Advise on quitting soft drinks

It depends on what your driver is. Why do you find kicking it so difficult?

Change over to iced tea with a little sugar. Gradually reduce the amount of sugar until you are drinking the tea without sweetener.

If you think switching over to diet sodas is better, this will rot out your teeth with the quickness and possibly screw up your metabolism.

I recently had to go low carb due to type 2 diabetes. My whole life I've averaged easily 3 -4 Cokes/day (and I used to put over 1/4 cup of sugar in my coffee). And I abhor diet soft drinks. So cutting out soft drinks was a big adjustment for me. I started buying unsweetened iced tea. In a normal size glass I'll add 1 tsp. of sugar, 2 packets of Truvia, and a squirt of lemon. It tastes fine to me. I can struggle through a Coke zero if I have to, but I'm kinda hooked on the iced tea now. I find that Truvia doesn't have that "diet" taste most sweeteners have.

The key is you. It may sound simple but a wise man once told me "if you want to quit something, you must really want to do it". It helped me quit my smoking habit after my initial fail.

Looking at you past history with cigarettes and liquor, soda should be easy for you.

I once quit sodas for 3 years, but now i occasionally drink them here and there. When I was drinking sodas, I always associated the sodas with the food. So if I had fried chicken or pizza, my mind you say "you need a coke with complement the meal".

So I would think of water first then the meal. It will help you quit sodas and eat healthy. Most of the time, our bad food decisions compound a previous decision. If you could start with a good decision, your subsequent decisions will be base off of that.

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Diet slows the metabolism? I always figured it would speed it up. Or at the very least, curb your appetite.

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There are a lot of conflicting studies about diet soda. The links to cancer have been mostly debunked in recent studies, so I definitely wouldn't worry about that. Ruzil is right that they're not great for your teeth though.

The metabolism stuff is still up in the air. For many, artificial sweeteners makes them crave more sugar, therefore, they binge on it. For me personally, diet soda does not have that effect on me and it actually curbs my appetite.

Sparking water (like Perrier or San Pellegrino) with a few shakes of your favorite bitters....I use Fee Bros cherry bitters and a squeeze of lime. Refreshing, more flavor than plain water, and definitely better for you than most carbonated options.

+1 on the La Croix stuff. Try various flavors in six packs until you find one you like.

Another strategy is to have a single (Coke, DrP, whatever) a day as a treat....buy em in the little 10oz cans. If you're routinely drinking vats of the stuff, you can dramatically cut back yet still have a little as a treat.

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Diet slows the metabolism? I always figured it would speed it up. Or at the very least, curb your appetite.

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nope

I haven't bought a sugar soft drink in 7 years. I used to pick up 3 two liters of coke per trip to the store.

I started by moving to diet soda. Then to crystal lite tea and lemonade flavor. Some water.

Now I drink coffee, coke zero, water and crystal lite. I limit the diet soda to one per day at work and none at home.

Man, I loved me some coke. When I have to drink one now because there are no other options, they taste somewhat odd. Not terrible, just not as good as I remember them.

Drink flavored sparkling water.