Kick Your Soda or Coffee Habit with These Three Simple Steps

Do you suffer from a coffee or soda addiction? If so, you are certainly not alone! All you have to do is take a look around the office or local coffee shop and you will find dozens of other people drinking cup after cup. If you have the “dual addiction” of both coffee and soda, you may switch your “poison” from coffee to soda at some point during the day. So how do you break the habit given that you’re in the thick of such an addiction? Here are three simple steps that can help set you on the road to recovery.

Find an alternative
There are so many other healthier choices such as water, juice, lemonade, or tea that you can try. Grab an ice-cold bottle of water from the refrigerator instead of that bottle of soda. You can also opt for a bottle of 100 percent juice to give you a jump-start in the a.m., or a cup of hot tea to help warm you up on those chilly morning rides into work. If plain water does not appeal to you, consider the many varieties of flavor packets available. Simply pour the packet into your bottle of water and shake. You instantly have something new and tasty to drink! Just make sure to check the packets for sugar content, carbs and sodium and choose one that is low in all of those things.

Stay away from the vending machine
Don’t tempt yourself by cruising past the vending machine. If you can avoid coming face to face with it, do so. If a co-worker offers to grab you a soda from the machine or a new cup of coffee, ask them to grab you a drink out of the refrigerator instead. It may help to share your new-found love of alternative beverages with your co-workers. How does the saying go . . . safety in numbers? By encouraging others to kick the habit, you might have an easier time doing it yourself.

Don’t go cold turkey
The worst thing people do to themselves when it comes to a food addiction such as caffeine is going cold turkey. If you find yourself drinking five cups of coffee in the morning, substitute two or three of them with a different beverage and then slowly take away another cup every few days. You may find that you can savor that one good cup of coffee in the morning and are just fine with juice and water the rest of the day. This will also work well for your daily soda addiction.

By following these three simple and easy steps you should be able to fight your caffeine and soda addiction without too much trouble. In fact, the hardest part might be admitting to your addiction in the first place.