Typically when we think about nutrition, we think about what we eat. But for many people, consuming calorie-containing beverages, (more specifically sugarsweetened beverages), is the difference between losing 15-20lbs—or not losing anything!
On any given day, a typical American may have a latte (w/whole milk) in the morning, a 20oz Coke or Pepsi at lunch, iced tea from a vending machine in the afternoon, and some ginger ale or another type of soda at dinner. You probably know people who do this.
Do you know how many calories a person like this would drink in a day? 800 calories.
You’d have to walk 8 miles to burn them all off!
Did you know, from the mid 1970s to the mid 1990s, soda and “ade” (Gatorade, Powerade, Kool Aid, etc) consumption increased 100% in the U.S.? Even worse, in 2002 it was reported that 44% of toddlers (18-24 months) consumed sweetened fruit drinks or soda at least once per day.
An Easy Fix
Drinking calories is a major problem but an easy one to fix. Drink water, drink unsweetened tea, drink Crystal Light if you need a sweet fix. Whatever you do, start cutting out calorie-containing beverages today. If you are currently drinking a lot of sweetened beverages, here’s what you can do to curtail the habit (this works every time).
- Calculate how many sweetened beverages you are drinking each day.
- Remove one completely and replace it with water.
- Take another one of your sweetened beverages and replace it with the “diet” version (you can find the diet version of just about anything).
- Do this for 1 week. The next week, replace your “diet” drink with water or tea and replace another one of your sweetened beverages with the “diet” version.
- Repeat the process until you have completely eliminated calorie-containing and sweetened beverages from your diet.
This is a painless and effective solution for weaning yourself off of your sugar fix and getting rid of those wasteful and waistline-increasing liquid calories.