Drop 500 in 5 seconds.

Calories I mean. It's easier than you might think to lose 500 calories from your daily diet, especially since most of these 500 are calories you're probably not even aware you're consuming. These calories often come from the most dangerous and most sneaky culprit of the kitchen:

Sodas
1 can of soda contains between 120 and 200 calories, depending on the brand and flavor. 1 20oz bottle of soda can be between 220 to as much as 300 calories. Think about how many sodas you might have in a day. According to the US Department of Agriculture, most Americans drink at least one soda per day, and with super-sizing and free refills, many are drinking between three and five sodas per day. Why are we drinking this stuff? Yes it tastes good, but does it really do anything for us? Soda bloats us with sodium, rots our teeth with acid and fills us with refined sugars that turn into fat. Yum?
Killing the soda habit, or at least dropping your intake to one a day (if you're already having more than that) is an easy way to drop 500 calories from your daily diet without breaking a sweat...literally.

And don't try me with this "Okay, I'll have diet soda" business. Diet sodas, juices and "water enhancers" are just as bad if not worse for you than regular. At least regular sodas have real sugar in them..a natural ingredient of sorts. Diet drinks make you more bloated because of the extra sodium (ever wonder why Diet Coke is more bubbly?). Artificial sweeteners in diet drinks also have adverse affects on health and diet, as they can cause migraines, upset stomach and...here's the winner... HUNGER! It's been proven in a variety of medical studies that aspartame, Splenda and other artificial sweeteners actually trigger cravings and hunger, making people who drink diet drinks more likely to gain weight rather than lose it. Yeah, I'm not seeing how this stuff is a good thing.


So what CAN you drink? Anything you want; it's your body. lol. But if you want to have some flavor in your drinks without breaking your calorie bank, here's some good alternatives:

-Sweet tea, sweetened with stevia (a natural, no calorie sweetener found in most grocery stores as "Truvia" "Purevia" and other brands.)
-Diet sodas sweetened with fructose or stevia (but watch out for the sodium content or you'll still get all bloaty).
-Vitamin Water and SoBe Life Water ZERO (these are all sweetened with stevia root and natural sugar alcohols that are not harmful to the body like artificial sweeteners)

If you know of any more, please comment here with ideas. Help your fellow readers out with some of your own tips and tricks for not drinking all of your calories in one gulp!
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