It’s Saturday night, and you headed out on the town! What’s your best bet for boozing it up?
Here at JillFit, we get asked a lot about booze and how damaging having a drink or two on the weekends can really be in the grand fat-loss scheme of things. As we talked about in our earlier post on cheat meals, having a glass or two of wine at a meal is not nearly as detrimental to your waistline as going out on a bender. Portion control is really key when drinking since calories can add up quickly, and alcohol is metabolized more easily into fat. Not to mention the lowering of inhibitions that can lead us to IHOP at 2am. With alcohol, there is no fat loss…it is just about trying to minimize damage.
As far as drink choices, red wine is superior in terms of health since it contains phytonutrients/antioxidants. One to two glasses on a weekend is fine. If you are doing booze, choose mixers that are low-cal and lower sugar, like diet tonic water, club soda and diets sodas or diet Redbull if you are ok with artificial sweeteners. Add lemons or limes to flavor. Stay away from premixed juices and mixers loaded with sugar! Sugar + alcohol = YOU STORING FAT LIKE CRAZY. As far as beers, Guinness is not a bad choice, as it is lower calorie and carb and like with all darker beers, it has a good amount of phytonutrients.
One of our yummiest low sugar drinks is the Sugar-free Mojito, altered to make it a little less detrimental :) Here is the recipe! And check out the video below of Jillian and I making it–one drink is all I need to satisfy!
In a high ball glass, put the following:
8-10 mint leaves
Lime juice from one whole lime (cut wedges and squeeze)
2 heaping tbsp xylitol (sugar alcohol, you can also use erythritol or stevia)
Then “muddle” for 30-60 seconds by mixing/crushing the leaves with the lime juice and xylitol
Pour into the glass 1 jigger-full of light rum (1.5 oz)
Fill the glass 3/4 full with ice
Fill up the rest of the glass with club soda
Mix well and drink! YUM!
Check out our video! The making of the Sugar-free Mojito!
