want to quit drinking soda to lose weight, but thats what keeps me awake

I have been drinking soda like it's water for about 10 years now.

About a year later I was first diagnosed with mental illness. Ever since then I have been tired all the time. If I don't drink something with caffeine in it throughout the day I literally fall asleep sitting up. I just can't stay awake.

Over the past year I have gained between 50-60 pounds. I want to start trying to lose weight and I think one of the first steps is to clean up my diet, which includes removing soda.

I have tried quitting soda before but I ended up drinking things that had close to as many calories as the soda because I don't like the taste of water. I know I have to stop gradually if I don't want to suffer severe headaches. I get migraines so the one time I tried stopping cold turkey I had a migraine for two weeks straight.

I know how to go about quitting it for the most part, but I am worried about the fatigue that will come from a lack of caffeine. Any advice on helping with the energy slump from lack of soda would be amazing

Drink coffee and tea. I drink my coffee with a bit of half and half only and I drink my tea unsweet. If you buy good quality coffee and tea (experiment to find out what you like) and drink it right after you brew it, it's wonderful. Sugar only gives you a short term energy boost and can sometimes make you crash after if you are tired. It takes time to get used to not eating as much sugar but once your body does you will find things like apples and strawberries to be just as tasty as other treats and you will have more energy. When I want to indulge in a sugary treat, my choice is 85 percent dark chocolate. Since I have mostly given up sweets, it tastes sweet enough for me. A good quality dark chocolate tastes smooth without all the sugar and provides a lot of antioxidants (as does coffee and tea).

i am not a water fan either but i find if i eat something salty with it, than it will force me to drink water.

as for sugar hoping is right, it only give you a temporary high before you crash again.

just take baby steps at a time, i had a coworker who had a soda for lunch everyday, she has now switched to tea or hot chocolate.

good luck.

Thank you both!

I like my coffee with sugar and creamer but I can cut down on that. It's just recently that I have been putting more sugar in it and I have cut down on that before and still loved my coffee.

I was reading some articles about ways to cut down on soda and a lot recommended seltzer water with a splash of juice to help with the craving for something bubbly. I love the bubbly stuff so that might help too.

A few years ago I cut out soda and I successful but started again, but this time I have more determination and want to try more things that are better for me and my end goal is to start drinking water on regular basis even if it has to be bubbly with a tiny bit of flavor.

I'm thinking of having my husband help me with the cutting down and giving me more motivation because he was able to gradually cut out soda and go to water over a long period of time.

Maybe I will try tea and coffee with just a tiny bit of sugar at first if I can't drink them plain. I could also switch my artificial creamer to milk since it is always in our fridge and at least I will get a tiny bit of something from the milk that I don't get from the creamer.

Tea is an obvious suggestion, I suppose. I believe black tea has more caffeine, but it is my opinion that green tea tastes better. If you are attempting to lower your sugar intake, you could sweeten the tea with fruit. There are also herbal teas, such as chrysanthemum tea, chamomile, dandelion and all that. People only seem to drink herbal teas to cure ailments, so I'm assuming they prevent the ailments as well. I will close with two tea recipes.
1) Ginger Tea
Place ginger slices and mint leaves in a pot of water and heat until bubbles are rolling, then allow it to steep a few minutes. Add lemon and, if you need it sweeter, a bit of honey. My grandmother drinks this tea for her arthritis and it always smells lovely.
2) Orange Tea
Brew black tea as one normally would when preparing ice tea. The pitcher should be around one part orange juice and three parts tea, or one part orange juice and two parts tea, depending upon your taste. Add a bit of mint, the amount of which also depends upon your preference. I prefer to steep mint leaves with the tea, but you could also use mint extract or even mint sweets if you wanted. Orange juices tend to have quite a bit of sugar in them, I realize, so this tea is more for special occasions.
Good luck on kicking your soda habit.

Thank you

I do like different herbal teas, I have quite a few different varieties, including green tea. Those tea recipes sound pretty yummy too.

For me....sodas trick my brain into thinking I need to eat something with it for the soda to taste better...thus, I drink more soda.

So, if I drank water I can't hardly eat..food isn't appealing without the soda.

