Whenever you get a craving for coke just drink lots of water. Sure you’ll piss more but you should stop wanting anything to drink with all that water in you.
I once went on a health kick and quit drinking Coke overnight. After a few days, I started experiencing severe stomach cramps, and I went to the doctor to find out what the cause might be. He suggested that my quitting Coke might be the cause, but I told him that since I hadn’t quit drinking coffee, I was still getting plenty of caffeine. He told me (although I have yet to find a reliable cite) that there are addictive properties to cola itself (from the kola nut, perhaps?) and that I had two choices: tough it out for a couple of weeks or drink a Coke.
What problems? Are you insinuating I have problems? The only problem I can think of is that I might run out of coffee.
I’ve given up every other vice I once held dear. I’m not giving up the coffee.
Get yourself one of those water filters, like Brita, and always keep a cold pitcher full of water in your fridge. Use this water to fill up plastic bottles that you can take around with you whenever you are out and need a drink. Try to commit to drinking more water–if you’ve got plenty of cold and filtered water, it is easier to stick to this commitment. Eventually, you will find yourself getting in the habit of drinking less cola.
Drinking coke is mostly a psychological addiction. You can stop cold turkey like I did. I used to drink a 2-litre bottle a day, and at least twice as much on RPG nights. Drinking a lot of water does help.
What could be the psycological reasons to my addiction? The only reasons I drunk it in the first place is because my mum let me have some flat diet coke. And then it started, I think I was about 12 or 13.
Just a thought…but I made an effort to drink only Crystal Light Peach Tea…no calories, no sugar, nada.
It tastes great, and it’s basically just colored water.
Diet Cola has no sugar, so stopping that won’t do much in terms of calorie intake. But I found that stopping cola consumption, switching to tea, and taking some Ripped Fuel for about 6 weeks resulted in me losing about 10 pounds…
Those colas add up, I tell ya…
TTFN>
D.
What a coincidence. I stopped drinking caffeinated soft drinks a few days ago and today is the first morning without that migraine-like, naseau-inducing headache (I went cold-turkey, wanting to get it over with). I’ve been guzzling water like it is going to be rationed tomorrow (I’m also going to the bathroom about every 5 mintues, but this too shall pass).
:::Your body runs on a water economy. If you have too little water in you, you get dry skin, dry, cracking lips, thickened pleghm, constpation, possibly leading to hemorrhoids, and retention of toxins. If you have enough, or a little more than enough, your body can flush everything nasty out much more quickly. If you have enough, you never get water-retenion weight gain or puffiness, you can get a cough or sinus congestion right out of you, your skin will be healthier, and in general you’re healthier.:::
BUT, if you have too much water, you drown, and then you’ll be dead. Being dead is far worse than bad skin or constapation. So, just in case, I highly recommend you continue your consumption of coke.
Kidding aside, I’ve tried to reduce the amount of Coke I drink, but water just doesn’t cut it for me when I’m eating. I want something with flavor. So, what are my alternatives? I drink lots of iced tea…is that good for you? And I started buying Hawaiian Punch, but I can’t imagine the sugar in it makes it much better than Coke. Whaddya think?
Hey JAPrufrock,
Iced tea is purported to be good for you due to the polyphenols in the tea. Hawaiian Punch, on the other hand, I’m not so sure it is healthy. Isn’t like less than 10% fruit juice? You would be better off drinking Juicy Juice or Northland Juice as they are 100% juice.
That’s what I think!
-Sandwriter
I cut all caffenated beverages about 8 weeks ago, cold turkey. The first week was kind of rough, but after that I was fine. I had some headaches and a little nausea but nothing I couldn’t cope with. Provided, of course, nobody spoke to me, or got within 50 yards of me. 
If your favorite had been Mountain Dew, you’d still be drinking it. It has about 20% more caffeine than Coca-Cola.
I’m with //\etalhead; I drink Dr. Pepper just like he does, and I find it keeps my migraines in check. Not recommending this, though.
I am reading how to quit though, because you simply can’t drink such a high volume of soda forever. I give myself 10 more years before it’s water, juice, and the occasional can for me.
Well, first of all, I never said anything about reducing my caffeine intake. I was aiming to reduce my soda intake, which I did. And true, I may still be drinking a highly caffeinated drink, but with rule number 2 in place, the frequency of that consumption drops, resulting in a lower overall consumption of caffeine. So even if drinking less caffeine was my objective, I’ve still accomplished that.
As mentioned before, tea can be a great alternative. For cutting carbs, I had kicked the coke habit by drinking just water. Eventually that gets monotonous, so I tried Lipton Diet Iced Tea Mix. Cheap as hell, no carbs or sugar, and tastes pretty damn good. Of course, that became boring and I had trouble with carbs again, so I picked up smoking. Can’t wait to see what’s next.
Keep in mind that teas still contain caffeine. (The charts on this page, this page and this pagedo some comparisons of caffeine content between various foods and beverages.) So if you do plan to kick your caffeine habit, you should not consider yourself completely weaned if you’ve switched primarily towards teas.
one quits drinking coke the same way one quits drinking alcohol-- by not allowing one’s arm to lift the beverage vessel to one’s lips.
god can’t do it for you…IPU can’t do it for you… your mother can’t do it for you… the ONLY way to stop using ANYTHING is to stop using it.
you are NOT powerless!!!
I used to drink at least 6 cans of Dr. Pepper per day, and I couldn’t stand mineral water. What I did was go on a lightly-flavored-mineral-water binge for a few days, until I got to the point where I was used to drinking it and I really wanted a can of just-barely-tolerable-fizzy-water. Afterwards, I found that when I wanted a beverage, I could be satisfied with either the water or the DP, so I started choosing the water more and more over time.
So I guess my technique was to turn the horrible alternative into something I actually liked first, then switch.
I never missed the caffeine a bit.
There is, of course, a lot more to health behavior-change than just willpower, so asking for “tricks” ifrom others who have been successful is reasonable. Something different works for different people.
I hate soft drinks, so don’t have a problem with that. I haven’t found conclusive evidence that caffeine in moderate doses causes any serious health problems, assuming you don’t have an underlying health problem that is aggravated by it, so I don’t see a reason for me to drop the coffee in the am. Green tea has some healthful properties to it, as long as you don’t add a lot of sugar. And drinking water is okay, but I’m guessing won’t scratch the itch for most people who are hooked on colas (unless they’re just addicted to the act of drinking Anything). It’s good to drink enough water, but too much doesn’t really improve your health. God, I’m just full of advice and “health tips,” aren’t I?
I quit cold turkey a few years ago. I was drinking around one two liter a day. One day I ran out and drank water. I had no problems quiting, as a matter of fact I felt much better right away, I stopped having headaches and could sleep much better. After 5 years or so I have not had one headache, unless you count sinus ones but I’ve always had that problem. Now I can not drink much caffene except in tea sometimes and outright can not stand to drink any soda. I feel so much better in my late 20s then I did in my early 20s. I’d say at least try cold turkey and start drinking water.