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insegnante
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| Posted: July 07 2009 at 10:09pm | IP Logged
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Looking for tips. I am terrible at "cutting down," especially on Coke. What I'm planning (again) to do is go cold turkey on the delicious Coke and keep drinking some coffee to avoid the caffeine withdrawal headache. I actually don't drink coffee every day but I have been averaging two 12-oz. Cokes :( Coffee is much less appealing nowadays because my nursling is sensitive to dairy and I drink it with rice "milk" or almond "milk" which doesn't taste as good to me. I hope it will be fairly easy to taper off of this habit.
Before my youngest child was conceived I decided to go off caffeine cold turkey out of concern about caffeine's connection to miscarriage. I quit Coke first and then coffee cold turkey about a month later. I only drank 1 home-brewed coffee on a typical day but the withdrawal was something like a 5-day-long migraine. After consuming no caffeinated coffee and only about 16 or 20 oz. of Coke my entire pregnancy (toward the end), I really never wanted to have this habit back 
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Theresa
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: July 07 2009 at 10:14pm | IP Logged
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Can you substitute something else for the coke? For instance, have a non-caffiene soda (hey they even make a caffiene free coke) and periodically have the coke with caffiene to knock the headache back a bit.
Or drop it all at once and get that migraine otc med they have (it has caffiene in it) to deal with the headache?
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teachingmyown
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I am reading Dr Weil's Eight Weeks to Optimum Health. I just started, but he basically takes you through a program to get you healthier through better habits such as eating, exercising, breathing, etc. and helps you get away from unhealthy habits. It might be worth looking at.
When I do get on a coffee or Vanilla Coke kick, I have to go cold turkey. But I can feel the negative effects of both when I am indulging in them, so I have more motivation.
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: July 08 2009 at 8:57am | IP Logged
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Even after reading this article, I haven't been able to kick my DP & coffee habit. But, if it helps or inspires you any, here it is:
Nothing Between by Teri Maxwell
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aussieannie
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| Posted: July 08 2009 at 9:03am | IP Logged
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I've had troubles with coke/softdrink addictions and I find that squeezing fresh lime juice into a glass of cold water and drinking that refreshing drink will kill the soft drink craving immediately. The craving for that icy cold, bubble rush, whatever you want to call it can be very, very strong but the lime juice still will put it down!
Lime juice is very good for you, worth googling it's health benefits! I keep limes on the kitchen bench always, even in winter and I still drink the lime drink in the colder weather as well.
I usually like to make a good sized jug of lime drink to keep in the fridge, so I'll use the juice of a good half a lime for that amount, so very economical.
Also, no PIPS! Makes a difference to your daily sanity when you are using limes regularly!
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jenk
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| Posted: July 08 2009 at 2:17pm | IP Logged
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Excedrin has caffeine and I've used it before when cutting out Coke(34 mg caffeine each 12oz). I started with one pill per day (65mg), went to 1/2 and then only took 1/2 a pill when the headache would start. It took a couple of weeks for me to not need a pill. It's not a perfect plan but it did help to minimize the terrible headaches.
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KackyK
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| Posted: July 08 2009 at 3:51pm | IP Logged
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Annie we think alike! I love the lime too! You are so right about it kicking a craving.
I'm so lazy about the limes though...I buy True LIme (and Lemon) too. They are good, and easy to carry in a bag with you out.
I also like Caffeine Free Coke. Whenever I feel a strong urge, I just go for that and then it's like some sort of placebo effect...makes my craving go and then I haven't given myself that caffeine jolt too.
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insegnante
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| Posted: July 08 2009 at 5:11pm | IP Logged
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Right now it is the Coke I crave and I think what drives me is the "icy cold bubble rush" Anne describes so well! I think I just need to go cold turkey on Coke itself. Subbing other soda might help because there's none other I have had this on-and-off love affair with like Coke. But I'd rather not replace my Coke habit with a different, non-caffeinated soda habit... what I might do is sub, say, Sprite for Coke in less usual situations but certainly not buy it to keep around the house. It was only recently I gave in and bought Coke to keep at home to save money over the "just one more time before I start to break the habit" expensive single-soda purchases that were adding up.
Since you seem to understand just what the appeal is to the Coke, Anne, I am intrigued by this lime juice alternative you and Kacky recommend!
My main concern with subbing only non-caffeinated stuff for the Coke is that I think suddenly cutting off the caffeine could have physiological effects that I may choose to address with Coke (feeling weakened in my resolve by the symptoms) and then I'll reinforce the craving for the yummy stuff, too. So that's why I want to sub coffee that takes care of all the caffeine but doesn't taste so good to me.
I seem never to get any pain relief from acetaminophen at all, so instead of Excedrin I'd probably take ibuprofen with coffee if I got a headache!
I've started having 50% and 75% decaf instant coffees. If I have 75% decaf a couple of times a day, I'll probably be consuming less caffeine than when I had 24-36 ounces of Coke daily, and hope I will be able to wean down gradually without withdrawal symptoms. And I'm drinking orange juice with some meals again instead of trying to switch to just water.
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Theresa
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Nique
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| Posted: July 08 2009 at 5:59pm | IP Logged
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insegnante wrote:
Since you seem to understand just what the appeal is to the Coke, Anne, I am intrigued by this lime juice alternative you and Kacky recommend!
