Can you drink anything else on LL besides water?

[Blonde Logic]

As well as a food addiciton I am aslo addicted to Diet COke.

I think I know the answer, but one lives in hope - can you have diet drinks on the plan? Or anything else besides just water?

 

[leesy]

Sorry BL - no diet drinks, only water and leaf teas (peppermint, black, green, redbush etc).
Lighterlife do two flavourings you can add though - I like them with fizzy water as they taste a bit like soda.
It seems hard to kick the coke habit at first, but trust me it is easier that you think, and you feel great drinking all that clean water.
Good luck!
Leesy
xox

 

[Blonde Logic]

Thanks Leesy. I expected as much.

Heck, I may as well quit smoking too when I start in January!! Get rid of alllllll my vices!!

Well....almost all.

 

[peanut]

I never realsied how many diffrent drinks i used to have - juices, fizzy, coffees and loads of vodka and beer! But now I dont miss it - I just get on with the water. I thought id find the coffee without milk awful but the first week I used 3 tablet sweetners in it to take the bitterness away. Then went down to 2 sweetners the next week and it was nice.

i do miss the drinking socially tho.........

 

[Blonde Logic]

Hi Peanut

Fortunately for me, I am not a drinker so I will not suffer there. I have the occassion (very) beer, and that will be easy enough.

I have only discovered Pear Juice recently - I have looked for it for ages, so now that I found it I am sad to give it up!! LOL Other than that it has been Diet Coke, Whitened Coffee and tea for me. I must get started on my water now so I am used to it in Januery!! Water training 101.

I am OK with black coffee if it is the first cup out of the pot. If its been sitting, I don't like it.

Looks like it will be teas and water then!! Wahey!

 

[kenshin112]

yeah thats one thing your only allowed water on the LL diet
you are allowed the flavours which consist of St clements and
Forest Fruits, i always end up oding on the water having 5-6 litres a day

 

[Christovee]

Thanks Leesy. I expected as much.

Heck, I may as well quit smoking too when I start in January!! Get rid of alllllll my vices!!

Well....almost all.

I've decided smoking is going after I've finished the development phase of LL, both at the same time is too much to me. I also chainsmoked during the first week to distract me from eating but I'm back to my 'normal' levels now.

 

[peanut]

I only when smoke when I drink but have found myself having the odd one at work to the point im carrying 20! I quickly saw this was dodgy ground.... I only had one last week so thats good and this week im having NONE i've decided!

Its easy to replace one with the other I think - i wouldnt like to get to the end of the programme and then have to try and giving up smoking as i could revert back the other way and starting eating to replace smoking. Im going to try very hard not to have any this week.

Christovee and BL, I totally see what you are saying about one thing at a time, what we are all doing is lifechanging and its a massive challenge as it is - without adding to that another highley stressful daily challenge of giving up smoking also. Id wait I think.

But congrats if anyone is doing both!

 

[Blonde Logic]

I

Its easy to replace one with the other I think - i wouldnt like to get to the end of the programme and then have to try and giving up smoking as i could revert back the other way and starting eating to replace smoking. Im going to try very hard not to have any this week.

-- - - -

But congrats if anyone is doing both!

Oh I am not going to do both!! ANd what you described above - that is truly vicious cycle!!

Almost as bad as "I eat because I am depressed and I am depressed because I eat." Thats me much of the time. Its evil it is.

 

[peanut]

Yeah it is a vicious circle. I eat for eveything - happy - sad whatever my answer is food as a reward or comfort!

I am going to break that cycle as I realise now how much damage that is doing to me. I have had a really stressful two weeks and have managed it without eating. Im finally taking control of my life!

