Help your weight loss by drinking THE RIGHT THINGS

Stay hydrated! I’ve heard this many years now. I personally don’t drink as much as I should daily and it’s not good for my health. Have had a lot of small problems related to not being hydrated as I should, but in the past months I’ve tried to better myself in this area too. While I do drink milk like a calf (at least half a liter/day), I don’t enjoy plain water, so I’d drink some sodas and maybe mineral water.

Today we’re talking about the junk sodas are and how to slowly take them off our list of daily drinks.

Coke, Pepsi and the rest

15 years ago I started working at a radio station. I was a total beginner in the industry, first year in college, trying to have a career and a diploma too. Was stressed, couldn’t sleep my normal hours, on the brink of disaster. That’s the moment I started drinking coke a bit too much.

I grew without it (it contains caffeine, so I can’t really understand why any parent would give his child this crap. My folks weren’t pleased by the idea of me drinking coffee, so they didn’t give me Pepsi or anything like this either. It’s got the same ‘bad’ ingredient for a kid, caffeine).

Still, when I was ‘big’ I started drinking. To cut a long story short, I was drinking at least a liter/day in few weeks. I loved the taste, even if I knew it’s horrible, as ingredients are concerned. Because of the stress, plus the daily dose of acids and other junk from coke, I started having stomach pains. Too much acid? You bet.

Then something weird happened. I realized it’s hard to let a day pass without drinking it. It was summer, when I’d go out from the radio with my good friend, we’d crave for that icy glass with the black liquid in it. I was craving it, I was miserable if I didn’t drink it. It hit me pretty soon: looks like I’m ‘hooked’ on the thing.

That day was a revelation for me: I was miserable if I didn’t drink my sodas, I was miserable because of my stomach aches and I knew a lot of this had to do with my unhealthy habits. So I stopped cold turkey. Had a MISERABLE week, since I just felt a void nothing could fill, but I was determined to stop drinking this. After that week I stopped feeling sick for not drinking and was enjoying some time without my stomach reminding me of how I mistreated it.

It’s been 15 years. I’ve drank Coke or Pepsi maybe 3 times/year. Don’t even like the taste anymore and would drink in very small quantities, only when there’s no alternatives.

There is no such thing as a healthy soda

I see all the drinks in the super-market. With huge fruits on the label and all kinds of mambo jumbo written there. Natural. Healthy. Yeah, sure.

A lot of sugar or any similar substances, a lot of chemicals I wouldn’t even clean my bathroom with and some water. There’s nothing healthy in this, just EMPTY CALORIES you’re piling up each day, while actually starving yourself. You’re constantly on a diet, right? And try to eat the right stuff, curb your junk food cravings etc. And still you drink Pepsi. A lot, because, as we know, we should stay hydrated.

That’s WRONG. You’re adding up calories each day and you’re actually filling your body with more chemicals and junk than we already have from the unnatural food we’re being sold in the food stores. While sometimes we need to eat that bread that’s no longer made just of wheat, yeast, salt and water (as a normal bread should be made of), we actually don’t have to pile up the junk in our system with various acids and chemicals we can’t even pronounce.

What’s wrong with good ole water?

I don’t like plain water, have already mentioned that. Good water has no color, no smell, no taste. I hate that it has no taste. This is the reason I started drinking soda. Wrong reason. Still, I found a way to make it more enjoyable: I keep it refrigerated. Something about the ice cold water makes it bearable, so that I can drink it more and enjoy it. I also love mineral water. Just make sure it’s not heavy on the sodium side, otherwise, it’s a nice addition to your drinking routine. And way better than soda, that’s for sure.

What’s a natural juice?

It really drives me nuts seeing all these labels that lie: natural orange juice from fresh fruits etc. What a load of crap. Nothing that has a shelf-life of more than half a day can be natural. If I use my juice extractor at home and make some tasty natural AND REALLY HEALTHY juice, it takes just few hours for it to go bad. If it’s refrigerated, I can drink it the next day, but it won’t be as fresh as it was when I made it. Then, since we’re logical beings, how can something that sits on the shelf FOR MONTHS be fresh, when my own natural juice goes bad in HOURS?

Well, that junk is not fresh, that junk is not natural. Even if it doesn’t have half of the periodic table in it, it’s been pasteurized and maybe has a trace of natural fruits. That’s not natural to me, nor it is healthy.

So, if you need to spice up your drinks a little, go to a food store and buy some fruits. Apples, oranges, lemons, whatever you like. Extract some juice from them and drink it. That’s the ONLY NATURAL JUICE YOU’LL DRINK. Ever. And yeah, it’s super-healthy. You’re taking everything that’s healthy and good from your fruits, it’s fresh, no chemicals no added sugars, no nothing. And it helps your body a lot.

Everywhere I go I see people who eat the bad things. And, as if this wasn’t wrong enough, they drink bad stuff too. Stuff that should just hydrate you, not fill your body with more calories and junk. Just order mineral water or plain water and save your body HUNDREDS OF CALORIES / DAY. Only buy not drinking sodas, milk-shakes and other junk like this, you’re already helping your ‘diet’ a lot, even if you actually don’t change your eating habits. You’ll lose weight just by drinking water or natural juices you’re creating in your kitchen. It’s a wonderful start in your own brand new better lifestyle.