August 16, 2009

Giving Up Diet Coke and Other Attachments

I cannot remember a time in my life that I didn't drink Diet Coke or some other diet soda on a regular basis. That's over 35 years of almost daily soda drinking.

It's time to ditch diet soda. But I am so addicted, and so incredibly set in my habit, that making the decision is not enough. I've tried it before, and it's not enough. It's never been enough just to say that I want to stop. Even to tell others, taper slowly, keep it out of the house, drink water, none of it works. Why does nothing work?

I need a 12 step program specifically for not drinking soda. Soda is everywhere, and here's the rub - it takes good. I want it, even though with every sip I take, I know is bad, bad, bad for me.

In fact, I am so used to the taste of diet soda, with all of its many variants of sugar replacements, that food doesn't taste good without it. And drinking water with food makes it taste even worse.

I'm a soda addict, and I have nowhere to go for support, no way to keep myself from talking myself into "one" cup, and no way to keep that feeling of disappointment, sadness, and even anger when I expect to be able to drink a diet coke, and I can't.

I'm at a loss and feeling very attached, which no amount of sitting or meditating seems to break.

2 comments:

Ian Eisenberg said...

You don't need to give up diet soda!

Just drink the correct one. Zevia is an all natural diet soda without artificial sweeteners or any other junk. We use Stevia as the sweetener.

Please email me if you would like samples for review ian at zevia dot com

Anonymous said...

I weaned myself off of Mountain Dew by mixing it with orange juice. First it was MD with a splash of OJ, but I slowly changed ratio until it was OJ with a splash of MD. Ultimately I was okay with straight OJ. You might be able to try some kind of juice (cherry juice for cola?) or even iced tea transition. That's what worked for me.

---Crystal