"I never drink a calorie," a friend once told me. Indulgent alcoholic beverages aside, I rarely keep anything other than water in my fridge at home, but I still love fresh-squeezed orange juice on a lazy weekend morning, a smoothie now and then after the gym, a pick-me-up cup of coffee around 3 p.m., or a Coke when I have a headache. I rarely have soda otherwise, and today's article on the Diet & Fitness channel reminded me why. Recently though, my office began stocking Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, and at my request, Diet Sprite.

I'm not a morning person, in part because I often feel nauseous when I wake up. On the particularly bad days, sparkling water or soda helps settle my stomach. Since I've been drinking a few diet Sprites a week, or rather Sprite Zero as it's now called, I've been wondering if the artificial sweetener could do me harm. This Prevention magazine story helped allay my fears of gaining soda weight or ingesting too much sweetener.

I rarely need to drink the whole can, so I've started pouring half into an empty water bottle and saving it for the next morning. This way, I don't rely as much on soda to quench my thirst.