I have been having many health problems and one thing that I knew had to go was my addiction to caffeine. I started drinking it during my pregnancies and this last pregnancy I especially craved soda and not just any soda, Cherry Coke. After I had my youngest, I kept drinking it. I would buy the 2-liter bottles and drink them throughout the entire day. I was amazed however when my church gave me a 12-pack of Cherry Coke in cans and I drank it all in two days. Umm. . . apparently I had a problem. I began to realize that I had been drinking a 2-liter bottle of soda EVERY DAY.
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| Yes, all mine. |
So I decided to stop. So I quit drinking it. Easy peasy right? Not so much. After 24 hours, I developed the worst and first migraine of my life and nothing helped. Medicine, sleeping, time. . . NOTHING was helping my head. I endured 24 hours of this migraine until I ate some chocolate and within 15 minutes, my headache was relieved slightly. Not gone, just not as painful. It clicked and I realized my body was crying out for caffeine. I sent my hubbie to the grocery store and he picked up some soda for me. 30 minutes after drinking it, my migraine was gone completely. Huh. That's not good.
I battled it back and forth but every time I got close to going any amount of time without the caffeine, I struggled with a headache and since I am mom and wife first, I drank my Cherry Coke. By doing that, I cut back to eventually half of a 2-liter a day but seemed to think that was fine.
Then the body pains began. Every morning and through out the night, I would wake up with stiff legs, arms and feet. It was painful but bearable and I just kept going. Until I realized that maybe this pain was being caused by something. My mom suggested that maybe it was from the soda. Now it was time to get serious.
In my post, My Addiction Confession, I talked a little bit about my problem with caffeine but I honestly wasn't sure if I would be able to kick it. Well I was and I'm overjoyed to say that I have been soda-free for 6 days now. But I wanted to share how I did it because my body could not do it cold turkey, it was too difficult to be mom and wife and glorifying to God at the same time. (When I am in pain, I am NOT a pleasant person!)
My Kicking-Caffeine in One Week System
- Day 1: I filled up my small bottle with the big bottle and drew a line on the side with a marker to visually SEE how much I drank. Then I kept the bottle in the fridge (through the whole week) and every time I wanted a drink or craved a drink or began to get a headache, I drank from it. I limited myself to the small bottle for the day.
- Day 2: I filled my bottle about 3/4 of the way and drew a line on the side and limited myself to that much for that day.
- Day 3: I filled it up half full and limited myself to that much for that day
- Day 4: Now I filled it up to 1/4 and limited myself to that much for that day.
- Day 5: Now I am done with the bottle and I will NOT drink any more UNLESS I start to get a headache. I had cravings for it but no headache. So no soda.
- Day 6: No soda. No headache. a few cravings.
- Day 7: No soda, no headache, no cravings.
As you can see, I still had remaining soda in my 2-liter bottle and in my little bottle and after taking the picture, I threw it all away! I know it will still be a temptation to me to drink the soda but after a while, I know that will go away and I will be healthier for it! Oh and guess what? Day 7 - NO BODY PAINS! :0)
In HIS Grip,
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That's awesome! :o)
ReplyDeleteI also gave up a serious diet dr pepper habit, more than 2 liters a day.
ReplyDeleteI did it cold turkey, and used 2 caffiene pills to get me through the withdrawels. On the first days, I took 2 or 3, spaced out, then was down to just 1 after a week. Now, I don't need any.
The ones I used have the same caffeine as a cup of coffee and are very cheap, less than $2 for 200.
Good for you! Isn't it nice to go shopping and to not fill half your cart with soda bottles and think about all the room you will have in your pantry without all the soda.
Good for you, Ann! I was wondering how you were doing in this area! I'm proud of you for seeing it as it was....an addiction. Great work! You will see so many side benefits from kicking the habit too, such as weight loss! It's amazing how many pounds that adds up to over the course of a year! Way to go, I am proud of you! :)
ReplyDeleteI am a new follower of your blog and I have the same problem as you... you have encouraged me to let go of the coke too ;)Thank-you for the encouragement!
ReplyDeleteWow, good for you! It is really hard to come off soda. I KNOW! Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteThis is me! And this is similar to how I did it, though you were more methodical about it. My health has suffered so badly since the birth of my twins and I knew the first logical place to start was that silly soda! It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought, when my motivation came from a desire to radically improve my health! Good job!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Thanks for sharing your experience. It's encouraging to me to know that I am not the only person who has struggled with this. I was also drinking at least a 2 liter a day. At the end of December I decided that I was not going to drink any soda in 2012. I finished off a glass of soda at 11:55 pm December 31 and haven't had a drop since. There have been a few hard days but so far I've managed to get along fine without it. A huge plus for me was that I lost 5 pounds the 1st week with no soda.(not sure if it was connected or not but I'll take it!)
ReplyDeleteI quit pretty recently too! I quit as soon as a realized I was spending as much on coke a month as I did when I was smoking. O_O I gave it up cold turkey but thats how I quit anything. :)
ReplyDelete