Can confirm , am definitely not a uspez throwaway account . <| sep |> I hope you found it useful ! I ' ve tried quitting cold turkey soda and it fails me every time . How do you stay away from soda ? Diet sodas are an option for you , if you need them . If you absolutely must have soda , pick diet over full sugar ! If you love the fizz , try soda water and a sugar free dilute , or a few drops of lemon ! Experiment ! See what you like ! Also this time is different . This time you ' re focusing on long term , sustainable change . You CAN do this , don ' t let that brain of yours fool you ! veggies ! !! I accept your challenge ! Scared to do so , but you got yourself a bet ! Excellent ! You say that texture gets you down , so I need to know a little bit about that before I go in to giving you loads of advice . However , consider Baked sweet potato , roasted inside it ' s skin . Sweet and earthy , great as a side . Freshly steamed , still crunchy , roll cut carrot . No mush here , a soft but crunchy bite ! lightly sauteed bell pepper and mushrooms , snuggled up next to some egg scramble . half a ripe avocado , creamy , soft , nutty . On it ' s own no fuss needed ! A rich , tangy and hearty tomato soup , made with onions , garlic , a carrot , herbs , and canned tomatoes . But really , go with whatever is available to you . Do some research online ! There are loads of youtube videos out there , loads of recipes . Just give it a go and see what happens I want to hit my 10 k steps a day but coming from where I ' m at , it seems way out of reach . I think I could do it , physically , but I feel as though that would be HOURS of walking in my day ? I am literally the WORST person to ask about this ! I don ' t count my steps . Yes , it might mean hours of walking . My advice would be to build up to it slowly , and make it as fun as possible . Listen to podcasts , walk places that are beautiful , do whatever you can to enjoy yourself . Winter is possibly the worst time to start this as it ' s so cold . A lot of people work more steps into their days in sneaky ways they take the stairs , they walk round the kitchen as they wait for the microwave . If walking for hours sounds dull to you , perhaps look into some other form of exercise . Let go of your fears about things you don ' t want to do . Experiment and find out what works for you ! Yes , the first few days of adjustment are tough , but past the sacrifice , there ' s a lot of joy to be had in finding a new way of living . Something I suggest to people is making 3 lists List 1 things you ' re scared about , or don ' t want to give up . Reasons that you might want to stay the same as you are . This could be I really love soda or I don ' t want to spend more time on exercise or Vegetables are disgustingList 2 things you hate about your current life . All the pain , both mental and physical . Every nasty thought , every sad thing you ' ve heard . The things you know are missing in your life , and the faults you hate . This could be things like One of my teeth is starting to hurt or I get out of breath walking up stairs or I hate having no control over myselfList 3 Things you stand to gain by changing . Every hope and dream . Things like I want to climb a tree . or I want to move around and breath at the same time or I won ' t run into medical conditions or I ' ll have better teeth because I ' m not drinking a gallon of sugar and acid a dayThen compare list 3 to list 1 . What on list one is worth giving up to achieve list 3 ? Be honest with yourself . This is personal try not to just parrot off media perceptions of stuff .