I have been drinking large amounts of diet soda and drinks with artificial sweetener, every day for years. Water only at work (or college before i graduated) (but not at lunch time) and at the gym.
I will try to drink water only. I bought a water filter, because the tap water at my apartment tastes horrible. I will see if I notice a difference in the way I feel without aspartame and other sweeteners with time.
I had aspartame poisoning. Lost alot of my vision, got muscle spasms, and had dizzy spells. Went to loads of different doctors and eye specialists and none of them knew what the hell was going wrong with me. eventually a doc asked to see my diet, and he commented on the large ammounts of aspartame [diet coke, protein bars, cordials, mixers, fruit juices, chewing gum, chili flavour chips, sweetners for my oats etc etc]. On his advice i stopped eating or drinking anything with sweetners, and after a couple of months my symptoms gradually disappeared.
Aspatame builds up in your system, and it has made some people go blind. Stick to ordinary coke and work harder in the gym. Ooops, forgot. This is getbig - no one goes to the gym.