A man who used to drink up to 4.5 litres of Dr Pepper a day and spent £30,000 on his habit explained how his addiction to fizzy drinks affected him.
Buckinghamshire man Tom Bowey ended up being dubbed 'Dr Pepper Man' for his habit of drinking fizzy drinks pretty much from the moment he woke up until it was time to go to sleep again.
"It was all day, from when I woke up until 10pm. I found it hard to fall asleep because I had so much caffeine and sugar in my system," he said of the habit, adding that this went on for 'over 10 years' and he made several attempts to quit.
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"My boss told me 'you're going to die soon if you don't stop drinking them' because I'd have the bottles sitting on the side next to my computer at work.
"The guy at the shop over the road used to call me 'Dr Pepper man', which wasn't great, because that was all I used to buy when I went in there."
He used to have a can when he woke up, another one for the drive to work, then he'd buy two bottles of coke for the morning and another two for the afternoon, then another few cans once he got home.
As for what it did to him, quaffing almost five litres of either Coca Cola or Dr Pepper a day gave him a bloated waistline while the 42-year-old's dentist told him his teeth had become so decayed that he had the gnashers of a pensioner.
He tried to quit several times over worries about the cost and concerns about his children copying his Dr Pepper drinking habits, but several stabs at going cold turkey didn't work out.
Tom said things started out as one fizzy drink on the lunch work break and soon ballooned from there, and that at the height of his habit he 'stopped drinking water completely'.
He said the 'caffeine and the sugar also gave me a bit of an energy boost in the morning' and he always made sure he had at least five cans of cola in his fridge at any one time, but the habit started affecting his body even more.
He said: "I felt bloated a lot of the time, had headaches sometimes and felt a bit foggy and tired. Another issue was I was finding it hard to fall asleep at night.
"When I'd lie down [to go to sleep] I was wide awake because I had so much sugar and caffeine in my system."
In the end he was able to kick the habit by trying hypnotherapy, getting in touch with a man called Dr David Kilmurry who he says gave him a two hour session on Zoom on 22 September, which has meant he's completely given them up.
He now drinks pints of water and weak squash to quench his thirst, and has found that he's saved so much money that he can afford to take his family on holiday next year, much to their joy.
He's also dropped down from wearing large tops to comfortably fitting a medium, and reckons anyone else in a similar situation ought to seek some help instead of trying to do it by themselves.
Tom said he 'just caved in' during the first few hours of trying to ditch the Dr Pepper.
Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist Dr Kilmurry said it was 'a blessing' to hear that Tom was doing well, and wished the man 'more and more good health'.
Topics: Health, Food And Drink, UK News
Joe Harker