A few years ago I had a serious Mountain Dew addiction. It started out innocently enough: ordering a soda here and there while out for dinner, enjoying a cold can at a backyard cookout. But over time it morphed into something much more unhealthy.

I’d ask my husband to pick up a twenty-ounce bottle when he stopped at the gas station. Then I started running by the store to grab one every morning after dropping off the kids at school. Pretty soon, 20 ounces a day wasn’t enough. Something about the combination of yellow dye, high-fructose corn syrup, and caffeine created a dependency that I just couldn’t seem to shake. I’d finish one Dew, then start to slump a half-hour later and “need” another. I was sip, sip, sipping (okay, and sometimes gulp, gulp, gulping) all day.

Besides the ridiculous number of calories contained in two bottles of Mountain Dew (almost 600 – YIKES) and the questionable chemicals it contains, I hated the way I felt while drinking it – jittery and tired at the same time. And I hated that I felt like I needed something that was so bad for me. At one point I realized I didn’t even like the way it tasted anymore! It had to stop.

It’s been almost five years since I kicked the Dew habit for good, which is amazing considering how addicted I truly felt. Here are three tips I learned from my experience:

• Figure out the source of your habit. What is it about the soda that’s got you so hooked? Is it the sugar? The caffeine? The flavor? The way it feels in your hand? Or the ritual associated with unscrewing that cap every morning? The key to really understanding how to stop doing something is understanding why you’re doing it in the first place. For example, if you really need caffeine to stay alert in the morning, you might not be getting enough sleep. If you’re looking to the soda to quench your thirst, maybe you aren’t drinking enough water.
• Change up your routine. If you get the soda on your way to work in the morning, try taking a different route. If you keep your fridge stocked with cans, skip that aisle at the grocery store next time or ask your spouse to do the shopping instead. When we moved to a new city, it was a huge factor in my being able to stop drinking Dew. I had a chance to create completely new rituals and associations. It’s harder if your life or surroundings haven’t changed, but you can still “trick” your habit by changing your routines – whether that’s getting gas at a different time of day, shopping at a new store or using a bathroom on a different floor of your office building (the one that’s not by the vending machine.)
• Replace the soda with something healthier. After years of drinking much Dew I was chemically dependent on caffeine, but that wasn’t the whole story – I had also become hooked on the ritual of opening the soda and taking that first sip. I decided to brew up a pot of black tea every morning to replace the soda, and found that the ritual of heating the water, steeping the leaves, pouring the milk, etc; was even more satisfying than the old routine. As for the tea itself? Well, at first it didn’t seem caffeinated enough, and I found myself pouring several cups in a row. But after a few days my body adjusted to taking in far less caffeine, and I realized I didn’t “need” it after all. I started replacing the second and third cups of tea with a glass of filtered water instead. Whatever you choose to replace soda with, make sure it’s something you enjoy drinking that feels a little special, like seltzer, water with a lemon wedge or gourmet tea or coffee. Don’t fool yourself: diet soda isn’t any better. It may not contain calories, but it’s associated with osteoporosis and obesity, and the chemicals in it are probably worse than sugar.

I’m not an anti-soda purist. I do enjoy the occasional Coke at a restaurant or party (but no Dew – frankly, it grosses me out now), but because it’s no longer associated with my day-to-day routine, I’m never tempted to slip back into my previous habits. As I get older and my metabolism slows down, I’m so relieved not to have that monkey on my back anymore. Do you have any idea how long it takes to burn off a twenty-ounce soda on a treadmill?

Have you tried successfully – or unsuccessfully! – to kick a soda habit? Tell me about it!

Thanks to Brita for sponsoring this series of posts about caring for yourself as a mom!