Thanks for the additional thoughts guys. I am on the brink of quitting soda forever and have drastically tapered. I notice how much effect sugar has on my energy levels / lags (in a negative way) and am "done". I feel like if I go another year with the amount of sugar intake I am at, I am at risk of diabetes. Unfortunately for me it takes a big realization to make things happen but at least it is happening before its too late.
Thankfully you seem to have at least some comprehension of what sugar is doing to you. It's not the caffeine you are addicted to. It's the sugar. It sounds like you need a bit of "big hits" to put you over the edge so I'll help a bit.
1) Adding 150 calories a day to a normal diet has virtually no visible effects on a healthy diet. Adding 150 calories a day from SODA increases risk of diabetes by 700%. You were currently drinking 5-6+ can's a day (more on a bad day, less on a better day). 6 cans = over 2 liters. You were literally killing yourself. You may just not be fully aware of the scope of it.
2) One can of Mountain Dew = 170 calories and 46g sugar
One can of Pepsi = 150 calories and 41g sugar
2) You were/are ingesting roughly 3 of each type per day. OR (170x3)+(150x3) =
960 calories a day from
261g of SUGAR 3) A healthy American Male has room for about 37.5
extra grams of sugar in their daily diet. You're eating 7 times that. And you're not healthy, by your statement, you're borderline obese. Therefore you have NO room for additional sugars.
4) A sweetener substitute is JUST AS BAD as sugar. Your body reacts exactly the same way to it as it does to sugar. The body recognizes the sweetener (regardless of calories) as sugar, and flips the hormone switch that turns the associated sugar/carb calories (at the time, and for the next meals) into fats. Anyone telling you that a sugar substitute does vastly less harm to your body than sugar is lying to you, whether they know it or not.
5) Sugar enlists the help of hormones to light up the same regions of the brain that COCAINE stimulates. I.E, sugar is more addictive than a Class 5 narcotic. You're addicted to a drug.
6) Do you notice a roll of fat around your belly? That's from the near 1000 calories of sugar being turned into fat. It's also the most dangerous kind of fat. Belly fat is where important measurements come from.
7) Do you eat 3 meals during the day? Do you find that you don't need to eat much during the day for one reason or another?
8) You're not GOING to be at risk of diabetes. You are ALREADY AT RISK of diabetes. It was late yesterday man. Get on with the quitting and get started on the living.
How old are you, how tall are you and how much do you weigh? "Borderline Obese" seems to fall under different categories depending on what part of the country the person lives in (not all doctors/physicians are equal).
WHY I'm so adamant:
-History of heart disease and diabetes in my family
-Unhealthy father who can't see that the foods he eats are unhealthy
-Unhealthy friends who can't see that the foods they eat are unhealthy
-A nutritionist/personal trainer/studying dietician for a wife
-Two sister in laws, a mother in law, a father in law, all addicted to sugar and fats who can't realize the root of their issues is derived from this addiction. Reliant on other drugs/procedures to solve there problems.
I've witnessed the parents of my best friend fall into this trap. I've known them since the age of 6. I love them. The mother is diabetic (from DIET coke), and the father is either in denial, or about a half inch from the line. They work slave jobs (9-5 with no happiness) to find retirement in a couple years at 62. They won't be able to enjoy it fully because they are too fat/unhealthy/diseased/sick.
Don't be like these people man. You KNOW the err's of your ways, and you can see the difference. It's because you can already see the light of day, the brightness at the end of the tunnel that I even bother to type this. You have already taken the hard step.
Quitting soda/sugar is physically akin to quitting a drug addiction. Be strong.