 

[lighterlifeclaire]

one thing i discovered today was how to have white coffee again (ok its slightly different)

i rarely drank hot drinks b4 LL but im fed up with water and dont like black coffee! I heard off one of these forums (i think!) about mixin a bit of my vanilla shake with a black coffee and it worked great

dont put the powder in though, mix up a whole shake when ur due a "meal" and mix about half vanilla shake (coldish) with half black coffee... i added a sweetener but i dont think i needed it as the shake is already quite sweet

 

[Alibongo]

I had trouble in the early days drinking all the water, but now I have sorted out a routine which isn't quite so dull.
peppermint tea, plain water, latte made with vanilla shake, savoury drink, fizzy orange, fizzy blackcurrant, hot blackcurrant, hot orange, plain fizzy water.
I find alternating these makes it easier to take.

To make the latte I either mix the whole pack with 100ml or half pack with 50ml of water in the shaker and add to hot black sweetened coffee 400ml or 200ml.
Or stick the whole lot in the shaker and mix with the stick blender.

 

[Sam]

But what about coke zero? I read that some diets also allow you to drink coke zero? There is another thread about this topic in this forum. Maybe you could check it out! But nevertheless, water and tea without any sugar is probalby still the best and the most effective!

 

[polishrose]

Cambridge allow you to have coke zero-2 cans a day..I haven't tried it yet as I'm worried it will start me craving other things.

 

[Alibongo]

You aren't allowed any diet drinks at all, not even coke zero on LL.

 

[Blonde Logic]

Thinking about it, if we can have tea - (can we have sweetner like Candaral?) I can make Ice Tea. That will do nicely.

Does tea/coffee count towards your 4 liters of water? I know it does on some plans?

 

[Zomble]

You can have tablet sweeteners but not the granulated ones. Tea and coffee do not count towards your water intake, officially. This is because they are diuretics, so they rob your body of water, whereas LL wants to fully hydrate your body so that your liver, kidneys, etc function at peak efficiency to metabolise all that fat.

However, when I make tea now it is incredibly weak. Otherwise it tastes so bitter! In fact, I sometimes use loose tea and just put a pinch of tea in a big mug. I reckon that about 6 tealeaves can't have a great effect on me, so I do include it in my water total.

It all depends on how purist you want to be, and how difficult you find it to drink the water. If it's a question of either super-weak tea or nothing, have the tea!

But also, have a bottle of water beside you all the time and just keep taking a gulp. It's amazing how much you will get through without realizing.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Blonde Logic]

Hi Zomble...thanks for that.

I figured it probably did not count towards water total, simply because of the minimal food intake....but worth asking.

I am going to try and be a "purist" as I want to change my behaviour overall, so best stick to the rigidness of the program and learn what there is to learn about myself.

I just fancy a nice cold drink - usually diet coke - at the end of the day. I don't drink alcohol ever, so that is my vice. But I will sacrifice it happily for a slimmer self! Besides, its got to be horrible for me anyway.

I will aim to maybe just have one ice tea a day, and the rest water. I plan to drink still water during the day at work, and fizzy water at home in the evenings. Assuming fizzy water is allowed? I know sometime carbonation is not allowed.

In fact - how do most of you get through your water? Do you time it and say have a glass every hour? Or do you chug a lot of it all at once? Seems an awful lot of water to drink in one day, and I don;t want to be drinking the bulk of it at night or I will be up all night, if you get my drift!!

So what has worked for you all?

Out of curiosity - how come sweetners are OK in tab form and not in powder form??

 

[Alibongo]

I was pretty sure that our LLC said we could count coffee and tea towards our water. Will have to check that then, as I do. Not that I have many per day, sometimes none.
You can have fizzy water.
As for the sweetener, I think they add something to the powder sweetener like an anti caking agent which possibly has hidden carbs in it not sure.
I always alternate what I drink, using the water flavours, hot, cold, fizzy, peppermint tea, the occasional savoury drink. I struggled at first but now it isn't so bad.

 

[Zomble]

Hellooo all. Yes I do what Alibongo does. I have a bottle of (tap!) water beside me all the time and just have a gulp sometimes. If I get behind and need to drink a lot at a time I use the flavours. It definitely slips down more easily and they have some fibre in them, which can be useful! I find if you chug a lot at once it just goes straight through, but the slow gulping seems to stay in the body more, and (presumably) does you more good (???)