my soda swap outlasted the game that started it

2026-10-07 21:34

i used to keep a 12-pack next to my desk for late ranked matches. not even a party thing, just autopilot: sip between rounds, crush the can, start another.

the swap started as a dumb experiment — seltzer first, then water with those little flavor drops — and somehow it stuck after i quit that game entirely. i'm down 91 lbs from my highest, and i'm about 5 lbs from a goal i wrote on a sticky note when i genuinely thought i'd never get under 200. not calling it done yet.

under 10 lbs has felt like it can disappear after one salty dinner, and i'm not trying to jinx it. still, the habit outlived the game, which feels weirdly important. anyone else have a small swap that turned into the main thing holding the routine together?

2026-10-27 18:18

The part I’m curious about: did it stick because of the bubbles, the cold can, or the hand-to-mouth habit? I had a similar desk loop and tracked it for two weeks—was going through ~4 cans a night.

What finally broke it was a 24oz insulated bottle plus a hair tie around it; each time I emptied it, I moved the tie. Seeing 3 refills = 72oz made me realize I was mostly chasing the ritual, not thirst.

Did you ever log ounces or cravings before/after, or was it pure autopilot?

2026-10-28 21:28

The bit I’d want to know is whether the swap changed your time-of-day cues—like did you start reaching for seltzer at the same desk spot, or did you have to move the cans out of reach first? I ask because my snacky habits are tied to location more than hunger, and changing the trigger (not just the drink) was what made tracking honest.

Did you log the swaps at all, or just notice the scale trend?

2026-10-28 22:52

I track weird stuff like this, so mine wasn’t the bubbles—it was the inventory. I started buying 12-packs of store-brand seltzer and writing the purchase date on the box; if it lasted past 10 days I knew it was boredom, not thirst.

That cut my autopilot cans way more than flavor drops did. Curious whether you ever priced out the swap: my rough math was ~$0.30/can for seltzer vs ~$0.50 for soda, so a 12-pack habit was $2–3/week cheaper, not huge but noticeable over a year.

Did your grocery run frequency change too?