[freshwaterfish]

Yes, I have done WW more times than I care to admit. I've lost weight doing it in the past, but find that I get to obsessive compulsive about counting every little thing... it's not healthy for me to "diet" in any way that requires counting, weighing or measuring food cause I just become obsessed with it... It starts taking over my entire life...

As for the artificial sweeteners, I did some research online about it a few months ago, and decided it was the same as eating small amounts of poison, and realized that was just completely ridiculous. I was having difficulty concentrating, and my memory was getting progressively worse all the time, my stomach always felt like a nervous stomach (you know, all butterfly and knotted up), so I decided to just cut it out of my diet completely. I don't buy ANYTHING now that has any artificial sweeteners in it, and I used to be a complete diet coke addict. I'd drink about 3-6 cans a day, and did that since I was 13 years old (and I'm 30 now). Once I decided that it was really that bad for my health, it was no hardship to stop having it.

I experimented with different things, organic sodas, juice, tonic water, etc, and found it was all too sweet. I really like carbonation though, but none of the sodas I tried were thirst quenching like I found diet coke to be. Finally I decided to mix a half and half combination of unsweetened cranberry juice and club soda, and I had it! The perfect beverage... low in calories, healthy, and still had that carbonated punch! (I really ought to patent the idea!) I also love green jasmine tea, green mint tea, or chai black green tea (none require sweetener) for something hot to drink. They are also refreshing iced. Sometimes I'll make a big mug of chai black green tea before bed and put it in the fridge and have it with my breakfast for my caffeine fix in the morning.

I'm a big fan of brita filtered water too... I always keep a full jug in my fridge and fill my water bottle throughout the day... mmmmmmmmmmmmm