Six Weeks No Soda

For a variety of reasons, I decided to end my love affair with diet soda on September 8, 2013.  Six weeks later I'm doing okay.  I know it may sound silly that I am going cold turkey off soda pop.  But I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could leave this chemical syrupy substance behind.  I have a friend who is also battling an addiction of his own.  And the only way I felt I could support him was to give up something I loved -- a demon of my own.

My diet soda love began in college when my roommates and I would drive to Hart's convenience store and fill our 32-ounce plastic refill cups with Diet Coke for just .26 cents.  We'd supplement our soda beverage with penny candies, which tempted us in the aisles where we made our purchases. Then we would try and subsist on saltine crackers and Top Ramen for the rest of the week.  Such glowing examples of healthy eating....

Diet soda became a deep addiction.  I have given it up before.  There was a four-year stint where I did not drink it.  And then, I thought, I could maybe just have a soda on weekends, or when I went to a movie, or when I went on a road trip, out for Mexican food, or pizza.  You can't eat pizza with WATER, can you? My freebies turned into dailies, which turned into an 8a.m. run to Sonic for a 44-ouncer after my carpool dropoff.

So as an addict says: I am taking it one day at a time.  I can tell you that Crystal Light powders, which add flavor to water, are helping me out.  Hint Water is another favorite.  I still get cravings for that dark brown beverage, especially when I walk by a freshly poured Coke Zero bubbling over pebble ice in a 32-ounce cup.  And I still can't bring myself to say I will NEVER have one again.  But putting it out there for the public to read is one step closer to ridding myself of this nasty habit.

I need your help.  Tell me how you have overcome an addiction.  What works?  How did you stay the course?  How did you stop your cravings?  And when can you say you are done with it?  For me, I'm one day at at time.  But hopefully those days will turn into forever.