If you are honoring our veterans this weekend through some cocktails, you are not alone! Most of us are enjoying the weekend though good food and drinks with friends or family. And by most of us, I mean me! I get a lot of questions about weight loss and alcohol so I thought this would be the time to discuss the topic.
Let me hit you with the bad news first. The alcohol in your drink is called ethanol which is neither a fat, carbohydrate nor protein. When you take in ethanol, your body doesn’t know what do with the chemical and so it decides to converts into fat. I want you think of every shot of Patron as nearly a tablespoon of olive oil.
Before you swear off booze forever, remember that you eat olive oil and other fats all the time so it’s possible to burn off those calories.
Here are the best ways to minimize calories or hangovers intake when making a cocktail:
The first thing is focus on your mixers. Instead of buying juice, buy fresh fruit and squeeze into your drink. Fruit juice cocktails are loaded with extra sugar or aspartame. The beverage will taste much better and you’ll look a serious mixologist.
Choose light alcohol over dark to lessen hangovers.
For the fizz in your drink, use carbonated or seltzer water and add flavor using simple syrup or fresh juice. Soda can make your drink overload on calories.
If you are picking between beer or wine, pick beer. It has more water per alcohol content, therefore it will hydrate you more than a glass of wine. I know what some of you are saying, “but I though a glass of red wine is good for me?!” If you are planning to have one glass of red wine per day/night, than go for the wine, but if you are looking to get more than one drink per day/night, choose beer.
Drink one glass of water with every cocktail you put down. If you are only going to use one piece of my advice, please choose this one. Alcohol is a diuretic and zaps the water from your body. I truly believe staying hydrated while drinking (even though it feels like you are too hydrated) is the key to feeling great the next day. My biggest suggestion to people when they know they are going are dranking one night is to make sure they still feel well enough the next day to get a workout in.
Using these tricks, you can make sure that your boozing isn’t ruining your fitness progress! Below I have a list of my favorite cocktails to drink on these warm days and nights!
Thank you for reading and as always, let me know if you have any questions or feedback!
Strawberry Lemonade
To an 8-ounce glass, add the juice of 1 lemon with ¼ cup chopped strawberries. Add ice, 1 tablespoon of honey and 1 shot of vodka. Top with seltzer water.
Grapefruit Margarita
(Because you have to blend, I’m showing the ingredients for 4 drinks. I know if I’m blending a drink, I’m sharing the drink)
Blend 4 shots of tequila with the juice of 4 limes and 2 grapefruits with 3 shots of orange liqueur and ice.
Tropical Rum Punch
Combine ½ cup fresh orange juice, ½ cup pineapple juice and 1 shot of light rum. Pour over ice and don’t forget the mini umbrella!