Chapter 7 –

 Watch What You Drink!

I used to work with a woman who complained that she could not lose weight. She was doing all of the right things – eating the right foods and exercising constantly. In fact, she seemed to eat less than me and definitely, by her accounts, exercised more than me, but she still could not lose weight. I figured she just had a low metabolism and that mine was higher. Then one evening after work, when our group went out to dinner, I saw why she was not losing weight.

After her fourth cocktail, she said that she was drinking more than she was used to. Apparently, she drank a few cocktails at night, every night. In fact, everyone in the entire department knew that this woman liked to drink but me. This was why she was not losing weight.

When you are dieting to try to lose weight, you often concentrate on the foods that you are eating. This is good – you need to watch what you eat when you are trying to lose weight. But you also need to watch what you drink.

Whenever I wanted to lose five pounds in a week without really putting myself out, I skipped the cream and sugar in my coffee. This simple thing allowed me to lose weight. I did not put that much sugar in my coffee nor cream. But I realized that sugar is really an enemy of those who are trying to lose weight.

Alcohol is filled with sugar. People think that they can have wine and get away with drinking and still lose weight. While red wine may be good for you in some capacity, it is not good for you when you are trying to lose weight. No alcohol is good for you – it all contains sugar. Some of it contains more sugar than others. Mixed drinks, such as cocktails, usually contain the most sugar. Beer is high in sugar. White wine is high in sugar. The lowest sugar content that you can get in alcohol is from a very dry, red wine. But you should still avoid that when you are trying to lose weight.

Soda is off limits. It is nothing more than liquid candy. Even diet soda is bad for you and will not promote weight loss, but rather weight gain. The carbonation in the soda leads to addition weight and hampers weight loss efforts. You should not drink soda or diet soda when you are trying to lose weight.

Milk is high in fat and should be off limits. Juices, while some of them being good for you, are high in sugar and are off limits when you are dieting to lose weight. You should watch juices anyway as many of them contain very little fruit juice and a whole lot of sugar.

Energy drinks and sports drinks are also high in sugar content and need to be avoided when you are trying to lose weight. You should not be drinking anything but water and perhaps black coffee and tea, when you are seeking a way to lose weight.

It is just as important to watch what you drink as what you eat when you are dieting. You may be consuming hundreds of calories a day with what you drink. The reason my colleague at work could not lose weight was because she was consuming more than the calorie content that her body needed through her alcohol intake. She was never going to lose the weight as long as she continued to drink.

For some people, a simple switch to water from their every day drinks can make all the difference in the world when it comes to weight loss. I knew a woman who was a heavy cola drinker who switched to water and claimed to have lost 30 pounds in a month just from making this simple lifestyle change.

If you want to lose weight, you need to not only watch what you eat, but also watch what you drink. Water, unsweetened coffee and unsweetened tea have no calories. Drink these only and stay away from so-called diet drinks as they will prohibit your weight loss efforts.