I need help quitting soda

I gave up soda completely several years ago. Usually I will drink bottled water, and add some flavoring like MIO or the 4c "totally light" green tea mix, usually one packet with a 23.5 ounce bottle. It's a thinner mixture than with the 16 or 20 oz bottles, and I don't feel as bloated or gassy like I did when I was heavy on the soda.

 

sometimes they cost more than that depending where I got them at the time, normally I tried to buy a case at Walmart or costco every week which would drop the price to $1.50 ish but still an expensive habit, also cutting out the fast food dropped how much I was spending for sure, I know I was spending around $100 a week on everything if not more but now I am under the $50 mark.
The major most horrible habit im working on cutting out now is all the smoking I do in the truck

 

[h=4][/h]Burger King's black cheeseburger: Made with squid ink and bamboo charcoal.

This is good for those trying to lose weight. Can still have a side order of Gummie Bears with no ill effects. There's more good healthy meals on salon.com

 

Prepare yourself, it's gonna be long but read through as I think this will help.

I'm 5'10" and around 190lbs (formerly almost 300) so I DO know the hell your trying to pull off. On top of the weight, I had back pain, high choloesterol and Stage 2 hypertention. All gone now.

It's Sugar and carbs getting you, not fat, not Soda (not completly atleast). I'll give you the speed version. You ingest Sugar and Carbs (your soda, and other) your blood sugar spikes, you get energy, the pleasure center in your brain is happy you quicky burn through the sugar part your sugar drops and your brain gets sad that it's gone. This makes you want more and what you didn't burn now gets stored as fat thanks to the huge amount on insulin you released to get your blood sugar down, as well as creating an insulin resistance which WILL become diabetes at some point (which as your aware means a possible end to your career.

Do NOT try cold turkey, the sucess rate is slim to none and you put your body through hell attempting it. If your like me you just like (sounds like you are) soda period. I still drink it everyday, just not the same stuff. I now drink diet soda, usually sweetenend with Surcralose (aka Splenda) which doesn't cause the spike. When I buy soda out it's usually diet Mt Dew. Replace your soda with a diet version try to get them sweetened with Splenda (aspartame is bad for you) and 2-3 times a day have a "real" one to keep the headaches and cravings down at first. slowly work until most (hopefully all) of your soda is no longer sugar and carb filled. I'm also a big fan of flavorered carbonated water (not flavored seltzer waters those taste like crap). Keep your sugars and carbs under 150g a day and you'll loose a LOT more than 20lbs. You also won't crave anymore, the cravings are your blood sugar returning to normal. Stop the spike/drop and you won't crave. I lost my weight in less than a year. It's very doable and I haven't felt this good in years. With the Dr's and the FMCSA spending so much time trying to figure out ways to pull people off the road our health has gotta be on point.

 

150g of carbs is a lot as well, if your trying to do a low carb diet like atkins etc then drop it to 20g, I lost 22 lbs in one month doing this diet part time, would do 2-3 days low carb then a cheat day and keep repeating but it takes a lot of willpower to do it which is why I failed to keep at it for more than a month, now its just a slow loss.

 

Go over to this forum and create yourself an account. Go into the "Trucker Health with Dr. Daliah" and post your original post there. She's a real doctor and is very active over there. Tried to get them to create a section for her here but I was ignored. She's a big fan of truckers. She's also been on Pawn Stars a few times.

https://www.truckersforum.net/forum

 

I commend you for deciding to get healthy. I can give you some facts that might be helpful...

Bodyweight is determined, 99% of the time, by the amount of calories consumed per day versus the amount of calories burned per day...

Average calories burned for a sedentary man is roughly 2,000-2,600 per day. So, if you are eating more than that, and you don't boost your activity level, you will gain weight.

The method for losing weight that has the most science behind it is simply eating at a caloric deficit. That means eating less calories than you are burning per day, so your body burns its fat stores for energy.

Health professionals don't recommend cutting back the cals too quickly, because there's more of a chance of binging.

If you have a smart phone, there's a really good app that counts your calories for you. You just have to enter everything you eat for the day and it keeps you on track. You'll still be able to drink a soda here and there, eat a cheeseburger or whatever, but just not in excess. It's called "my fitness pal". Takes a lot of the guesswork out of it. There's also a support forum that is has thousands of people on it with the same goal.

 

I drink 100 oz of water or more a day. The vitamin water zeros are good. Sugars average more than 68 grams per 16 oz...and that wreaks havoc on your system.

Also try juicing for those who are committed, www.rebootwithjoe.com

The truck driver @1:08 is featured in the fat sick and nearly dead film and they met at the flagstaff az flying j-

 

First things first, STOP drinking anything with high fructose corn syrup. I usually tell people that it is made from the part of the corn your body can not digest and you see in the toilet the next day.

Switch to drinks that are sweetened by real sugar. The closer that you get to the original form of the food/drink the better for you. It has also been proven that HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) seems to work and turn off the breaker to the switch that turns on your full signal. In other words it suppresses your body's natural signal to tell you that you are full.

I have not changed my habits with the exception of cutting out foods with HFCS and that is a lot of stuff, even breads. I do eat bread but it does not have HFCS listed as an ingredient.

In 4 months I have gone from a tight 46 waist to a 42 needing a belt. Every so often I do drink a soda but now it is WAAAY too sweet for my taste. What I did was switch to Snapple or Xing tea. Peach and Raspberry mostly with some half and half mixed in. This takes care of the sweet craving and soda tends to be really sweet to me now. I am slowly weaning off of the tea and drink only 32 oz a day now. The rest of the day I drink water.

I had also cut out a lot of salt prior to this but now I can not eat a McDonalds burger because it is WAY too salty.

If you have to drink a Coke then drink the Mexican coke, it's supposed to be better than the Columbian any how, I mean it is made with cane sugar instead of HFCS. Some mornings I need one to cut the flem at the back of my throat. Usually don't finish it though now days.

A tip on the tea... Peach I can drink cold or room temp, the raspberry is better cold.

Here is another thing that people are not aware of. your urine is supposed to be nearly clear and if it is not you are taking in too much HFCS or sugar. I notice the change if I drink mostly water for the day, my kidneys do not have to work nearly as hard to clean the blood.