An Easy Place To Start

If you are drinking soda, sweet tea, juices, lemonades, energy drinks and wanting to be healthier and/or lose weight, the easiest and one of the most important places to start is to drink more water and cut out the other beverages!

Water is an essential element for our bodies. It rids us of toxins, helps carry nutrients and oxygen, and maintains our temperature, among other things. Without enough of it, dehydration can set in and cause fatigue, low blood pressure, constipation and more.

One of the first steps I recommend in getting healthier is to make water your beverage of choice! Get a reusable water bottle that is glass or stainless steel (to cut down on toxins from plastics) and once you know how many ounces it will hold, then you can calculate how many bottles of water you will need per day to meet your goal. Typically, your goal should be to drink half your body weight in fluid ounces. So, if you are 150 pounds, you will drink 75 fluid oz. of water per day. However, because some people may have medical conditions that can affect this, it is important to run this past your primary care provider first.

Now, let's discuss all of those other beverages. Soft drinks are horrible for you – even the diet or zero calorie ones aren’t any good. They have been linked to all kinds of problems including insulin resistance, diabetes, obesity and more and they provide very little in the way of nutrients.

Sweet tea, juices, lemonade, and energy drinks are bad because of their sugar content which can also lead to inflammation, obesity and chronic disease conditions. The relationship between sugar and blood sugar and insulin is an important one that I talk a lot about, so if you haven’t heard much on this yet or have trouble understanding it, stick around and you will learn more!

Coffee, herbal teas, cold and hot teas are fine but in moderation and it is important that you avoid adding sweeteners to these beverages if you are looking to lose weight or reduce your risk for chronic disease. So, no creamer, cream, sugar, honey or flavored syrups. If you start your health transformation with this simple change – even if you have to taper your way off of soft drinks and slowly build up on water intake to meet your goal, you will be healthier for it in no time at all!