I have a horrible addiction to the tune of about 6 cans a day. My questions: How long do the headaches last when coming off? What are some tips? Is cold tofurkey better?

I have a horrible addiction to the tune of about 6 cans a day. My questions: How long do the headaches last when coming off? What are some tips? Is cold tofurkey better?

I was in your exact boat but more like 8 cans...no voffe for me just coke. here is what I experienced when I went cold turkey last new years.
the first day I increased my water in take to total about 10 glasses.
the second day near the end of the day I started to get a head ach
I awoke the next moringing with a spliter unlike any I had ever had before ( i have never I had a migrain...but this was bad, so bad I did not work as nothing worked on it....it lasted two days
the fourth day I still had a head ach it felt better but I dont know if I had just gotten used to it or what. i used no asprin. just water and food.
the head ach stuck around till about mid day the following day when I felt great....
Not changing another part of my life I lost 10 pounds in two months...doc said it was the sugars and things.

I now will drink about one a day or every other day with no ill effects. I will never allow myself to go that far again..that first week sucked...sucked worse than standing in tear gas for 15 min....

I gave up soda (all sugary drinks) a couple of years ago and like American i had discomfort for about a week. I guess about 5 days of horrid discomfort. I also lost about 7-10 LBS over the first 2 months. That week of pain made it very clear why i could never start drinking the crap again.

Nutrasweet is SO friggin bad for you. See http://www.sweetpoison.com/, and read up on it.

I also quit sodas a few years back, and now the only soda I like is seltzer with a lemon. When it came down to it, it was really the cold fizzy that I liked, not the syrup.

You should quit cold tofurkey, and realize that the pain you're going though is detox from that horrible chemical (and caffeine) and maybe you'll remember not to get hooked again.

Good luck.

i went cold tofurkey with some friends the second week into June (this year)...we had our blackbelt test coming up and decided we would be better off without soda in our systems. There were initially four of us, 3 girls and a guy. One of the girls gave up on the 4th of July...8 days before the test. At the end of August we found out the guy had been drinking soda since the test. My friend and i feel so much better since we gave up soda...i never plan to go back to my ~evil~ soda drinking days.

woah...that was really off track...
i would def. go cold tofurkey...drinking water helps *ALOT*

i used to drink alot of soda...when i went cold tofurkey i never got headaches?? craving, i did get, but no headaches?

OMG I have this problem too. I drink waaaaayyyy too much of the stuff. I'm afraid to give it up though. Everytime I try, I get those headaches that everybody is talking about and then I cave.

Did you guys who lost weight drink diet?

*makes yet another promise to herself to quit diet coke, AGAIN*

The headaches do go away. When I worked for an ISP in the tech support dept., I was drinking about 2-3 pots of coffee a day plus pop. Sometimes my headaches were so bad that I couldn't stand.
Now, I just have a tea in the morning and that's it.

Drink water! When I quit smoking, I also quit drinking coffee. Oddly, I never had a headache. Water does get rid of a lot of crap that's in your system.

I didn't do coke, but I gave up coffee. (I drank a couple of pots a day) The headaches stem from the caffiene leaving your system. For me the first day or so was bad, I had a nasty headache and I felt wonkey for the next week. Now I drink decaffinated green or herbal tea. The end results are worth the headaches. I haven't had a caffienated beverage in almost a year.

I suggest cutting down gradually, the headaches aren't as bad as quitting tofurky. Since you drink 6 cans a day, start out with four cans then subsitute the other 2 with seltzer water with lemon. Keep cutting down and for every can you take away add another seltzer.

Crap. I shouldn't have read this thread. I hate Diet Coke now. It was pretty easy to stop drinking for me, because I was used to getting headaches, and I've never been a regular drinker anyway. I never noticed any changes. I still have a rare Dr. Pepper, and I drink coffee a few times a week (4 maybe), so that probably is part of what's keeping me more or less in a zone of comfort. But now... Damn it! I like my coffee!

*goes back to wrestling with it*

If you can cut them out completely go for it but it sound like the headaches are really disrupting your life so it would probably be better to do it slowly or to replace the caffiene with a mild caffeinated cup of tea during the day. chineese green tea has a low dose of caffeine in it naturally, also "standard fare" black and green teas like earl grey and english breakfast, are also good choices. the caffeine is less stimulating then coffee but will likely help your headache.

good luck :sheep:

Say

i used to drink between five and ten cans of coke a day... then i just decided to stop.... i had a bad head ache for about two days then it got better and i didn't crave coke any more:D

I was not a pickey soadholic what ever was there was fine for me.

i never thought to try selter.........

Those dern bubbles are good, not refreshing but good.

I gave up caffeine over the summer as I went vegan. (Totally unrelated, I know) Yes, the headaches are terrible, but it feels great to have that monkey off of your back. Are you in the States? It's a three day weekend because of Columbus day, why not quit now? Sure you'll blow a nice three day break, but it wont interfere with work/school.

Oh man, when I quit sodas (like drinking 6 cans and 2 bottles a day) I had TERRIBLE WITHDRAWAL SYNDROMES. Headahces, tiredness, it sucked. Same thing when I quit my 2 caffene pills per day routene. I only have REAL sodas every once and a while, but I don't drink diet nosmore.

Oh man, when I quit sodas (like drinking 6 cans and 2 bottles a day) I had TERRIBLE WITHDRAWAL SYNDROMES. Headahces, tiredness, it sucked. Same thing when I quit my 2 caffene pills per day routene. I only have REAL sodas every once and a while, but I don't drink diet nosmore.

diet soda's don't have more caffeine than regular ones, so that really doesn't make a difference. why were you taking two caffeine pills a day along with all that soda anyway? some late night cram sessions or something?

these were two seperate incidences. So not at the same time. I was just having fun getting buzzed, and the soda just tasted good. It was stupid.

Hey, I have an idea!
Try drinking green tea instead of soda- because its a great deal healthier than pop- and then wean yourself off the green tea. Drink 5 glasses a day for a week, 4 a day for a week, 3 a day for a week, and if you keep 1-2 glasses a day, it won't even be big deal, because they recommend that you drink a little bit of green tea everyday.
Just a suggestion!
lovenlight,
linz

i thought about it but then decided... NO. it's one of the few vices i have and i'm not giving up my DC or my coffee till they pry them from my cold dead fingers......