real sustainable change says sacks quicklist 2category ways to stop drinking soda for goodtitle mix it with waterurltextsandon also recommends weaning yourself slowly off soda and sometimes suggests that her clients start drinking halfsoda halfwater youre automatically drinking less and hydrating and filling up with water which is a good thing she says but theres an added advantage as well it cuts back on the sweetness you get from soda which is one of the things people get really used to if youre drinking less sugar your taste buds will change and soon you wont need that sweetness anymore 12 strangebuttrue health tricks quicklist 3category ways to stop drinking soda for goodtitle start tracking your caloriesurltextif youre blindly throwing back colas without stopping to think of their impact on your waistline you could be in for a rude awakening each 12ounce can of coke for example contains 140 calories while a 20ounce bottle has 240 downloading a calorietracking app may help you realize just how much those beverages can affect your daily calorie consumptionas long as you actually log in and record each serving instead of pouring yourself refill after refill start paying attention to how much youre actually drinking once you do you may be more willing to cut back quicklist 4category ways to stop drinking soda for goodtitle do the exercise mathurltextanother way to quantify the calories youre drinking is by thinking about how much exercise it would take to burn them off in a 2014 johns hopkins university study researchers placed signs in corner stores stating that a 20ounce bottle of soda would take 5 miles of walking or 50 minutes of jogging to burn off these advertisements worked when teenager customers saw these signs they were more likely to buy a smaller soda a water or no drink at all when you explain calories in an easily understandable way such as how many miles of walking needed to burn them off you can encourage behavior change said the study authors quicklist 5category ways to stop drinking soda for goodtitle switch to unsweetened teaurltextneed that jolt of caffeine to wake up in the morning if youre not a coffee drinker sandon suggests sipping on unsweetened iced tea instead it can be just as refreshing and there are real health benefits to drinking the phytochemicals in tea she says if you dont like the taste of plain tea mix in some lemon mint or a small amount of sugar or artificial sweetenerat least during your transitionfromsoda phase the important thing is that youre aware of and in charge of exactly whats going into your drink and how much is added quicklist 6category ways to stop drinking soda for goodtitle drink a glass of water firsturltextwhenever the urge to drink a soda hits fill up a big glass of ice water and finish that first a lot of times people drink soda just because theyre bored or theyre thirsty and thats whats available or thats what theyre used to