I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, where a certain soda is king. It’s a city where silhouettes of soft drink bottles decorate the baseball stadium, and money from that beverage empire helps build everything from aquariums to parks to symphony halls. Being surrounded by all that goodwill and knowing that a few cool sips from a red can could provide relief on a Summer day meant I learned to embrace the beverage at a young age.

That worked out as long as Mom was monitoring my intake. But when I reached an age where how much I drank was up to me, I quickly worked up to a (six) pack-a-day habit. In high school, I didn’t consider it a problem, because when you’re 17 and running around at school, a few extra calories don’t seem to catch up with you.

Then I went to college. Those red cans in Chicago (made with Chicago, not Atlanta, water) tasted funny. Still, I was bound and determined to get my fix. I went so far as to bring the beverage back to Chicago with me whenever I visited home. (Even an incident with a can literally freezing and bursting in my luggage was not enough to make me want to kick the habit.)

But then something else happened that had me dropping the can faster than you could spell C-O-K-E: my jeans stopped fitting. Yes, the Freshman 15 had arrived. And they were very, very unwelcome. I set to work banishing them immediately, eating healthier, cutting out those late-night sub sandwiches, going to the gym.

It was on one of those gym visits that I was working my tail off on a stationary bike. After about 45 minutes, I looked down at the calorie counter. The display said 140. I said aloud to nobody in particular, “You mean I did all that work to burn off one lousy soft drink???”

I never drank one again. That was more than a decade ago. I had cravings for awhile, but those are long gone. A few years ago, I tried a sip, just to see if I’d still like it. All I could taste was sugar, and I spit that one sip out.

If I, a pack-a-day drinker, can kick the habit, anyone can. Quitting’s not for everyone; if you want to enjoy soda in moderation, be my guest. Just see soda for what it really is: empty sugar calories that can taste very, very good. But when your body tells you it’s thirsty, do yourself a favor, and reach for a glass of cold water instead.