Re: Soda, Try starting your morning with a nice glass of ice water. Ice is critical. Do it every day. You'll grow on the amazing feeling of ice water.
I am going to try this. I am terribly addicted to soda. I do not like coffee however. I could try tea but I'm not fond of it either. This sounds like I should just cut out my caffeine habit. Ugh. I am unwilling. But I'm going to try that ice water thing anyway. I do love ice water.
There's a tea place near my house that specializes in only imported Chinese teas. It was opened by a former auto exec that fell in love with Chinese tea cultural during his work stints overseas. There are no artificial weird flavor combinations like raspberry-chamomile, or black-peach. Just a ton of natural loose leaf tea. I just had a Pu-erh tea this evening that was absolutely amazing. It's a type of aged and fermented black tea that has a crazy taste. Kind of earthy and funky in a good way. The one I had tonight was from 2003 I think. I wasn't a huge tea fan before I found this place, but I've since had some damn good White, Black, Oolong, and Pu-erh teas that blow away anything I've ever had before. The guy is older and has no idea he has opened the first hipster third wave tea shop...ahead of his time...