(Maybe an easy one today--maybe not!)


Do I drink too many calories? (soda, but also alcohol, teas, coffee, smoothies, "fortified" waters)

For reference:
Calorie count for alcoholic beverages and SERVING SIZE

8 oz typical restaurant-made sweet tea= 90 calories; done yourself, sugar has ~48 calories per tablespoon (so 3 packets of sugar into tea, depending on the amount in the packet, could be from ~60 to ~146 calories)

Calorie count in coffee "extras"

Jamba Juice Nutrition Info (use the names on the left side of the screen to see more smoothies)

Fitness waters calorie count

i think im ok on this one...i do have a bit of coffee LOL! in the am w/ brown rice syrup in it (and almond milk)...but H20 the rest of the day. Actually i just did have a kombucha tea but that was only 30 calories...

quote:

Do I drink too many calories?

I never have. I drink massive quantities of black coffee, unsweetened tea, and even some (tap) water.

As for alcohol, I suspect that I average less than one drink a month.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sheltieguy,

Water: yes, but too little, as always

Soda: none

Juice: none except our own pressed and frozen apple juice. We drank the last batch of last year's juice a week ago and now we have to wait a year for the next crop since we didn't get any this summer.

Tea: yes, with sweetener or cane sugar

Coffee: lf latte 1-2x/wk, sometimes 1x/2wks. This used to be a daily treat but with my stomach acids acting up I had to cut down.

Alcohol: Wine with dinner on weekends. On occasion, a glass with dinner on a weeknight. I rarely go out for drinks.

quote:

Originally posted by D in St Pete:
Part of the problem is that his family, by and large, are drinkers. Every event. No event. Dinner. Snack. Bloody Marys for breakfast. Make-aheads in a cup to sneak into the movie theater.

This sounds like my brother and SIL. I was horrified when I was visiting them last October and saw them making cocktails in a cold cup to take with them in the car. In nearly every picture of them from that trip, they have a cocktail in hand, including the horse-drawn carriage ride they took me on for my birthday.

quote:

I'm learning to handle that the same way I'm learning to handle food pushers, but drunk people are awfully persistent.

(nod) When I am in Delaware and turn down a proferred cocktail, I get a look that is part hurt (that I'm not participating with them) and part resentment (that I looking down on them for drinking or that I'm too good for it or something).

quote:

Originally posted by D in St Pete:
(Maybe an easy one today--maybe not!)

LOL! I could turn ANY question/answer from an easy one to a hard one.

Or a short one to a long one...



Q. Do I drink too many calories? (soda, but also alcohol, teas, coffee, smoothies, "fortified" waters)

A. No.

this is a cinch for me. i love the taste of food TOO much . so that is where i want to use my calories.

i have clients who pay for "flush" diets, with meal replacements and shakes and supplements. it just ain't me. why do a flush-shake for 300 calories when i could have something yummy foodwise?

i do diet sodas once in a while (usually the ones sold at organic markets which don't have sodium). i use Stevia in my coffee and hot tea for sweetness. and i drink filtered water--lots of it.

I do!

Or did.

We were having 1-2 glasses of wine with dinner 4 or 5 nights a week. This was NOT because I got drunk. It's because I really, really enjoy the way wine tastes, and especially the way wine and foods taste when paired together.

Now, wine is two glasses a week.

We used to go to Starbucks on Saturday mornings. We don't go at all anymore.

He still stops for a smoothie after the gym. I won't. It seems silly to take in more calories than I just worked off. "But it's protein!" he says. "So why don't you just eat a piece of chicken after your workouts?" I ask.

I don't like tea, and I REFUSE to drink soda with sugar if there's an alternative (and there is, 99.9% of the time). Before college, I figured out that calories invested in coke were calories I couldn't invest elsewhere.

The reason I initially asked this question is because when the boyfriend doesn't drink beer (ie, during most of not football season), he loses weight. He SWORE, for the longest time, that beer didn't matter, since it was ONLY once a week, and he didn't drink THAT much.

So last year, I went out with them and kept track of his beer intake. We were there from noon until nearly 8pm. He had 10 beers. Now, he's a big guy, and I was driving. He was never "drunk" in the slurring, stumbling sort of way. Just looser than normal.

The next day, I asked how many he'd had. He guessed six or seven, because he'd had a glass of water in between each beer. I showed him the sheet I kept the tick marks on, and the 120 calories per beer...1200 calories of nothing.

Part of the problem is that his family, by and large, are drinkers. Every event. No event. Dinner. Snack. Bloody Marys for breakfast. Make-aheads in a cup to sneak into the movie theater.

So it's hard for HIM. And it's hard for me, because it's no fun to be the one sober person in a loud, crowded bar. Mostly because it's loud, crowded, and full of people who don't care if they push, step on, or bump you. It is easier, in those situations, to just have a drink.

