How I Stopped Drinking Soda

[easyazon_image align=”right” cart=”n” height=”500″ identifier=”B01M25WHRM” locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51uu11NV4ZL.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”313″]Most of us are well aware that the ingredients in soda and diet soda are not doing anything to promote our health. However, a lot of people are still addicted to their daily soda pop. This includes some wonderful people like my father, who would prefer to go see a variety of doctors than quit his daily coke habit. (Oh geez, that makes him sound like a drug addict. Good thing he doesn’t read this blog.) But seriously, the chemicals in soda are not natural and most likely are causing incremental damage to your health.

I stopped drinking soda and carbonated beverages about a decade ago. For me, I was having terrible teeth problems. I had two root canals within the space of two years! I was desperate to change something in my life that was causing these issues because my dentist had prescribed an extra strength flouride toothpaste and I still had massive sensitivity in my teeth. I knew that my seizure medications could cause gum damage, but at the time, I didn’t think I could get off of them.

One day, when I was in the grocery store, I read a book about the miracles of coconut oil. This got me to thinking about changing my diet in order to fix my teeth problems. I started looking online for remedies and low and behold, there were tons of recommendations for alternatives to the dentist!

I started implementing and testing out these different things, some of which worked and others did not. One of the biggest recommendations across the board was to give up soda pop! My addiction to soda pop was not very strong at the time, but I recall enjoying soda with friends at events. The Mormon church always had functions where they served soda because the Mormons don’t drink alcohol. Their preferred indulgence is sugar! I knew that going to events with my Mormon friends was going to be more challenging.

Make the Decision to Quit

Every change in life starts with the decision. I made a conscious decision that soda was not going to be part of my diet. I knew that it wasn’t good for me and was likely creating more problems in my life than anything else.

Making the decision and being firm about it in your mind and actions is the first step. It is the most important step. If you decide that it is still okay to have once in awhile, you’ll backslide and eventually end up back on the stuff. If you don’t think you have the willpower to quit for life, make the goal time sensitive. I won’t drink soda for a week. That can seem more reasonable and manageable to someone who is very addicted to caffeine and soda pop.

Learned about the Health Benefits

After I decided that I was going to change my lifestyle and eliminate soda from my diet, I reinforced that decision by learning about the benefits of quitting soda. I listed some of them on a sheet of paper. I wanted to know that I was going to get something out of the effort of changing my beverage choices. Change isn’t always something that most people want to do. Let’s face it, drinking soda is tasty and sometimes fun with friends.

Read Up on the Cons of Soda

I know that I am someone who is more likely to avoid negative consequences than to work hard for benefits. After reading up on the benefits of quitting soda, I went online and read about how soda was detrimental to my health. I googled “side effects of drinking soda.” As I discovered more and more about the awful impacts of the ingredients on my health, it solidified my resolve to give up soda pop for good.

What to Drink Instead

Unfortunately, in all of my research on tooth health and healing teeth naturally, I found out that the best thing to drink is going to simply be water. Beverages such as juice contain a good amount of sugar, which has a negative impact on your body as well.

However, by switching your beverage to water only, you end up gaining a lot of health benefits. Your cells stay hydrated and they function so much better. You are able to sleep better and function better. Skin health improves almost immediately when you are fully hydrated. Ugh, water? All the time?! How boring, I thought. I’m sure that you may be thinking the same thing. But it improved my overall health and wellness.  

 

 

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “How I Stopped Drinking Soda”

  1. I totally agreed with you, we should stop drinking soda. It is not just cause the teeth problems but more seriously is our health problems. I have an uncle who loves to drink soda every day instead of water, finally he become a diabetes because of the high level of sugar in the soda drink.

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