We’re coming up to the summer holidays and for many of you, it might be a time where you eat more, drink more, and generally relax a little bit. If you’re on holiday or if you’re having a staycation or at home, there’s a very simple tip for you (which you could apply throughout the whole year as well) as to how you can manage your weight during this time. We get a lot of feedback and questions from people about how they can stop putting weight on during the summer, because it’s the time where a lot of us relax and we’re eating and drinking more.
My simple tip is this, look at the calories you’re getting from your drinks (including coffee) – coffee can have anything from 100 to 1,000 calories in it. Soft drinks can be calorific, it might say they’re calorie free, but the artificial sweeteners in them can trick the brain into thinking it’s had sugar. Other drinks like smoothies can also be calorific, but of course, you’re offset with the benefit – they have lots of nutrition in them.
Alcoholic drinks are very, very calorific. Very roughly a glass of wine is a bit like a doughnut in terms of calories. If you were thinking about whether or not to have an extra glass of rose tonight, think, would I have a doughnut if one was offered to me, and let that help you make your decision.
Calories in drinks could really add up, and if you want to keep an eye on your body composition, particularly your fat whilst you’re on holiday or indeed anytime throughout the year – a really quick and simple thing to do is just to moderate some of the calories you’re getting through drink.
And if it is alcohol that you moderate, you’ll get a lot of other benefits as well. Greater clarity, better sleep, greater concentration, better skin tone. There are lots and lots of different reasons why if you’re going to cut calories from drinks, alcohol should absolutely be the place that you start!
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If you’re reading this, you might be in reasonably senior position, running your own business or have a busy life running the home and juggling other responsibilities. Either way, you’re busy!
The convergent pressures of work and family life have probably meant that the time you did have to spend on health and fitness has disappeared. Why not talk to us and see how we can help.
Leanne Spencer is an entrepreneur, coach, TEDx Speaker, author of Remove the Guesswork, and founder of Bodyshot Performance Limited. Bodyshot is a health and fitness consultancy that helps busy professionals get more energy by removing the guesswork around their health, fitness and nutrition. Visit www.bodyshotperformance.com or email [email protected] to register your interest in our services and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.