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Quitting Pop

Now, I call it pop. That's what we call it here in Ohio, or at least this region of Ohio. I know other people call it Coke or soda or whatever the fuck. I'm talking about carbonated beverages. So if I say pop, I mean carbonated beverages. Besides calling it Coke doesn't make sense to me unless it Coca-Cola specifically because that's our shortened version of Coca-Cola here: Coke. Coke = Coca-Cola. Pop = carbonated beverages. Coke and Coca-Cola make sense. But if you call Coke for every carbonated beverage doesn't make sense because it's not all Coke. Anyway, I'm rambling. Let's get into the topic, shall we.

I used to drink pop a lot. Last year around Thanksgiving though I stopped. I stopped cold turkey, if you will. So how did I do it?

1. I made up my mind. I told myself I didn't need pop. It's not a necessity for life. I admitted it wasn't the best for my health. You have to want to quit. You have to commit to it.

2. Decrease the amount of pop you drink. I didn't do this, but I hear it helps. I just stopped drinking it. But they say with smokers who want to quit smoking to stop smoking (insert a number you want here) a week. I would suggest doing that instead of doing what my grandpa did though. He used to be an alcoholic, he got a blood clot (not from alcohol, the alcohol just thinned his blood enough to get it knocked loose). The medicine they put him on afterwards thinned his blood too and they told him to stop drinking because if he didn't the combination of the 2 blood thinners (the medicine and the alcohol) would thin his blood so much to the point that if he got a paper cut or something he would bleed to death because the blood wouldn't be able to clot. He also quit smoking cold turkey because he was under heavy sedation after he had 3 of his heart valves replaced. He wouldn't have able to smoke after that surgery anyway since he was on oxygen for a year afterward.

3. Stop drinking caffeine all together. This isn't something I tried since the only way I was drinking caffeine was via pop. I don't drink coffee and shit. But that's what I'm getting at, if you drink coffee too, quit drinking so much of that. Your body will start depending on to function if you drink too much of it.

4. Drink alternatives. Drink more water, milk, real fruit juice, etc. You're supposed to be drinking your body weight divided by 2 in ounces of water a day anyway. And that has to be water too, milk, juice, and the like aren't counted towards that number.

5. Diet sodas aren't good for you either. Those low-calorie pops are good for you calorie wise, but other than that they're actually less health than regular pop. Diet pops have more of the sodium and sugars that aren't good for your body. The same goes for stuff like Coke Zero.

So pretty much all I did was tell myself I'm not going to drink anymore pop and I haven't. But that doesn't work for everyone obviously. Maybe you need to ween yourself off it or maybe you can quit cold turkey. You'll never know if you don't try. And I'm not saying don't ever drink pop. I'm just saying cut back how much you drink.