And, if we're visiting his family (the ones in state), they push. "You don't look like you're having any fun!" "Why won't you drink? Are we not GOOD ENOUGH for you to drink with?" "It's what we do! We drink!" "Here! I made you a <popular drink du jour>!"

I'm learning to handle that the same way I'm learning to handle food pushers, but drunk people are awfully persistent.

OH, my, this question is one of my winter worries.
During the summer getting water in is NO problem, during the cooler months, it is hard. I drink WM's flavored water, no sugar, no salt, no preservatives, but a flavor and carbonation.
When we were drinking soda constantly, many years ago, we discovered it was the carbonation that we craved, thus this water. Our tap water is horrible, and the hospitals recommend you don't drink that...so t here is a lot of bottled water being sold in our area. I need to drink more water in the cooler months...I use tea, unsweetened with sugar, I drink a little coffee but not much, smoothies don't attract me, soda, very rarely. But I am hooked on a cappacino, often....I will use my points for that as it's sweet and has a chocolate flavor. It's rather a trade off for me from hot chocolate or a candy bar, cake, etc to this....and when I make my own it's all lo fat, no sugar ingredients, with real skim milk, so there is a nutrient value involved.
But how do I force myself to drink more water. I carry a jug with me all the time, can't go over 56 ounces a day because that amount will flush some of my hbp meds out of my system....so...more water.

No, I drink mostly plain water. I drink coffee in the morning, with some sugar, but after that it is water. Sometimes I drink herbal tea later in the day when I have a cold or bad allergies.

I might get a mocha from Starbuck's once every other week or so.

I have an alcoholic beverage on occasion, but not even once a week. (Last week I had one mango margarita on my birthday, a beer Sat. night when my brother was in town, I had one beer during the Colts game. That was the most alcohol I've had since we moved back to Indiana. I probably won't have any other alcoholic beverages until I go to my University Homecoming on Oct. 13.)

I drink part of a Coke when have a migraine. (Which is typically twice a month.)

I rarely drink juice or smoothies. When I do drink juice it is something like Naked Juice and I get the kind with a lot of fiber, or sometimes Odwalla. Even without the calories I can't afford it price wise too often and is really a "treat".

Dawn

My #1 drink is always water. I have a bottle on my desk all day at work and one by my side in the evening at home.

I have been in the habit for some time now of having a soda (sugared, as I can't stand diet soda) as often as once a week but usually more like twice a month. It's usually an IBC Black Cherry soda. I buy a six-pack but only put 1 bottle in the fridge at a time.

Last month, I discovered Simply Lemonade and find it a great change of pace. I have been drinking a wine glass of lemonade once or twice a week, so that is the most non-water beverage I've had in a long time.

I have an iced tea with my one lunch out per week. I use artificial sweetener in it.

I rarely drink alcohol anymore. In fact, about the only time I do is my once-a-month trip to visit my best friends in Delaware, since they are the type to have a cocktail pretty regularly.

I am not a coffee drinker, so those caloric specialties at Starbucks don't interest me in the least. I do like tea but don't drink it that often. I love cocoa but only drink it in the winter.

No, I don't think I drink too many calories.
Most of my liquid intake is plain, non carbonated, filtered water and tea with nothing added to it (tea of choice is naturally decaffinated Earl Grey or rooibus).

I had started drinking 4 oz of juice in the morning for about a month startging in mid August (cranberry for UTIs) but that habit didn't last so I'm juice free again.

Prior to all this stuff with my liver function, I had alloted 4 glasses of wine OR 2 beers per week. That's roughly 300 - 320 calories extra for a whole week.

Now that I can't drink at all, I'm just banking those calories.

I suspect I'll need to be alcohol free for at least another 6 weeks. (I do miss my glass of wine with dinner!).


PS I'll occassionally drink a diet coke if I need to stay awake somewhere ; )

Coffee: (not De-Caf) I have about 3-4 cups every morning, drink it black, no sugar or milk

Tea: (not de-caf) only from tea bags, when I don't feel good or on a cold night, or maybe after I had something a little to greasy, like it with lemon only

Sodas: very, very rarely, the only soda I do like is Freska, or I will buy a couple of small
individule cans of diet Pepsi/

Water: I don't buy any from the outside (unless there is a warnig we are getting a hurricane) I use my filtered water from my kitchen sink

Smoothies: I make mine at home if I am in the mood for it, I have tasted a few samples from
S.M. found them either to sweet, or had a grainy taste (yuk)

Alcohol: Can't remember the last time I had a drink, but I do keep a very small bottle of
Cream De Mint in the house, use it only if I am really stressed out and my tummy doesn't feel good, it just seems to settle it.