Daily Archives: January 9, 2014

Are you resolving to lose weight in 2019? Wondering if you can still enjoy your favorite alcoholic beverages while shaving the pounds? Yes, you can, using a few of these tips to guide you:

Alternate your cocktails with water. Have a glass of water after each cocktail to reduce your overall intake of alcohol and calories.

Mix cocktails with club soda instead of juice, pop or tonic water. Juice and soda have very high calories and sugar levels. Surprisingly, tonic water is similar to soda in its calories. Club soda and tonic are often used interchangeably, but only club soda has ZERO calories. Another option is to use the diet or light version of your favorite mixer. Rum and Coke is about 185 calories but Rum and Diet Coke is only about 100 calories. In general, lower sugar means lower calories.

Mind your glass size! We have some ginormous wine glasses at home. They are very pretty and elegant. However, if I poured the suggested 5 oz of wine into these glasses, it would still look empty! Downsize your glassware to ensure that you are using the correct serving size!

Infuse, Muddle, and Garnish! Infused beverages have the flavor of the fruit within the alcohol but none of the calories from added juices and sugars. Muddled fruit also adds major fresh flavor without sacrificing your waistline. And, I truly crave lemon and lime in cocktails with vodka and club soda…I ask the bartender to squeeze half the lime into the drink!

Finally, educate yourself and make choices. There are several websites that provide calorie information on alcoholic beverages. With data, you can decide whether to have chocolate cake for dessert or a chocolate martini, wine or gin, Michelob Ultra or Corona Light. Additionally, at restaurants, sometimes the very creative cocktails have lots of sugars and juices…ask about the ingredients in the drink before ordering.