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Liquid calories could be sabotaging your health

Six Pillars of Nutrition: 1. Eat Multiple Meals 2. Reduced Processed Foods 3. Have Plenty of Fruits & Vegetables 4. Drink Lots of Water 5. Consume Lean Proteins 6.
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Six Pillars of Nutrition: 1. Eat Multiple Meals  2. Reduced Processed Foods  3. Have Plenty of Fruits & Vegetables  4. Drink Lots of Water  5. Consume Lean Proteins  6. Be Strategic with Starches

While all 6 of the Pillars of Nutrition are important, this could be the most important. For many people, consuming calorie-containing beverages, (more specifically sugar-sweetened beverages), is the difference between losing 15-20lbs—or not losing anything!

On any given day, a typical person 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 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?  A whopping 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 North America? 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.

Drinking calories is a major problem but an easy one to fix. Drink water, unsweetened tea, and Crystal Light if you need a sweet fix. However, I will throw caution out there concerning Crystal Light.  DRINK IN MODERATION! 

I cannot stress this enough, as Crystal Light has the ability to dehydrate the body.  I had a client that used it regularly everyday thinking it was a smart alternative to the other drinks and thinking they were still getting their fluids in. 

They ended up in the hospital on I.V. from dehydration.  So if you’re looking to start cutting out the high calorie-beverages, do it with limitations, but get started right away.

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.

You’ll reap the benefits of reduced inflammation in the body, lower risk of cancer and other diseases, increased energy and weight loss. 

It’s a win-win scenario for you.

Yours in health!

Kim Chase, CPTS





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