Healthy Changes, Day Two: Easy Calorie Cutting

"Count your calories" is something we hear nonstop. Well, I don't know about you but that's kind of a drag for me. But I realized a couple weeks ago that there was a super easy way I could cut out a couple hundred calories a day: stop drinking them!!

I really hate water. I think it's pretty sick. I know human beings are 75% water or something (maybe that's the earth) but I can't stand drinking it most of the time. Soda is good, but sometimes when I was feeling like I should get something healthier, I'd pick up a Snapple or Sobe. But did you realize those things are like 300+ calories? That's no better than a can of soda and basically a whole meal! What the heck?

I thought about it for a while and then decided that if I'm going to ingest a ton of calories, I would rather it be in food form instead of beverage form. So I went on the hunt for low calorie drinks. Diet soda is more or less pretty nasty, but I found a couple that are quite tasty :) Vanilla Coke Zero is one of those. The vanilla really covers up the weird aspartame taste. Diet root beer is very hit and miss, but A&W is totally tolerable. Their diet cream soda is also tasty! Low calorie Sobe and Snapple is available when you're looking for something less carbonated, and everything I've tried from those brands has been good! The Fuze juice brand, on the other hand, was quite disappointing.

Lemon water has been a big winner for me. Put some lemon slices (or dump some lemon juice) in a pitcher of water and let it chill. Nice and refreshing and the gross water taste that usually keeps me away from water doesn't bug me with another flavor in there. Another alternative is cucumber water! Peel and slice a cucumber and put it in a pitcher of water and let it chill for a while. It's a great summertime treat! One more option is raspberries but those are just sliiiightly pricier than cucumbers and lemons haha. Lucky for me, Nathan doesn't like cucumber water so I get it all to myself :)

My last example is not quite as low calorie as everything else, but almond milk is really healthy and really filling. It makes a great breakfast, and at only 90 calories a cup, I wouldn't say that's particularly awful. It's also good on cereal! I think I blogged about its tastiness during BEDA and my opinion has not changed. Almond milk, yay!

While I haven't been trying to cut calories in any other way, I know that I'm taking in a lot fewer since cutting out soda and bottled juice and stuff. This wouldn't be a big thing for most people, but my aversion to drinking water makes the task of finding lower calorie beverages a little tricker for me. Most people would just stop drinking soda and only drink water, but ew, water. It's working out really well, too! When we go out to eat, if I want a drink, I get a diet soda or suck it up and deal with water (with lemon, of course).

I've only slipped up once, and that was while I was getting our car's oil changed. I got a free fountain soda and my options were diet Sprite, diet Mountain Dew, diet Coke, and diet Pepsi. So I got a small thing of Dr. Pepper. But when that was done I filled up with diet Mountain Dew. Mistake. Diet Mountain Dew is disgusting. Don't bother trying it.

Obviously I could cut my calories into shreds if I wanted to, but I don't. I just wanted to make one simple change and I think it's been a really good thing! I have even lost a few pounds, but as you'll find out the rest of the week, Vanilla Coke Zero doesn't deserve all of the credit ;)

I suppose if today's blog had a moral, it would be eat your calories, don't drink them! I never said this week would be full of incredible scientific breakthroughs, but I think sometimes we forget that just because something's liquid doesn't mean that it's not packed with calories.

Anyone have any tips for easy ways to cut calories without too much effort? Let me know if there's a low or no calorie beverage that you're a fan of in the comments!