I was able stop drinking pop fairly easily as a teen, but I still had problems with drinking other super sugary drinks like V8's "fruit" juice or Simply Lemonade.
One thing I did was start drinking tea, particularly fruity flavors. Those are rather flavorful for teas and helped wean me off those other sugary drinks.
Plus with tea basically being flavored water, it made the jump to drinking straight up water even easier. I still drink tea, mind you, but I also drink a lot of straight water.
I joined football in high-school and that totally helped me get off so much soda by being so thirsty and all we had was this shopping cart the coaches rigged up with a hose with a bunch of holes so the team would just run there during our breaks and water never tasted so good. Then when I got older now I just stick to water coffee and beer or kombucha. Beer and kombucha are pricey or take a while to make so leaves room for a lot more water
Maybe it was pvc pipes with holes drilled out all around the top edge of the cart and they just plugged a hose into it depending on where in the field we were so we can get a big water fountain to all drink from
Soda is a sugary drink and you really should not consume it as the amount of sugar in many sodas is extremely high. The "in moderation" amount would basically be a sip.
The carbonation is also bad for you bones but it is not nearly as bad is drinking sugar water.
Um, I just drink water. It doesn't matter that it is zero calories or salted. I have been to some places that have terrible water. In that case buy cheap bottled water so you don't get lead poisoning