I’ve realised that I’m a little too fond of fizzy drinks. It’s not a severe addiction to the point of downing gallons, but I am drinking a 330ml can of Pepsi Max almost every day. Sometimes a little more.
Depends on the reason and what you find most motivating. Addiction is tricky and it’s rarely just one thing. Caffeine is physically addictive but there’s also psych and lifestyle aspects to it.
If it’s about the caffeine, try switching to coffee or tea. If you want to go cold turkey, caffeine withdrawal peaks at about three days with symptoms lessening to minimal after about nine.
If it’s a convenience thing, try keeping a water bottle on you and just drink that. If you find water too boring or your local water tastes bad, try it carbonated and/or with a twist of lemon or other fruit. I’d suggest avoiding places where they serve it, but that’s near impossible. You could take note of what situation you’re in when you tend to do it, and try to rejig your routine around that. You could also not keep it in the house; it’s a lot easier to not put it on the shopping list than resist the temptation when it’s right there. Then there’s health and money. Of course you know they’re not great for you so I’m not going to harp on that, but you could try focusing on it more (but try to frame it in a positive way; not “ugh soda is bad”, but rather “hey drinking water is good!”), or give yourself a goal to save up for purely with what you save on soda.
permanently. no idea. temporarily a substitute is nice. hibiscus tea worked somewhat now.
tbh i don’t think a single can in a day is all that much if your diet is otherwise reasonable and balanced.
do you think it’s the bubbles or the 40-some mg of caffeine that gets you grabbing one every day?
Also, Pepsi Max is a zero calorie drink, so 1 a day is hardly a lot. Three artificial sweeteners aren’t the best for you, but OP shouldn’t feel like they are ruining their health on that.
To this point, for me, it was all about the bubbles. So replacing with a seltzer water did wonders. Sometimes I still have a craving to pound bubbles real quick.
My trick? Have severe stomach issues requiring you to cut sodas out completely, and then just cut them out. I quit full cold turkey, no more caffeine, nothing but drinking water for at least a year, and then I started with a couple teas.
That’s not that much, also are you sure it’s a “fizzy drink” addiction or instead a sugar/sweets addiction? You could try swapping out the pepsi max with an unsweetened fizzy water like Perrier or La Croix and then eventually transitioning to regular water from there, but i’m betting it’s the sweetness you are craving.
Soda hits a spot that sugary drinks without the fizz don’t. It’s why sodas taste awful when they’ve gone flat. If I buy one of those prepackaged sweet teas I can’t handle it, the sweetness is somehow overpowering for me. Same goes for most juices.
For me, sugar really brings out the flavor in things though. The sugar in a soda works to enhance the flavor, while the carbonation offsets the strength of the sugar. If I water down a soda with seltzer it’s okay, but it’s much more bland, so much less enjoyable. It really is the combination of the two that works here.
With that said, I am pretty picky with my sodas (much like everything else I’m eating or drinking, unfortunately). Anything I don’t enjoy much more than water I’ll turn down. I like colas and birch beers and cream sodas, not so much orange/grape soda or sprite.
Replace with something else - back when I was actually addicted to soda, I realized how expensive it all was and replaced it with drinking tea.
Of course, might not be viable if you’re an american.
American and I drink all types of teas???
My european mind can’t comprehend making tea without an electric kettle, something that is very rarely used in the US
Electric kettles are great and I’d love to have an adjustable temperature kettle for precise heating. I usually heat my water in the microwave because it’s quick and I only make a cup or two a day tops.
While we did dump most of our tea in boston harbor way back when, some did make it’s way through our borders since then.
Don’t break it. Switch to kombucha. Synergy raw kombucha is 60 calories per ~450mL. Fizz is from fermentation, which gives it a little bit of alcohol but with a lot of probiotics that are good for your gut biome. I keep that and flavored carbonated water in rotation, along with plenty of filtered water.
Rephrase this because you mention alcohol. Kombucha is non alcoholic and… Has .5 percent alc. Volume. So fear not people. Good for the gut microbiome too.
What about the acidity though? Personally I love the taste of highly acidic beverages, but I’m worried if I drink them too often they could fuck up my teeth.
The comments here are fucking wild.
Outside of the caffeine, there’s nothing inherently special about a fizzy drink habit that would make it remarkable from other habits when it comes to giving it up. So a guide like https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-break-a-bad-habit-202205022736 could be useful.
Wait. You can talk??
Talk? No. Type? Yes. (written from my Lappy 486)
that’s rather untrue. sugar is actually very addictive, and the quantity in soft drinks (they have additives that make them actually palatable - without they’d be so sweet you couldn’t drink much) makes them particularly problematic
OP said they’re drinking, Pepsi Max which has no sugar.
Drink fizzy water instead.
Co2 mod to a used sodastream is awesome
🤮
I’m not a fan of fizzy water either. Plain or flavored.
Sometimes a small cold Gatorade does the trick for me.
why?
Because it’s disgusting
Doesn’t have to be! Add some flavor! I was always partial to adding a bit of pineapple juice.
Whenever I see this “opinion” I think of how out of whack the person’s taste buds must be. Fizzy waters are great, they just don’t have sugar.
“you mean everyone doesn’t have the same exact taste in things that i do!?”
Not everyone likes the taste of quinine it’s super bitter bro
Tonic water has quinine. Seltzer doesn’t.
And we’re talking about fizzy water which could mean either
tonic water is further from water than vitamin water is. fizzy water means exactly 1 thing: carbonated, plain water
🤮
wrong. fizzy water is great.
opinions are like assholes etc etc
one man’s fizzy water is another man’s treasure, or something
It costs ~$150 to build your own CO2 carbonation setup. After that, refills are pretty infrequent at ~$10. That gets you relatively unlimited sparkling water.
If you’re jonesing for specific flavors, flavor powders, extracts, and raw sucralose in bulk on Amazon will run you around $20, or ~$100 total for a decent assortment. It’ll pay for itself in like a year and the powders will last you awhile.
Is it the sweetness that you’re addicted to? The fizz itself maybe? There are drinks that are sweet yet not fizzy, and there are drinks that are fizzy yet not sweet. If you can find out, you can begin to substitute less unhealthy options. Then eventually quit entirely.
I eventually switched over to sparkling water and now I find normal soda nearly undrinkable. There’s lots of different brands with all types of flavors. It’s worth exploring.
I got off of soda by drinking plenty of water in place of it. Good luck!
I did it, it started with not buying them and not including in any ordering of food, delivery or in restaurants. Step 1 was to replace it with sparking water and mixing a spoon or two of raw fruit reduction (no aded sugars or anything) (my wife kept doing this, while i did the cold turkey method i just coud not be bothered by this) Step 2 completely replace to sparkling water only. (i kinda jumped on this, but sometimes used to use my wife’s made fruit reduction, or sometimes she bought that from a local store, and sometimes i just felt fancy so, there is a method for a drink and here is how it goes.: Step 3: Fancy option / only for special occasons (lol). You buy the sparkling water in botles, (for the 250ml) you add a tea bag in it and turn them upside down, and put it back in the fridge. Then 20 mins later, you can add agave syrup if you want a bit or honey. You can also add mint leaves, and just throw them in the bottle you are going to consume 30 mins later or next day. Combine things like this, and then you have a fancy drink in the dridge whenever needed. (i never left the tea bags more than an hour in the bottoles, i would always get rid of the tea bag and put the bottle in my edc bag when leaving the house or something).
Just stop. There are no tricks.
Do or do not.
Thanks Master!
