Am I a bad College student if i drink soda and eat fast food?

I’ve always been a soda drinker and fast food eater,neither of them are healthy or financially smart! I tend to get bad grades becuase soda messes up my memory, sleep, concentration, make me have to use the bathroom too much,and gives me anxiety! I tend to waste money by doing these things becuase they are expensive and I could have more money saved if i didn’t do thesee things. Are there any smart people on here who have these habits? How do I get rid of soda? I can’t do it when i’m in school and stressed out. I wanna get rid of soda so I can get better grades! What should I do?

Soda isn’t causing your bad grades. Stop blaming it.

If you want to stop, break the habit of buying it or choosing it at restaurants & cafeterias. I like soda, but it isn’t healthy, so I only have it a few times a year. 99% of the time I drink water. I drink coffee occasionally when I need to stay alert. No one else can make you stop. You just need to decide to. Being in school is just an excuse. You could stop tomorrow if you wanted to.

Eating fast food and drinking soda doesn’t make you bad. If you are unhappy with yourself for doing these things, they have become “bad” habits. Many smart people also have bad habits, no one is immune to them, whether smart or not. And whether or not other smart people have the same bad habits as you is irrelevant. You are going to have to really want to change in order to break your habits if you want to. It won’t be easy. Google cognitive behavioral strategies for breaking bad habits for some ideas as to how to begin.

I am almost 60 years old and drink diet soda almost every day and have since i was 12. I also occasionally eat fast food… I managed to become a lawyer.

I recognize that drinking soda isn’t healthy and I have been trying to reduce my intake. Ditto for fast food. My consumption of both is probably a contributory factor to my being a lot fatter than I want to be, but it certainly has not damaged my career nor did it cause me to get bad grades.

However, if your consumption troubles you and you believe there is a connection, break the habits. Carry a water bottle. All of my kids do and my H just started - he is a bigger soda fiend than I am and he drinks the regular stuff. I am anticipating that I will have to start carrying one soon as well. Carry healthy snacks. Pick a less unhealthy option at the fast food restaurant or go to a different one.

Good luck.

The reason I asked this question this way is because smoking and drinking alcohol are bad habits for college students that are not healthy thato can interfere with grades!

Stop blaming your habits on your behaviors.

I ate like crap in college and drank way more pop than anyone should (admittedly, I still do as a PhD student- I say as I stare at a giant bottle of mountain dew that I’m drinking).

These aren’t causing anything. If you want help quitting, see if your U’s health center offers any help.

Don’t know if this is helpful, but here is an article from a reliable source with the impact of soda consumption:

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks/soft-drinks-and-disease/

I have a friend who had part of her foot amputated last week due to complications from diabetes. She is in her early 50s. You don’t want to be in that situation – developing good habits now can really pay off in the long term.

The long term health consequences of consuming these foods is severe and potentially deadly. Seriously. If you are drinking diet sodas, it’s even worse. Do a search related to Aspartame and you’ll read way more than you want to about the long term impact of such foods on your body. If you have Netflix, there are plenty of movies related to the fast food industry–
There is a generation of us who grew up on that crap not realizing it’s long term impact on our health, and some of us are paying serious consequences now. Yes, there are those who can eat and drink whatever they want for 90 years and aren’t sick a day in their lives. There are many others who aren’t so lucky.
If you want to stop, do a Whole30 or go Paleo—the first few days aren’t easy but about a week into it, you’ll feel better than you’ve felt in years, have tons of energy to get thru the day, won’t have mid-day slumps, etc. Plus, you’ll start establishing healthy habits now when you’re young. Good luck!

Is this a real post? In the event that it is, here’s a true story. My sister was addicted to Coke. In her mid twenties, and with two young kids, the doctor told her that she would be DEAD in a few years if she didn’t cut her soda intake. Dead is forever. She has permanent mouth problems from all the soda she drank. Her weight skyrocketed. She was a divorced single mom with three kids before she was thirty. I love my sister, and I am sure that soda alone didn’t cause her troubles, but the expense and the effects on her health and mouth will never be remedied. It’s highly likely that you will graduate from college intact, but if you are at all concerned about what the road ahead will be like, I suggest you find a different stress-coping habit.

Yes, it’s probably better for your health if you stop. No, your grades probably won’t improve unless what’s holding you back is self-loathing over your diet.

Sincerely,
MD/PhD student who has 20-40oz of diet soda every day.

