I Kicked the "Coke" Habit

In order to avoid any issues with name brands, I'll simply state that I gave up drinking cola on April 2, 2010.  Truth is, I drank a lot of different brands of cola. I chose that date part intentionally and partly by coincidence. Earlier in the week, I had purchased a 12-pack of cola. After drinking a couple, I got seriously disgusted by the addiction I felt I had with cola. I then decided I needed to stop drinking it cold-turkey. I would finish off the 12-pack and be done with it. I realized that at the rate I would normally go through cans of cola, the date would be April 1, "April Fool's Day" when I stopped. I didn't like that combination so I rationed out the cans to make my last one on April 2. I drank my last can of cola on April 2 and I haven't had one since. I'm the first to admit it was not easy.

My addiction to cola began on a family vacation in 1969. At eight years of age and with spending money for my vacation, I came across a machine in the hotel that sold small bottles of cola for a dime each. They weren't my first colas, but I don't recall ever savoring the taste as much as I did on that vacation. I kept going back and buying more.

Through my teen years, cola became my favorite drink but it never got out of control simply because my parents only bought a couple bottles a week and I never had much money to spend on it. When I got to college is when the real problems began.

In college, the soft drink fountains were at every point of sale for my meals; all the dining halls and at the grill in the College Union. It was too easy to order a meal and get a cup of cola. I loved the taste of cola and drank it with every meal.

Within the first year, I began having stomach problems. I was too naive to make the connection. Somehow I even got the wrong impression that cola was good for a bad stomach, especially if you had a stomach bug.

I continued drinking cola for every occasion; meals, parties, and at the college town bars. While other college students were binging on beer, I was binging on cola.

My cola habits continued long after college. I always just loved the taste of cola. But through it all I knew it wasn't good for me. I began joking that I had an addiction, which probably was quite true. It affected my personality a bit; there were times when if I didn't get my cola as expected, I would get angry.

In February of 2010, at age 49, some 40 years after obsessively drinking cola all the time, I finally decided to stop drinking it. I knew it had to be cold turkey. There were other times when I had tried to cut back, but it never lasted long.

After I stopped, the first three or four weeks were the toughest. Slowly the cravings began to diminish. The sight of the brand's logo on a can or a bottle was enough to instill a craving in me for a few minutes. Only a few minutes. I had heard that if you have a craving for something you shouldn't eat or drink, it will usually pass within a few minutes. That wasn't the case for me during the first few weeks, but it did become true after that. I had dreams for many months where I would sip a can of cola and then all hell would break loose. I'd start binging again.

I had to change my way of thinking for many activities for which I associated cola. For example, movies, popcorn and cola. Pizza and cola. Grilled food and cola. Pretty much any social occasion involved having a cola or two. As a substitute, I usually chose water, a mixed drink, or once in a great while, ginger ale. I tried ice tea but I just don't like the taste. At first, water seemed very bland to me but now I am used to it. I truly enjoy drinking water. Another example of association is on cruise ships. Previously I'd purchase the soft drink plan, which allowed me to get unlimited refills for the duration of the cruise. On our last cruise, we purchased a stock of water bottles instead, and I enjoyed a couple of mixed drinks each day.

At this point, 2.5 years since my last drink of cola, I have virtually no cravings at all. People have asked me if I lost any weight from not drinking cola anymore. To be honest, maybe 5 pounds. I came to the conclusion that any weight loss for me doesn't have much to do with my soft drink habits, but my snack food habits. For that, I still need some self-improvement.

What really changed was my bowel habits. I had chronic problems with IBS for many years. Several months after giving up cola, I realized that IBS was not a problem for me anymore. I still don't eat some of the IBS trigger foods that I had previously given up, but the real difference with my bowel habits has been giving up cola.