I grew up in a family that didn’t have a whole lot of money. Juice and milk were expensive, but soda was cheap, so that’s what was always in our house. By the time I got to college, I was drinking about 7 cans of soda per day. Soda helped keep me focused and productive. If there was a problem I needed to solve, I needed to chug a soda first to help me think.

As my metabolism slowed after I turned 30, I switched to Diet Dr. Pepper, Coke Zero, and other diet sodas. I figured that they weren’t as bad as the regular stuff, because they had zero calories.

Over the years, some of my friends mentioned that they read an article here or there about the dangers of aspartame, and then sucralose. But none of them seemed to have reputable studies they could show me.

Let’s face it, eggs were considered good for you when I was little, then bad for your cholesterol when I was in my 20s, and then good again because of the protein and dairy when I was in my 30s. I tend to take most of these studies with a grain of salt, until I started seeing some of the NoFizz America information.

NoFizz America provided studies from very reputable sources such as the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, and Johns Hopkins University. It wasn’t just one study, but a steady stream of studies [Editor's note: We've got more than 50 on our website right now!] that kept finding the same results.

I finally had to admit it to myself – diet soda was even worse for me than regular soda! Not to mention that I still was gaining weight despite the diet soda, diet yogurt, and all the diet food I was eating on a daily basis.

In December 2010, I took the plunge and signed up for the NoFizzUSA challenge. At first it was hard… really hard! Soda had been a part of my diet every day since I could remember, so quitting the habit cold turkey was hard.

Nine days into the challenge, I was at a holiday party and I ordered a ginger ale without even thinking about it. My husband saw me drinking it and freaked out, and then I realized “Oh my goodness! I’m drinking soda and I was supposed to quit it!” … drat. But, I forgave myself and got back on the NoFizzUSA wagon.

What I didn’t realize was the sheer volume of beverages and foods that have either high fructose corn syrup, added sugar, aspartame or sucralose in them! Many juices have high fructose corn syrup in them, so even when I thought I was being good, I really wasn’t. I was eating some light yogurt one day and realized it had aspartame in it.

Believe it or not – I even happened upon some sparking water that had aspartame in it! I had never noticed that it said “Sparkling Water Beverage” on the front of the bottle before. I just figured it was exclusively sparkling water.

I’m now 4 months into the challenge, and I haven’t had another soda since that ginger ale at the holiday party. And I’ve learned which juices are all natural, and which sparkling water is, too!

NoFizz America really opened my eyes and has helped me to eat and live a healthier lifestyle. Did I mention that since I stopped eating all that diet food and drinking all that diet soda, I managed to lose 18 pounds? To me, that’s just more proof that those studies were correct!