Eat the majority of your calories

If you have healthy friends or family members, you probably have noticed that when they order a drink at a restaurant it's usually water or black coffee. They are usually seen carrying around water with them all day as well. Healthy people know that it's best to eat your calories and not to drink them. If you want to lose weight or even maintain your weight then it's best to avoid high calorie, sugar-laden drinks. 

I don't actually recommend counting calories, and for many people, as long as you aren't binging on high calorie foods/drinks you don't need to count calories.(One of my Healthy Habits subscribers actually asked a question in our Facebook group about calories, so go check it out when you have time, and if you aren't in our private Facebook group, where you can ask any questions and share your healthy habits that you are working on, then click here and join us)

Most people don't realize how many calories are in their drinks that they consume on a daily basis. And, not only is it all about calories in those drinks, but the sugars and artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners. So, when I say don't drink your calories, what I want you to remember is to choose healthy drinks like water, black coffee, green tea (from tea leaves or a tea bag...not the bottled Turkey Hill kind loaded with sugar).

Soda, alcohol, milk, juice and energy drinks are loaded with sugars, calories, and other junk that will add to your waist line (and most importantly make your body hold on to fat) and in the long run will damage your health. 

Now, of course as part of a healthy lifestyle, you must balance everything out, so I'm not telling you to never drink this stuff again. But you need to make it a habit to choose the healthy drinks over the soda and juice and alcohol first and foremost. 

Here are some tips to help you choose healthy drinks:

1. Drink lots and lots of water, every day. The recommended amount for women is 91 oz per day and for men is 125 oz. Add lemon to your water or frozen fruit if you don't like the taste of plain water. 
2. Stop drinking soda. Honestly, soda does nothing healthy for your body and studies have shown that drinking soda causes weight gain and nutritional deficiencies.
3. Don't think that diet soda is any better. If you want something bubbly and carbonated, then drink Seltzer water. Polar Seltzer is one of my favorite brands because it's calorie free, with nothing added to it. Even the flavored ones are all natural flavors. I also just recently found Oli Pop which is a prebiotic sparkling tonic drink that is delicious and healthy!
4. Make your own smoothies instead of buying the pre-made sugar-laden ones at the stores. Use fresh greens, fresh or frozen fruit (make sure the frozen fruit has no added sugars) and use water to make your smoothies. Here are some of my favorite smoothie recipes.
5. Drink your coffee and tea black. If you don't like your coffee or tea black, then opt for a splash of grass-fed milk or unsweetened almond/coconut milk. 
6. Eat the whole fruit, not the store-bought juice. Juice might have a few more vitamins in it, but oftentimes they're added back in to replace the fruit's original vitamins, which were stripped out during processing—and that goes for the "not from concentrate" juices as well. You'll also be missing out on the vast majority of the actual fruit's fiber and phytonutrients. Ultimately, you should view juice as simply being flat soda with a tiny bit of vitamin C thrown in. 
7. Limit your alcohol consumption. Most spirits don't have nutrition labels on them so it's hard to know how many calories, carbs, and sugars are in it. Alcohol can have some health benefits, like red wine (the dry kind) has heart healthy resveratrol in it and some studies show that beer can have some positive health impacts, but not when you over do it. If you like a glass of whiskey or vodka, drink it on the rocks. Sip it and enjoy it. Don't add sugary syrups or soda to it. Also, those frozen concoctions are usually the worst offenders. (Mudslides, Frozen Margaritas, Daiquiris)
8. Get your calcium and vitamin D from food sources and the sun, not milk. Two of the longest-running nutritional epidemiological investigations, the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, found that individuals who drank one glass or less of milk a week were at no greater risk of breaking their arm or hip than individuals drinking more than two glasses per day, poking holes in what the dairy lobby would have you believe—that milk is an extremely effective osteoporosis vaccine. While calcium is certainly involved in bone strength, many now believe that regular weight-bearing exercise and adequate vitamin D consumption play a larger role in risk reduction, in part by helping to reduce falls.

Reply to this email or post in our Facebook group with any questions you have and I will gladly help.

I'll share some more healthy tips for choosing healthy drinks this week in our Facebook group!

This week's email is sponsored by the following.**This email contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Whether you are vegetarian or vegan, gluten-free or keto, catering to specific food preferences is easy with companies like PlateJoy. With menu planning tools and organized shopping lists, PlateJoy makes it simple to eat a balanced diet, cook delicious meals, and make cooking at home healthy and easy!



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Carrie A Groff