I have never smoked, but I had a similar revelation once. Up until I was about 35 or so, I went through a 12-pack of 12-ounce cokes in a week. I reached that i

I have never smoked, but I had a similar revelation once. Up until I was about 35 or so, I went through a 12-pack of 12-ounce cokes in a week. I reached that inevitable point in life where my metabolism was slowing down, and I was gaining weight. I decided to go cold turkey on the cokes, as that was pretty much all of the empty calories I consumed at that time. I figured it would be tough to quit such an ingrained habit, developed over the course of 20 years or so, but it wasn't. I switched to water without incident. My weight gain stopped. About six months later, I was eating at a restaurant, and decided to order a coke, for old time's sake. I can have one every now and then as a treat, I thought. Good god. It tasted awful. The most sickly-sweet disgusting thing I'd ever had in my mouth. I couldn't even finish that sip, let alone the entire drink. That was over ten years ago, and I haven't touched a single drop of any carbonated sickly-sweet beverage since then. I can't believe I ever wanted to drink something so disgusting, for so many years, in such great quantities.