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Me too! Would you please give us the proportions you use regarding the lime juice and water?
And what is PIPS?
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aussieannie
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I usually flavour to taste, if I'm using half a lime I can flavour 3 - 4 glassfuls of water with that.
Pips, I shouldn't of captialized  - the seeds, usually when you are using lemons, there are tons of pips and it GIVES me the pips! (That's an Aussie expression, maybe a US/Canadian one too?  )
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KackyK
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| Posted: July 08 2009 at 6:17pm | IP Logged
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Annie, too funny...never heard of "pips" used in that way at all!
The other good thing about the lime water is that it is...well...water. The more you drink the better (obviously). With me, any headache I have ever had can be "drowned" away with water. So for me, I drink more than one glass of lime water to substitute the soda. This is probably why I've never really had the caffeine headache.
I don't know...maybe it's just a coincidence???
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insegnante
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Well, there is such a thing as drinking too much water for safety, but yes, I think proper hydration does help avoid headaches. Kacky, I can believe that water even helps prevent a caffeine withdrawal headache for you. Maybe some people are just wired differently, like how no pain I have ever seems to respond to acetaminophen? I'm prone to migraines when not withdrawing from caffeine, so no wonder I get them when I am. (I'm not prone to them when I'm pregnant and apparently not as prone to them while still not apparently ovulating during breastfeeding like right now, so maybe I'd feel better going off caffeine even cold turkey than the last time I did it.)
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wifemommy
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I went cold turkey on the caffeine and looking back I avoided the headache by resting more and I drank a lot of Powerade. My potassium was low so I was drinking that to help. I feel so much better now no morning foggy head Annie
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Kathryn UK
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You might want to bear in mind that caffeine appears to have certain health benefits - there is some evidence that in moderate amounts it can help asthmatics, and research suggests that drinking coffee in middle age has a protective effect against the development of Alzheimers.
I came across a reference to coffee and asthma a couple of weeks ago and have been consciously increasing the amount of coffee I drink, from occasional cups only to a couple of fairly strong coffees a day. So far it does seem that on the days when I drink the coffee my breathing is better.
Better to get your caffeine from coffee than from sweet, fizzy drinks, though . In any case, Pepsi doesn't have enough caffeine to be useful (a 12 oz Pepsi has 38mg, compared to ten times that for a large Starbucks coffee).
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anitamarie
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When I wanted to stop drinking Diet Coke (my weakness), I switched to iced tea. But I am not very concerned about caffeine because I don't drink a lot of it, anyway. Good luck, my poor dh gets that awful headache whenever he doesn't get his morning coffee. It's horrible.
God Bless,
Anita
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CrunchyMom
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It could be the sugar rush you crave as well as the caffeine. Maybe you could try iced tea and switch to using half decaf and then full decaf. This way you can gradually cut back on sugar, too.
We love lemons and limes in water, too, but that only addresses the psychological withdrawl and not replacing the caffeine.
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Kathryn UK
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CrunchyMom wrote:
| It could be the sugar rush you crave as well as the caffeine. |
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Unless you are very, very sensitive to caffeine it would have to be the sugar rush. Two cans of Coke isn't even equivalent to one small cup of instant coffee. You would have to be practically floating in Coke to get the equivalent of a single strong coffee.
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Tina P.
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Kathryn UK wrote:
| You might want to bear in mind that caffeine appears to have certain health benefits - there is some evidence that in moderate amounts it can help asthmatics, and research suggests that drinking coffee in middle age has a protective effect against the development of Alzheimers. |
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Yes! I was hoping there was someone on this thread who would justify my addiction.
And Cay, there are so many things you say that make me want you as my neighbor. This is the clincher. Same habits. 
Cay Gibson wrote:
| Even after reading this article, I haven't been able to kick my DP & coffee habit. |
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folklaur
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Kathryn UK wrote:
You might want to bear in mind that caffeine appears to have certain health benefits - there is some evidence that in moderate amounts it can help asthmatics, and research suggests that drinking coffee in middle age has a protective effect against the development of Alzheimers.
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drinking coffee is also good for preventing gallstones, of all things.
(i love coffee, however, it is also a powerful GI tract stimulant - and just a little makes my IBS really, really horrible i miss coffee.)
i am another who loves the "bubble effect" - and coke is my drink of choice, too. i am currently trying to kick the habit also. i wish you luck!!! (once i start to get the headache, i often break down and drink some...)
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insegnante
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| Posted: July 21 2009 at 10:28pm | IP Logged
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I've been Coke-free since July 8. I have had other sodas, caffeinated and not, on and off, but I think my soda "habit" is broken.
I had been having at least a 25% regular, 75% decaf coffee daily, and sometimes other caffeine sources. Today I thought I'd reduce to about 90% decaf, but having had no other caffeine since that cup upon rising, I'm starting to feel these unpleasant sensations in my face that make me wonder if it's withdrawal/migraine coming on. It could be a coincidence. I think I'm going to have some more coffee though, maybe just another 90% decaf.
Btw, my main reason for wanting to kick any habit of caffeine consumption is the research on caffeine's connection to miscarriage. I'm also not sure that a caffeine habit is not actually a contributor to migraine-proneness, even if it seems sometimes to help an acute headache.
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Topic: kicking Coke and coffee habits
