How I kicked the Diet Drink addiction

[sirant]

I like drinking water. I am not one who can't stomach it like some here.

But.....

After a lifetime of pouring sugary, salty, chemically and bad for me crap into my body, sometimes I just felt the urge to drink something other than just water. Welcome Diet sodas and drink powders. Even bottled juices were a bad idea, since many of them have more calories and sugar than even regular coke.

So what is a "flavored drink" addict to do?

Easy. I backed up 20 years to when my mom went into a "natural and healthy" kick. She only ate organic foods, did yoga and listened to new gae music and drank only herbal tea.....

Wait a sec.... Tea is good for us right? I drink gallons of green and oolong tea as is, but even those I have to shy away from at night because the caffeine will keep me up all night.

Then I saw Celestial Seasonings Wild Cherry herbal tea. No caffeine, so I thought, meh, why not?

WOW!!!! Herbal tea is WAY better these days than I remembered. I tried a cup and loved it, though I noticed it got bitter if I let the teabag soak too long in a cup. So I only steeped the tea bag a few minutes on the next cup, and it was perfect.....

But what to do with the still full of flavor tea bag? Simple! Drop it into the cold water jug in the fridge! Next mornings cup of ice water never tasted so good. A slight cherry flavour and reddish color made it som much nicer, and more thirst quenching than plain water! Amazingly so! All from a 20 cent tea bag.

These days it is like a ritual. I will have my peach, cherry, strawberry (or new favorite blueberry vanilla) cup of hot tea at night as I unwind, then have a full jug of wonderful, 100% calorie and caffeine free cold water the next day. I have not even considered buying a bottle of Coke Zero, Diet Coke, Crystal Light or anything else for weeks now! And I feel great.

A simple little tea bag made 1 cup of hot tea and 2 litres of cold flavored water everyday and cured me of my proccessed drink addiction.

Try it out everyone, especially those of you have have an aversion to drinking water or those that can't have caffeine for whatever reason.

Did the trick for me, and might just work for you too.

Diet sodas may be sugar free (less sugar actually) but they are all chemicals and water no mater how you look at it. Tea is and has always been much MUCH better.

sirant

 

[San2]

I'm drinking green tea and Roibos tea, which is caffeine free and comes in all kinds of flavours over here, including stuff like caramel and vanilla - helps if you crave something sweet!

I am one of those who can't get plain water down....I usually make loads of fruity tea in the evening, then stick it in the cooler overnight, kinda like you do. Never thought of using the leftover teabags for that though - gonna try that.

I also buy some cheap lemon juice like you get it for cooking etc., and put a few squirts into my water, just so it gets some sort of flavour. Throw a few ice cubes in if it's hot outside and it's really refreshing, and about 2 calories for a jug or something like that.

 

[sinui]

Yep, tea is the best. thank god I always liked tea, especially japanese green tea. =3 altho I do have a glass of diet coke with crisps once in a while. moderation is the key with everything

 

[MGags23]

Awesome idea!! I don't mind water, but sometimes I just get sick of it. During my weight loss period I always had green tea, but I never thought about getting flavored tea and using that for water. Thanks!

 

[Moofee]

Wow, great idea! I've never really been into teas so much but after reading some info about green tea, I've been drinking at least 3 mugs a day. I always forget to drink a lot of water too but I will definitely try the teabag trick for my cold water.

I used to drink a lot of diet soda, but found that it actually triggered (well, caused) my interstitial cystitis which is basically a UTI that has no microbial origin. Something in diet soda irritated the lining of my bladder and it was so uncomfortable, I just had to kick the habit. Ever since, everything has been great with no flare ups. I use to think that diet soda was so great and that I can drink as much of it as I want, but the consequences of that was definitely not worth it.

Water and tea all the way! (and a occasional hot chocolate )