Your weight loss journey means making lots of adjustments to your diet, lifestyle and exercise habits. While none of them are easy, they all help you get to your target weight, so you’re willing to make the sacrifices.
One area where many people find it a little more difficult to stay faithful to their healthier commitments is in what they drink. It’s so easy to grab a soft drink or fruit juice to cool off on a hot day or after a workout. When we’re trying to lose weight, we probably cheat more on what we drink than on what we eat.
Unfortunately, like bad snacking, high-sugar soft drinks and fruit juices can cripple or completely derail the noblest of weight loss efforts. With many of them carrying 10 or more teaspoons of added sugar, and increasingly large portion sizes coming onto the market, it’s easy to add 150 to 200 extra calories per day – just from a single drink. (That’s 10% of the average adult female’s recommended daily intake of calories.)
Luckily, also like snacking, you can make healthier, more nutritious choices for your daily refreshments. And here are a few quick recipes to get you started:
- Honey Lemon Water – It doesn’t get easier or tastier than this. Squeeze a half of a lemon into a cup of warm water and add one teaspoon of honey. Yes, the teaspoon of honey is like a teaspoon of sugar, but it’s only one (16 calories), and it helps boost your metabolism. Not only does it taste great, it helps fill you up too, which helps reduce your hunger pangs.
- Aloe Vera Juice – Who would think that the same plant you use to take the sting away from sunburns can also help you lose weight. While it has a bitter taste, aloe vera juice helps to detox your body and reduce weight. After scraping the pulp from the leaves, grind it in a mixer and then sieve it to get the juice out.
- Matcha Mango Pineapple Smoothie – If you invest in a good juicer or blender, you will open up a world of variety to the healthy drinks you can create, and this one is a great example. “Matcha” is the type of green tea used in Japanese tea ceremonies and it’s packed with anti-oxidants. The Mango and pineapple add a broad array of vitamins and nutrients that aren’t common to many other fruits. Combine 1.25 teaspoons of matcha tea, some honey to taste, 1 cup of mango, 1 cup of pineapple and 1 tablespoon of pineapple juice, in a cup of water. Throw it all in a blender or juicer, mix and enjoy.
- Water – Forgive us for cheating and suggesting a drink that isn’t a concoction. But let’s face it, with little or no preparation time, zero calories, benefits to your digestive system and skin, and a reduction in your desire to eat, there is no other drink quite like water for weight loss and overall health and wellness.
If you want to learn about other tasty, nutrient-rich options that help you lose weight and lead a healthier lifestyle, visit your local Herbal One Centre where a nutrition consultant will be happy to answer your questions.