Give me some steps to get soda out of my diet!

Just stop drinking it.

@MotherOfDragons drinking soda is an addiction like Smoking, Alcohol, or Drugs are!

SuperGeo-you are correct in that it is addictive.

I agree with MotherOfDragons, the only way to truly stop is to do it cold turkey. I drank a six pack of diet coke per day for years and felt there was no way I could give it up. Then I got cancer. Cancer sucks and fighting it is wayyyy harder than giving up sodas, trust me.

There really aren’t any steps–other than to replace it with something healthy and fizzy.

My advice is to go buy a box of LeCroix–it comes in a bunch of different flavors, comes in cans and bottles and has a ton of carbonation so you get that fizzy fix without all the chemicals.

Also, you must give yourself at least 21 days. Make a calendar for yourself, set some goals, and believe in yourself.
You can do it. Seriously, it sounds stupid to a lot of people to be addicted to sodas but it’s very hard to get off of them if you’re truly hooked, so I get it.

The Whole 30 might help-- it is super strict and very hard to follow for 30 days, but you’ll feel great and notice huge changes within just a few days. The website is free and they have a forum for support–It definitely helped me which is why I recommend it.

@SuperGeo5999, I agree that it can be an addiction for some people, and difficult to quit. Still, YOU are the only person who can make the decision to take steps to help yourself. You have to care enough, and you have to psyche yourself to believe you will feel better eventually if you do some hard things that you may not feel like doing at the moment. If you can make yourself start doing these things, it get easier (like a muscle getting stronger.) Don’t beat yourself up if you slip up…moderation is the key.

Sometimes it’s easier to DO something than to not do something (i.e, to resist an obsession or addiction.) The more you resist, the more insistent the obsession/compulsion. So, whenever you want to drink soda, do something physical for a few minutes, even it it’s just running up and down the stairs of your dorm a few times or stretching. Afterwards, drink a large glass of ice water and focus on how refreshing that is. Squeeze a sliver of lemon or lime into the water if that appeals to you. Try to replace your old addiction with a healthier “addiction.”

Are you getting regular, heart-pumping exercise? Walking/running/swimming/bicycling and maybe something like yoga could relieve some of the stress that increases your compulsion to reach for the soda in the first place. If you STILL reach for the soda anyway, exercise can moderate the bad effects on your health and mental focus. Yoga/meditation can help with the self-discipline. Exercise increases your “feel-good” brain endorphins, making it easier to resist things that are bad for you (because the endorphins already give you a “high.” ) If your body has become addicted to the sugar, maybe taking probiotic capsules every day can help somewhat (beneficial bacteria in your digestive tract can start to crowd out the yeasts that crave the sugar.) Make sure you get enough protein and whole vegetables in your diet…sometimes lacking the right nutrients add to food cravings.

But yes, you do have to be willing to do the work to say “NO” sometimes. Accepting that not every moment of your life is going to feel pleasant actually helps you to get to a better place that IS more pleasant, more often. Good luck… becoming aware of the problem is a good first step :slight_smile:

Anyone a STEM major who drinks soda and eats fast food? You would think that these people are so smart that they wouldn’t drink soda or eat fast food!

Meh. I think a lot of college students don’t eat super well. It’s easy, it’s fast, it’s cheap, and it doesn’t require me to cook.

And I don’t drink coffee or tea so soda is my jolt of caffeine when needed.

There was a recent article/study that stated there’s a link between diet soda and strokes and dementia.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/well/diet-sodas-tied-to-dementia-and-stroke.html?_r=0
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/20/health/diet-sodas-stroke-dementia-study/

Fast food and sodas are really bad. Even though it’s a diet soda, the fake sugar triggers some of the same responses in your body that regular sugar does.

If you can’t go cold turkey, I’d make a suggestion to purchase plain soda water and mix it with lemonade, orange juice, etc. Start with a 50/50 mix and then dilute it from there until it’s all soda water that you’re drinking. And just drink water. Buy a Thermos and fill it with ice cubes and water.

And you really want fast food, the urge comes over you, then go get a Subway (or deli) sandwich. And start eating (more) salads, but watch out for that dressing. Ultimately, ridding yourself of bread, rice and pasta would be ideal.

You’ll feel much better.

@bodangles so have you still been able to save money despite your choices of fast food and soda? Do your parents pay for your college including your food and place to live,does financial aid or scholarships take care of it,or do you have to work to pay for things?