I used to be a soda drinker. A devoted and passionate soda drinker, if we are going to get specific. Some may even say that I was addicted. I will never admit that. I liked to think I was dedicated rather than addicted. I will admit however, that I never went a day without drinking a soda or two or… several.

The phrase “free refills” was like music to my ears and any restaurant that offered this amazing perk was instantly ranked an extra star higher on my scale.

I have no idea why (or when) my love for soda started. I certainly won’t blame it on anyone else but myself. I just have memories of always having soda in our pantry, or always being allowed a soda when we went out to dinner. Now I will interrupt this trip down memory lane by telling you that I was always a DIET soda drinker. I was never allowed the regular full-blown sugary stuff (albeit now I know that doesn’t really make a difference).

I think that my parents got caught up in the word diet and thought that they were doing right by me when they allowed me to drink a diet soda. Could you blame them? I don’t. To them, and to so many other people, ‘diet’ meant ‘good’. Diet meant less sugar and calories.

Diet meant that I wasn’t going to become one of those pudgy kids with two sets of knees and perpetual chocolate stains on their hands, clothes and face. Instead, I became a child that thought every meal could happily be accompanied by a diet soda. That thought stayed with me up until April 22, 2010.

When I first heard that diet soda was bad, I’ll openly admit that I laughed. Diet soda… bad for me? Yeah, right. But then I started to do a little research on my own and to my utter horror and dismay I discovered that the words I was so quick to dismiss and scoff at were, in fact, true. Devastation washed over me as I found article after article about what diet soda would do to me if I kept drinking it in such vast quantities.

When I was challenged to give up soda, to say that I was reluctant is an understatement. Even though I had read all of these articles, I still wasn’t sure if I could go cold turkey. I knew that I should but it was the thought of doing it alone that was daunting. It’s hard to do something alone with no one there to support you or keep you on track – even if that ’something’ is as minor as giving up soda.

My attitude changed, almost instantly if I’ll be honest, when I saw that others were going to join me in my quest to cut out soda. Our initial challenge: give up soda for a month. It started out as a small group of people who wanted to see if they could challenge themselves to give up something they thought they could never do without. Now, that small group has grown and is known as NoFizz America.

When I started, I thought I wouldn’t last longer than a day or two – but when I read the comments, updates and words of encouragement from others, some of whom I had never met, I put my foot down and told myself that I could be strong. I could do this if they could.

The NoFizzUSA group became more than a support group. It has become a community of people that are willing and dedicated to making a change. With the help that NoFizz America provides, I am constantly aware of the damage diet soda can do to my body. Reading that information keeps me motivated, and helps me stay on track.

Over the past few days, I’ve read comments from people who used to drink 10+ sodas a day that now don’t miss it at all. Comments from people who have lost weight and comments from people who have decided to make this a lifestyle change rather than a month-long challenge. Reading those comments inspires me to really keep at it. This is my health community!