How To Kick the Caffiene Habit, in my case the Diet Coke Habit

Bad habits can cost a lot! They can cost self-esteem, time and of course they can cost money. When deciding to stop drinking caffeine, or in my case, Diet Coke I really had to WANT to quit, but I took advantage of every trick I could find or think of to increase my odds. I quit cold turkey the day after turkey day, and don’t plan on starting back anytime soon. First thing I did is evaluate why I wanted to quit.

Reasons to quit

Loss of $$
In my case I determined that even with the most conservative estimate I was spending around $100 dollars a month. Which on its own may not seem that bad, however I then put it into perspective. $100 a month = $1200 a year, and $1200 could buy a: laptop, wardrobe, snowboard setup, mountain bike, monthly massages, 20-24 pairs of shoes, flat-screen TV and more!

Eliminate Dependency increase simplicity
Making sure I had Diet Coke available has been a part for many years. My addiction to Diet Coke got to the point where those around me would start to get stressed when then saw that I was out of Coke. This dependency has affected my life and those around me for long enough, and this is probably the single greatest reason for wanting to quit.

Health
While I don’t drink regular sugar soda I still realize that drinking water instead of brown chemical water with caffeine has to be better for me.

How I did it

Started on a Friday, err quit on a Friday
I knew that the first couple days were going to be hell, so I quit drinking on Friday so I would have the whole weekend to revel in my misery.

Did not tackle any mental projects for the first few days
The weekend that I stopped I did not tackle any website jobs, I did not write anything, I did not do much of anything at all. I had plenty of time to just lay around, watch movies, tv, etc. The first Monday back to work I gave myself a break knowing I would not be as productive.

Had a substitute
My goal was to have water be my substitute, but initially I knew that I would have better luck with something other than just water so I picked up some sweet teas.

Did something positive with the $$
I created an automatic investment plan for $100 a month. So as long as I stay away from Diet Coke I am going to continue investing the money. Every time I think about starting to drink again I will think of this positive thing I am doing instead of drinking the brown chemical water. At this point I want to t

Related External Links:
Caffeine Dependency, Are You a Victim?
Hot to quit a bad habit
The Expenses of a soda pop addiction and how to defeat it