When I mentioned tea, I meant fresh-brewed from a bag. I put warm water in a 32OZ Nalgene bottle with two tea bags every night so it’s ready to go int he morning, and then I drink it throughout the day. I switch it up between Black Tea and Green Tea (I just use the cheapo Safeway brand tea. You can also get both for cheap at Costco), and sometimes spice it up with Constant Comment by Bigelow (awesome! orange spicy and a little sweet without any sugar) or Good Earth tea (this stuff is awesome and really sweet and super spicy tasting without any sugar added, as well. Costco only sells this in a decaf version, but Safeway has it caffeinated.) I’ll sometimes add a squeeze of lemon. Sometimes I’ll add a pack of Splenda or Stevia– Stevia is the “natural low calorie sweetener” but, frankly, I don’t hold out any hope that it’s any better than just using Splenda and I don’t much care for the taste of Stevia. Just because something is “natural” doesn’t mean it’s all that great for you (see also: Arsenic, Hemlock and Cocaine.) Another option is to brew your tea fresh and add just a little bit of something like Crystal Light mix to it. That would taste a lot like your Nestea with less sugar, but I don’t believe that chugging Crystal Light all day long like the adverts would tell you to do is any better for you than just drinking the Diet Coke. So, I’d be careful of replacing one artificiality with another.

All that being said… Water is great! You can’t do better than water. Really, you can’t. Replacing some water with tea is not a bad idea, just because you’ll get some non-caloric antioxidants, and Green Tea has been shown to be positively correlated to lower body fat. I like to get my tea in, but, again…I’m probably as addicted to my tea as I ever was to Diet Coke, so it’s not a nuisance and I would never mean to imply that it’s a necessity. You just can’t beat good ol’ water!

Any suggested tea or should I just stick to water which has become the staple of my drinking habits since limiting the coke?

But, the larger question here– you seem to be saying that you ADDED the diet coke because you don’t like coffee? Or asking whether “if you don’t like coffee, should you start drinking diet coke?” If that’s the question, the answer would be: There is no need for you to drink a caffeine-containing beverage at all while doing P90X, but if you have to decide between diet coke and coffee, coffee is the far better choice:

Coffee- 100% natural, has antioxidants, has been shown (even aside from the caffeine) to benefit athletic endurance and performance, add a little milk and you get some calcium in there…

Diet Coke: 100% artificial, has been shown to be detrimental to bone health. No known benefits.

Now, I was once a Diet Coke fiend myself, and the thing I got addicted to the most were the bubbles, so I have swapped out nearly all of my Diet Coke with iced tea and bubble water. (We have a club soda machine at home, search this blog for our review of the Soda Club soda maker.)

Caffeine withdrawal won’t physically last longer than a week (on the really far end), so if you are still having problems after 3, know that a large part of it is psychological dependence. If the caffeine is solving the problem, though, I’d WAY rather see you drink a tea than a Diet Coke– again, you’ll be getting some good stuff instead of bad stuff with your caffeine then. (Ounce for ounce, tea has comparable caffeine content to Diet Coke, sometimes a little more, so if the tea doesn’t solve the “caffeine withdrawl” you’ll know it’s not really the caffeine that’s got you.)

So, in a nutshell: Is Diet Coke comparable with coffee from a nutrition standpoint? No, not at all. Is one diet coke every now and again going to kill you? No, not at all. Should you consider swapping out some of your Diet Cokes? For the sake of getting the monkey off your back, I’d say it sounds like a good thing to do. It won’t be the deciding factor in your P90X success, by any means, but isn’t part of the goal here to get as healthy as possible, too?

3 tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard 1 tablespoon chopped garlic 1 tablespoon chopped shallots 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided use 2 cups espresso or strong brewed coffee 1/4 cup dark brown sugar 1/2 tablespoon Black pepper …

If you a looking for meal ideas try: http://www.fitlifesf.com/2010/01/more-p90x-friendly-dinner-ideas-also-great-for-weight-watchersclean-eating/
For more on women and P90X: http://www.fitlifesf.com/2009/06/women-not-losing-weight-on-p90x/
One more with good stuff: http://www.fitlifesf.com/2010/02/women-concerned-about-getting-bulky-on-p90x/
And finally: http://www.fitlifesf.com/2008/05/women-and-p90xp-what-can-a-woman-expect/

-Rob

TeamBeachBody.com has a number of great tools. The diet plan tool will let you select the meals you want fo rth eweek, and generate a shopping list for you. There are downloadable worksheets online for you to print out so you can track each workout. And the Excel P90X tracker is a great tool as well.

As for coffee, you are find drinking it. Black. It is the milk and sugar that are the calories there. The caffine would be good to get off of, and you will have to wean yourself off. But, better black coffee than soda. (Except for that aweful coffee breath! YUCK!) Even diet soda is a no-no. We drink a LOT of water and herbal teas. (You get the right tea, and you don’t need sweetener) We also have a Soda Club (Soda Stream) CO2 injector. We make all the soda water we want! Great for making teas and such “sparlking.” [And it is CHEAP and fantastic for cocktails. You never run out of soda water!]

When you sign up on TeamBeachBody.Com, make sure you add me as your coach. FitLifeSFRob. Then add me as a buddy there!

http://beachbodycoach.com/FitLifeSFRob

As for kicking the coffee habit– so long as you aren’t putting cream or sugar in there, coffee is calorie-free and allowed on the program, and caffeine has been shown to increase endurance and actually have a positive impact on workouts. If you want to kick the habit for personal reasons (or because you simply can’t have your coffee without cream and sugar), then you can try something like diluting it with decaf to wean yourself, or drinking tea instead, which has a slightly lower caffeine level. Unsweetened tea, hot or iced, caffeinated or not, are all fine. And, frankly, thinking in terms of “allowed” or “not allowed” is not really the best way to approach any food choice– even if you drank a double-shot caramel machiatto mochachino with whipped cream every morning, and if that was really something you loved and needed to continue, there are ways to work around it. It’s not the most efficient use of calories, sure, but it could be a part of your diet if it was really that important to you.