I can't live without Splenda

[organrambo]

Hi!

I drink one gallon of iced tea per day and sweeten it with Splenda. I don't think I could drink it without Splenda for one month. Would I be wasting my time?

Thanks.

[ShannonM816]

If you drink Splenda in your tea, you are not doing a Whole30. That's the rules. You could decide you're going to follow all the other rules except this one, and if it's a pretty big change for you, you'll see benefits, but you will not have done a Whole30. 

One thing that Whole30 can do, if you fully embrace it, is help change your relationship with food, so that you are in charge of the food, and not the other way around. I would argue if you feel so dependent on iced tea with splenda, that is something that is controlling you in a way that isn't healthy.

It might be that you cannot stand unsweetened tea, and that is totally fine. That may mean you give up tea for 30 days and drink water instead. That is not a bad thing, and when you get done with Whole30 you may find you no longer like the sweetened tea so much -- one effect of not adding sweetener to things for 30 days tends to be that your tastes change, and you don't need the hypersweetness of splenda, you notice that vegetables are sweet, you may even notice that some teas, even when they're not sweetened, are sweet. 

[Wendy and Frankie]

I agree, Shannon,

     I have done a few W30's.  I was amazed after my first W30 that I could now drink unsweetened tea and LOVE it.  I was always a Splenda-adder, or sometimes used real sugar as well. One thing that helped me with the unsweetened tea was that in addition to the black tea, I added a fruit-flavored herbal tea, such as Bigelow's red raspberry or perfect peach. It added just enough sweetness that I could tolerate the bitterness of the tea without sugar.  

Good luck!

Wendy

[Duffy1818]

I am on day 6 of my 3rd Whole30.  I have had the same hesitation about coffee without Splenda and ½ and ½ but each time I do it I find I learn to love black coffee and tea and it all finds.   I would organrambo to do it without Splenda and enjoy the freedom and tastes it creates.

[littleg]

You can do pretty much anything for 30 days.  You could also drink: water, seltzer, kombucha, herbal teas... I think many people start a W30 thinking "I can NEVER ----- for 30 days" and then, poof, they do  

[pags98]

@organrambo if I can kick my 60+oz a day Coke Zero habit I promise you can kick your Splenda with tea habit.  I literally purchased a 44oz Coke Zero (why not it was the same price as a 20 or 32oz) each morning, drank it entirely, and usually had between 1 and 3 12-20 oz Coke Zeros later in the day.  On my Whole30 in July I kicked it (my body revolted against me those first few days because of both caffeine and fake sugar).  Now I cannot stand the taste of fake sugar and I don't use any caffeine at all. 

During the first few days I had some unsweet tea to help with the caffeine, but over the course of the Whole30 I even stopped that.  So now, if I have a caffeinated beverage at all it's maybe once a week and really just for taste more than anything.  I haven't had a Coke Zero (other than testing it out...and hating it) since July.  

You CAN do it.  It's a matter of well....doing it. 

[MichelleCA]

On 10/15/2018 at 8:36 AM, pags98 said:

@organrambo if I can kick my 60+oz a day Coke Zero habit I promise you can kick your Splenda with tea habit.  I literally purchased a 44oz Coke Zero (why not it was the same price as a 20 or 32oz) each morning, drank it entirely, and usually had between 1 and 3 12-20 oz Coke Zeros later in the day.  On my Whole30 in July I kicked it (my body revolted against me those first few days because of both caffeine and fake sugar).  Now I cannot stand the taste of fake sugar and I don't use any caffeine at all. 

During the first few days I had some unsweet tea to help with the caffeine, but over the course of the Whole30 I even stopped that.  So now, if I have a caffeinated beverage at all it's maybe once a week and really just for taste more than anything.  I haven't had a Coke Zero (other than testing it out...and hating it) since July.  

You CAN do it.  It's a matter of well....doing it. 

I was a HUGE Diet Coke addict: 1 with each meal + a few more during the day and another after dinner.  6 pack a day, had to have it, my favorite beverage hands-down.  A holistic practitioner friend told me Diet Coke was about the worst possible thing I could drink, which really startled me (since I'd assumed all my life that it was far better than sugary regular Coke, and I'd literally been drinking Diet Coke since childhood, as my mom always had it around in copious amounts).  I forced myself off of it, switched to plain iced tea, then eventually seltzer/sparkling water (which I now adore).  When I had to visit my grandma suddenly as she fell ill and passed unexpectedly, I bought myself a Diet Coke - about a month after having last had it.  It was RETCHED.  I could NOT drink it, dumped it down the drain.    Your tastes WILL change, you just have to give your body the time.