I too find these sugary fizzy drinks to be way overrated. I can't even drink more than a few sips.
I've heard a lot about the ketogenic diet for getting your body to run on fats rather than on carbs. I've seen people losing a tremendous amount of body fat with just a change in their diet. It's amazing.
Yeah, the ketogenic diet is pretty surprising/amazing. My sister was able to lose a lot of weight with it as well, just goes to show how backwards a lot of the low-fat/high-sugar dietary advice of the last 50 years has been way off.