<human>: Can you provide a brief rundown of the text in within 3 sentences?

Hey guys,

I have a couple of questions about diet soda. I'm finding that it's the one thing that I haven't been able to consistently cut out since I started getting serious about losing weight. I used to easily drink 60 ounces of regular soda per day (Dr. Pepper is my BIGGEST weakness). I'm now only doing 12-20 ounces of diet every other day, but I'd like to cut even that out. My questions are:

1.) Does anyone have similar cravings? How have you overcome them?

2.) I don't want to fall into the "well it has zero calories so it's ok!" trap. I've read about how aspartame is linked to cancer, but does anyone know how the chemicals in diet soda can negatively affect weight loss?

A little background on me:
I started my weight loss journey back in June of this year, and have so far been pretty successful - down 42 pounds from 225 to 183. I'm male, 5'8", 24 years old, and my goal is to get down to 165 before bulking to 180. For exercise, I lift 3x per week (Stronglifts 5x5), and martial arts 3x per week on off days (kickboxing, muay thai, and jiu-jitsu). 

For eating, I was on a severe calorie deficit - 700 under maintenance, and was close to a 40% fat/20% carbs/40% protein spread. Now, I'm not counting calories as religiously, and I'm eating slightly more carbs and slightly less fat (30% each). I'm still very careful about making good choices when I eat though - lots of chicken, veggies, and brown rice. 

Any and all insight you can give is much appreciated!
<bot>: I've lost 42 pounds of my 60 pound goal, but I still drink a decent amount of diet soda. Need some more info on how it can affect me.