Beating my addiction.

Five years ago today, I had my last drink of cola.

You may laugh when you I call it an addiction. I don't mean to belittle real addictions that ruin people's lives, so perhaps "habit" is a better word for it. But at my peak I was drinking around 3 litres of pop per day, starting with breakfast.

Disgusting, I know.

I'd tried many times in the past to cut it out of my life, and I was only met with migraines, nausea, and moodiness.

I'll tell you what helped me beat it, and hopefully if there is something in your own life that you want to change, it can help you too!

My tradition was to have a 7-11 Double Gulp. Every day. Two litres of Coke. I'd get it first thing in the morning, and it would last me until lunch.

In April of 2006, my wife and I took a trip to Vancouver for almost a week to stay with relatives. There were no 7-11's within walking distance, and I wasn't going to make our gracious hosts drive me to one every morning. So, not wanting to be a glutton, I only snuck maybe a can a day out of their fridge. I was FORCED to limit my consumption.

I was in town to see my favourite band, Queen, performing with Paul Rodgers. So in addition to having reduced access to my drug of choice, I also had something big that I was really looking forward to that helped keep my mind from begging for it's fix.

In short, eliminate the supply of your habit, occupy your mind with something else you're really excited about, and hold yourself accountable to friends and family!

For me, accountability was posting the number of cola free days I'd experienced at the end of every blog post. I still keep that tradition as I enter my sixth cola free year, just scroll down to the bottom of this post! During the first year, if I was craving cola, I just remembered I'd have to reset the count on my blog and start from zero.

These tactics also worked for my wife when she quit smoking. Thanks to a terrible flu that ravaged her for over week, she had not smoked in 4 or 5 days. She couldn't get out of bed for a cigarette, let alone go buy any. Realizing this was one of her longest smoke-free streaks, she capitalized on this and rode it out. She's been riding that wave for almost 15 months now.

I'm incredibly proud of her, and her path was similar to mine. Forced elimination of supply, mind occupied with something else (in her case, getting rid of her flu!), and the support of friends and co-workers.

My advice? Quit trying to give up cold turkey just because it's Thursday. Find an event, a vacation, illness, or distracting life event that's happening soon, and piggy back your efforts to quit around this!

Currently playing: Queen - We Are The Champions
Currently colouring: Silver Bullet #8 by Lonely Robot Comics!
Proudly in my sixth Cola free year!