According to statista.com, the average person in the U.S drinks 38 gallons of soda in 2018. This is a far cry from the 50 gallons per person in 2000, but a problem none the less. Drinking a lot of soda every day is a bad habit that affects many people world wide. It might be difficult, but it’s possible to wean yourself off soda with 5 easy to follow strategies.
Cutting out soda from your diet has many health benefits. Among them, weight loss can be a direct result of ridding yourself of the extra calories thus creating a healthy and sustainable weight loss method.
Cut back soda little by little to take things at a comfortable pace
A soda addiction probably did not happen over night. That’s why to wean yourself off soda, its a good option to slowly chip away at the problem. Slow and steady can help you greatly.
The process is pretty easy to follow.
Let’s say for example that a particular person drinks 3 cans of soda each day.
Instead of dropping everything together and likely dealing with withdrawal, they decide to very slowly start decreasing the amount they consume.
Instead of 3 cans, they start drinking 2 and a half. Once they are comfortable with that amount they cut back to only 2 cans of soda, then 1 and half, then 1 and so forth.
The process can be as quick or slow as it needs to be. The pace is controlled by you.
Benefits
- Go at your own pace
- very adaptable to any lifestyle
- Easier to maintain
Negatives
- Can potentially be a very long process
Go cold turkey off soda to make a big immediate change
If you can’t see yourself taking a slow and steady approach like the previously mentioned strategy, you can instead consider going cold turkey and stop drinking soda all at once.
You could very well deal with some strong withdrawals, but the impact going cold turkey has can be very powerful.
Not only do you stop drinking soda all together, but you can take it out of your surrounding environment, be that your own home or the on the road food choices.
You might need some very strong self control to deal with the cravings and changes in mood.
If you successfully succeed with this strategy and become accustomed to drinking zero soda, you can then, if you like, experiment with small doses.
You need to have a good food relationship. Their are no bad foods.
You can decide to have soda on special occasions or very infrequently like once a week.
Going cold turkey allows you to see the great changes you undergo by letting soda go.
Remember those feelings to help limit your intake for the future, this can possibly help prevent a future relapse.
Benefits
- Can be a fast method
- Immediate noticeable changes in your body
Negatives
- Strong potential for withdrawal symptoms
- Demands high self control and discipline
Have someone keep you accountable so you aren’t alone
The pervious two methods rely solely on your ability to implement and maintain them.
But if you need, you can have someone help you in your journey to figure out how to wean yourself off soda.
Ask, somebody close to help keep you accountable.
Tell them about your goal of eliminating soda out your diet and why it’s important to you.
This person can then serve you in several areas.
They can help remind you of your plan and end goals to stay motivated, give you someone to vent to about your frustrations and difficulties with the whole process among other helpful things.
Make sure to select someone you trust to care about what your are trying to accomplish, this strategy relies on the other person truly willing to be invested about your accomplishments.
Make a list of potential candidates and carefully select the best option.
Benefits
- Have someone to help you bounce back from slip ups
- Ability to vent to somebody can reduce stress
Negatives
- Can become heavily dependent on someone else for success
Avoid Soda by eliminating it
As mentioned before you can get rid of any triggers from your surroundings.
Maybe you still drink soda when you are out, but keep your home drink free.
Doing so helps eliminate problems before they occur, no soda can to reach for when doing sedentary activates like watching television or using the computer.
If you want to treat yourself to a carbonated drink you have to actually get up and go buy one, and the key is to stick to purchasing only one.
Grabbing a lot at once can make your habit worse. Going from several sodas a day to instead bingeing whenever you get your hands on one.
These methods really help identify how much a soda is worth getting. Any spontaneous cravings you might have throughout the day will have a barrier to overcome.
Your relationship with soda could very well change all together using only this strategy.
If you value your time too much to go out to the store every day, soda becomes a special occasion type of drink.
Benefits
- Prevent problems before they occur
- Develop better soda relationship
Negatives
- Can lead to binges
Use a reward system so you can be more motivated
Finally, the last strategy on this list is to set up a reward system with every victory.
Eliminating something out of your regular lifestyle can be exhausting. Relapses happen very frequently when you only focus on elimination.
Instead remind your self that things don’t have to so bland and hard.
Every step along the way create rewards for yourself to stay motivated on your overall mission.
Successfully cut out soda for a whole week? Treat yourself to dinner set time aside for one of your favorite activities.
If you know you can control yourself, consider even possibly rewarding yourself with a single soda every once in a while.
Avoid using these bonuses frequently and try not to use items that you know can create different negative habits.
The point of following this method is so you can have long term success with learning how to wean yourself off soda.
Pure will power and motivation only lasts so long, sometimes you have to re-energize yourself to keep going.
Benefits
- Helps long term success
- Improves satisfaction with each milestone
Negatives
- Relies on your self control to make good decisions on what and when to reward yourself
- Can promote new bad habits if used wrong
How to wean yourself off soda, Conclusion
Eliminating soda is a great and sometimes hefty goal to strive for.
Doing so can lead to several benefits to your health.
You can use several strategies including;
- Slow elimination
- Cold turkey
- Have someone to keep you accountable
- Remove it from your surroundings
- Use a reward system
When using any of these, just remember you should be aiming to improve your relationship with food and not so much restrict what you consume. Think about the long term outlook just as much as how to wean yourself off soda.
Good Luck!