Drink UpHow to Lose Weight With One Simple Change
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I’m going to tell you how to lose weight, but we aren’t gonna talk about what you eat. Well, not yet, anyway. We’re gonna talk about what you drink.
Beverage sales are through the roof all over the country. You see a coffee drink in every hand on your commute daily, energy drinks fuel a decent portion of our workforce every afternoon, and a soda with dinner is commonplace in many homes every evening. Not to mention the various bottles and cans than inhabit desks and car cupholders throughout the day.
We’re all on something – juice, coffee, soda, sweet tea – so let’s take a minute to really think about what we’re pouring down our throats.
I recently asked a client, “Is it acceptable to you to be drinking 4 Diet Cokes in the morning?” Her reply was that she hadn’t thought much about it. She was drinking them for the caffeine and it had just become a habit. It seems that this is common for many of us.
Calories aside (yes, I know there are no calories in a Diet Coke), if you really push yourself, you’ll probably agree that it is not human nature to drink Diet Coke (or whatever is in your cup) at all.
In fact, humans are the only animals that drink anything other than water or nursing milk in the food chain.
Our biology agrees with that line of thinking: in nature, calories are designed to be metabolized through the foods we chew. The process of digesting and processing those calories starts in the mouth but most of the food molecules are broken down in our stomach and small intestine.
When you drink your calories, the molecules are already mostly broken down and so they shoot right into your blood and don’t sit in your stomach very long at all.
We now know that these calories get stored in fat cells more rapidly than the calories from food, which is why so many of us are trying to figure out how to lose weight.
If you are thinking that your beverage doesn’t have calories in it, because it’s artificially sweetened, you’re not off the hook. Is it human nature to be drinking chemicals?
Those chemicals are contributing to an increased appetite and cravings, and they may also be messing with your palate by keeping you from being satisfied from naturally sweet foods.
How to Lose Weight With One Simple Change:
Critical thinking 101: If you are chugging something (other than water) ask yourself ‘is it reasonable to me to be drinking ____ x ____ times per day?’
Critical thinking always brings me back to human nature and biology — the only thing we should drink like water IS water.
Still, we are at the top of the food chain for a reason, and so we should make the most of our critical thinking and large brain capacity.
There is still room for delicious drinks in your Nutritious Life. I promise.
Choose water, seltzer and tea the majority of the time. Incorporate greens juices and a glass of wine into your healthy eating plan. A glass of wine with a nutritious meal or an all green juice with a handful of nuts for a snack. Leave the juice, sports drinks, novelty drinks and the rest in the rarely to never category.
Break your beverage habit. If you start with healthy drinking, it will lead to healthy eating, and you’ll find yourself suddenly with an overall healthy diet.
I promise that if you go back to your natural drinking nature, you’ll shed some extra weight and feel like king of the jungle.
The Nutritious Life Editors are a team of healthy lifestyle enthusiasts who not only subscribe to — and live! — the 8 Pillars of a Nutritious Life, but also have access to some of the savviest thought leaders in the health and wellness space — including our founder and resident dietitian, Keri Glassman. From the hottest trends in wellness to the latest medical science, we stay on top of it all in order to deliver the info YOU need to live your most nutritious life.
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