Getting off of my medications helped me. I feel better off of everything and controlling my thoughts. The meds made me gain weight and feel extremely sleepy.

If you cannot get off of your meds, ask your doctor for meds that counteracts with the rest of your meds.

With the list of symptoms I had: my adderal was raised to keep me more alert because my Risperdal made me sleepy.

Coffee naturally makes me sleepy and I'm not sure why

Everybody is different

I drink Mio Energy. It's a flavored additive for water with 60 mg of caffeine per serving. There are 18 servings per bottle. They're quite affordable, and helped me kick my Red Bull habit. A lot of Monster energy drinks have 0 calories as well, but I still prefer Mio Energy for the price, and it has B Vitamins in it. I'm not someone looking to cut calories, but I'd rather eat my calories than drink them, since it makes more sense. Mio Energy is available in a lot of flavors, so if you're like me and don't like "having to drink water", it might be something to consider. As long as you're not sensitive to any of the ingredients! It has less than 2% of taurine, guarana extract, and ginseng extract... which I believe are found in most energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster. I think Mio Energy is a lot more healthy, and less costly for sure.

Also, I can totally empathize with the drinking caffeine to stay awake thing. I have this issue where I could sleep for 18 hours a day, and still wake up tired, probably grumpy too, and roll over and go back to sleep. Just be careful, because caffeine is addictive, just like any drug. *hugs*

I hope you feel better soon! Good thinking to quit the soda habit! I'm proud of you! Wishing you the best!

PS: You can make a great body scrub at home out of ground coffee and coconut oil... some people like to add sugar, or a bit of cinnamon... but caffeine does absorb through the skin, and it will make your skin look and feel radiant!

EDIT: I really like what the other replies say about more natural sources of caffeine, like teas. Definitely go with that if you can, but Mio Energy might be good to help wean you off the soda while you transition to healthier options.

There are sugar free zero calorie sodas. I can't personally stand the taste of diet soda so I do not know what these are like. But If you like soda but want to cut sugar and calories that's an alternative!...also sugar its self is not terribly high in calories especially if you use raw organic sugar. Most sodas are made with corn syrup now instead of cane sugar. Corn is a starch and corn syrup is a complex sugar because it is,derived from a starch. It is harder for your body to break down and it tends to get stored as fat rather than burning out as well as a simple sugar does. If you go the tea route either green or black..green actually has more caffeine if I am rembering correctly. I know it is a lot higher in caffeine than is generally believed...honey is a great alternative to sugar. Preferably raw honey from somewhere local is best..because you get the added benefit of resistance to pollen allergens in your area as,well as immune support
Hope this is helpful and if I am remembering inaccurately please feel free to correct me!
- LITW

I got a sodastream for Christmas and for a litre of carbonated water with syrup(pop) its 12g of sugar the cola has caffeine In it about 30mg or so I believe. and the Syrup is about $7 a bottle for 9 servings I believe it is so that's like 9 Litres of pop well worth it. The machines usually go on sale often they are not as much. not as much burping with this syrup then with the regular brands such as coke/pepsi though. Which is nice!

I stopped drinking pop totally 2 months ago now though and lost a good chunk of weight.

but try out the sodastream if you want your own soda without the hassle of paying mega dollars for pop at the store each week/month. now I just stick with the flavoured water ones they taste nifty.

Does it have to be all or nothing? I used to be a 12 large can diet pepsi drinker. But I cut back by cutting out one can per week and then, cutting the size of the cans to the mini cans and so forth. I have replace it will water with a water enhancer. But I still have ONE diet pepsi per day.

they are right when they say everyone is different.

I have two pops a day (usually) and I'm tired all the time. so they have no 'sugar-high' affect on me. and I'm not a coffee or tea person, and like others have said am not really a water person. but for me, I'm on the edge of just getting enough liquids in me each day (if I calculated right). so I would be extremely nervous to stop drinking soda pop cuz I may not drink anything in its place!

on the other hand, my cousin drinks regular mountain dew like crazy and he's not over weight. I think he told me once that in like two or three days, he went thru an entire pack - then of course had to go to the gas station to get more!

anyways, good luck with your adventures and enjoy the 'trial & error' of your new concoctions