I was never really a big soda person, but I am terribly, terribly addicted to energy drinks, and specifically Red Bull. My body no longer responds to caffeine without taurine, and even then, not unless it's in very large quantities. The problem is, because caffeine is a physically addictive substance, I can't afford to stop until I have a long break in school. Luckily, that's coming soon.

As far as quitting something that just tastes so darn good goes, the key is, without a doubt, moderation. DO NOT TRY TO STOP DRINKING SODA ENTIRELY. I would start by limiting yourself to, say, two: one in the morning, and one at night. In between these times, what you probably want to do is drink a lot of water. Not enough that you die like the lady who tried to hold her water for a Wii, but enough that you're too full of water for there to be room for soda.

Apple juice, as you've pointed out, is a good alternative. So is lemonade, and if you like sour citrus-y stuff, grapefruit juice is AMAZING for you. And of course, there's always carbonated water (I drink it straight, some people like it with lemon or lime or one of the 8 other flavors that your good friends at Talking Rain offer.)

Most importantly, keep at it.

My body just doesnt respond to energy drinks (period)

i only drink them because i like the taste

Wow, crazy addictions. Do you guys go crazy if you don't drink your fixes or something?

I don't go crazy... I just get the basic withdrawl symptoms of caffeine-- severe headaches, listlessness, etc. Of course, I'm pretty physically weak anyway (always tired and sore, which makes doing things difficult), so even when I manage to quit and not have symptoms like headaches anymore (it takes a few weeks) I still don't really feel awake enough to do anything.

Thanks @ Laura for the advice. I recently got into Apple Juice (they sell 12 Ounce Bottles at school), I've gotta tell my mom to buy more, in a jug, cause I drink 2 at school everyday.

Speaking of energy drinks, I had one 20 Ounce Howling Monkey, the morning of the tournament at 8:30AM. Not a good idea. Worst crash I've ever had after the tourney.

And therein lies the problem:

It's really fucking inconvenient to quit drinking large amounts of caffeine/

hahaha the howling monkey stuff was pretty bad but that was probably because it was sugar free :/

but i seriously drink energy drinks every day and they do nothing for me energy wise.  If they do it is very minimal and i hardly notice

Drinks with aspartame are terrible for you. Then again, I'm sort of biased-- I'm near-deathly allergic to the stuff. 2 cans of diet coke made me miss like a week of high school once.

Aspartame should be outlawed. That stuff is nasty.

yes it is very bad... i read somewhere (probably not right) that it breaks down into fermaldahyde (or however you spell that) in your digestive system.

I wouldn't say I have a "horrible habit".  Hell, I even think I'm killing myself softly if I have more than just one soda in a day.

Try replacing soda with orange juice.  For some odd reason, I've suddenly started to like the stuff...

Also, DDR/ITG and energy drinks don't really mix.  They greatly cut my stamina.  The only one that I really drink while playing is Vault, and that can't really be considered an energy drink.

Orange juice is really good for you, too.

So is V8, but who chugs that before an hour long arcade set?

V8... i hate that stuff so much that just reading your comment made me want to vomit.

True... but Odwalla and OJ and other stuff with vitamin C can really help your DDR/ITG game.  And those don't taste like vomit (with the exception of that one odwalla that's a puke green color... just looks way too nasty).

uh... im pretty sure vitamin c does nothing to your physical activities (although its kinda required to be healthy) but its mostly for your body to heal its wounds.
what you need is antioxidants. id probably recommend something like v8 splash (anything with berries in it)
orange juice (or vitamin c) has nasty side effects if you drink too much of it, like diarrhea and acid indigestion

Odwalla is really good. The dark green tada mentioned is Super Food, which doesn't taste good, but it makes you feel good about drinking it since there's so much stuff in it, haha. But it's way too expensive to drink often.
Any juice will slow you down playing ITG; it's too heavy. Stuff like water and Powerade are better.
If you want to stop drinking soda just tell your mom not to buy it anymore.

mykl get an avatar so i don't have to read every post author

got one just for you.
hope you like it :wink:

For the most part high fructose corn syrup is a lot worse than aspartame. (barring allergic reactions and the such)
Anyways, my tip for stopping to drink soda is to just drink even a small glass of milk. Just say to yourself "I'll probably drink some soda after this milk" or something. But chances are when you're done with it, you'll have lost the craving.
It's worth trying at least.

Except when you consider that even sugar by itself isn't that healthy...

As far as I know, hfcs is much harder for the body to process, so you actually end up burning some of it off in the conversion process.

Canadian Coca-Cola is crazy delicious though. (They use Glucose/Sucrose)

Big bump, because now I'm down to 1-2 sodas a day. Almost there...