’s it! I switched to kombucha as an alternative, fizzy drink, although I only drink kombucha a couple times a week now. It was hard for me to quit pop because my husband works for Pepsi, so it’s been a part of our lives as long as I’ve known him! (Although, honestly, I had a pop problem well before I met him…) I truly believe that pop (diet or not), sugar, cigarettes are all addictive and we have to look at them as such in order to be freed from them!

When you feel that craving hit, because it surely will, come back to this thread and read through the many success stories and take heart! You can do it. And each time you say no to soda, you will be flexing that self-control muscle. A muscle that gets flexed, gets stronger.

(Siobhan) #17

How could I forget about kombucha! It has that fizziness and acidity of soda but actually tastes good. Plus you can pour it into individual bottles then add a few keto friendly berries and let it ferment for few more days to get extra bubbles and flavor.

The ones I tend to find at the store usually have extra sugar added, but you can find starters on amazon.
I actually have a vacuum sealed SCOBY still that I kept in case I wanted to make a batch again… plus you can reuse mother and child (both) so buying 1 SCOBY will basically result in an endless supply if you manage it right

(Bacon for the Win) #18

you can even make your own SCOBY, I did it last summer but was in the process of building/moving so I never actually used it. Gave it to a friend who used it successfully. I had it for so long it was almost like rehoming a pet. I might try it again this summer.

#19

Ben, I used the “Dickens Process” that I learned from Tony Robbins (please have an open mind here, you asked for mental tricks) quite successfully in another area of my life that was headed the wrong direction. http://www.endlesshumanpotential.com/Super_Human_Development-dickens-process.html Also, I think there is a youtube video example of Tony doing it online. I learned it from a CD set called “Personal Power II” that is like 20 years old but still amazing. Good luck!

(Gavin Harrison) #20

I drank regular coke almost every day from the time I was in school to recently. I switched to club soda (plain) usually with lime.