Pop, Soda, Coke

In different parts of the country we call it something different but what it all boils down to is that in the U.S. every year we drink a lot of sugar filled drinks... Today I saw this:

I honestly can't say I was shocked to see this. In fact I started really looking into the amount of calories we spend drinking sugar filled drinks and found out from WebMD that calories from beverages for Americans make up about 21% of our calories consumed. WebMD also suggest drinking the diet with the artificial sweeteners aren't any better. This really started to make me think. I have heard a lot lately about the addictions by people to their pop. Honestly this one hits home for me. I grew up in house where we had more pop available to us than most adolescents. My step-dad worked for 7Up then Pepsi during my youth. We always had free stuff coming in the door. Even if it wasn't pop it was many other sugar filled drinks. For myself I have found it was easier to give it up than I thought but I had to have some substitutes to just drinking plain water. Here are a few I really  like:

1. Tea: I even bought a new tea maker this weekend. I love tea and with a good lemon wedge I don't even need sweetener Tea also comes in many flavor
2. Carbonated water: I really  enjoy the key lime flavor sold by 12 pack cases at Wal-mart. There are also other stores that really carry some good flavor. One of things that I have come to learn is that I really just love the carbonation from the pop. This really is a good alternative because it has no caffeine or sugar. 3. Smoothies: There are so many variations and so many different ways. I really love to make them out of:
Fat Free Milk or Yogurt, Protein Powders, and Fresh or Frozen Fruit (the frozen works well because then you don't even need ice)

Do you drink pop or what is your favorite replacement?