What are you drinking?

There are so many things to drink these days....do you know what you are drinking? 

Before I started my healthy journey, I was drinking at least 4 cups of coffee a day with cream and sugar.  My biggest downfall was soda..I have drank soda all of my life and I didn't even realize what it was doing to me.  I would run to the nearest convenience store and grab, what I thought was healthy, a bottled tea.  I even dabbled in diet sodas, although I didn't care for the aftertaste.  So I was back on regular soda.

Then to my surprise, I found out what all of these sugary drinks were doing to my body, my health and my mind. 

They proved to be a major factor in my weight.  You drink one sugary drink and that gets your body wanting more and more throughout the day.  Your cravings become stronger because your body is telling you, you need more sugar to keep going.  

It isn't the fats that you eat that make you overweight and prone to diabetes, it is SUGAR!  Just about everything that we drink, except water has some kind of sugar in it.  Of course the worst is high fructose corn syrup.  You have seen the articles, you KNOW that anything containing high fructose corn syrup is bad for you, so WHY do you still drink it? 

Let's look at the "sugar-free" drinks and the artificial sweeteners.  

Since my Husband and my Mother have quite drinking diet sodas and using artificial sweeteners, they have lowered their blood sugars.  My Mother is completely out of the diabetic range and has been taken off her diabetic medications.  My Husband has gone from full blown Type II diabetic to pre diabetic in just 4 months! 

If you read any article regarding the affects of artificial sweeteners and diet soda, I ask you to read

 Dr. Mark Hyman's Blog------Click Here

If you are reading this and thinking to yourself, "yea yea yea, I know" Then why are you still drinking this stuff if you know it is bad for you?  

"I am cutting back"..."I need to ween myself off of it"..."But I don't like water"

Does this sound familiar to you?   

EXCUSES that is what they are.  If you want to get yourself healthy and have made that decision to...you should just stop buying all that soda, regular or diet, and sugary drinks all at once.

Let's look at some HEALTHY alternatives! 

WATER

Want some flavor in it?  Add some fresh fruit.  Here are some great suggestions that I use. 

Lemon

Grapefruit

Watermelon

Blueberries

Strawberries

Peaches

Cherries

You can even add in a slice or two of cucumber, throw some mint in there. 

Green Tea

and I don't mean the bottled kind, brew it yourself. 

You can even add fresh fruit (or frozen) to your tea. 

For a great weight loss concoction, I drank a cup of green tea a day with a tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar, some Coconut Nectar, a dash of Cinnamon, and a dash of Cayenne Pepper.  

Kombucha

This is something I have just recently started drinking.  I LOVE IT! 

The Chinese have called this the “Immortal Health Elixir"

It is made from a sweetened tea that is fermented.  Sounds pretty gross, doesn't it...well it isn't.  Actually it is very tasty and it is good for you!  I recently read up about it from another Blogger. 

Cultured Food Life

explains Kombucha as, "living health drink made by fermenting tea and sugar with the kombucha culture. It has been around for hundreds of years. If you are concerned that it is made with sugar, you needn’t be. The sugar is consumed by the culture leaving you with a delicious tart drink. The result can taste like something between sparkling apple cider and champagne, depending on what kind of tea you use. It’s not what you would imagine fermented tea to taste like."

I would love to one day try to make this myself, but for now, I pick up a few bottles at my local health food store.  I can't finish one bottle in one sitting, so when I need a little flavor, I go to my fridge and grab the bottle and take a few sips. 

Here is the brand that I like the best.  GT's Kombucha. Click on the picture to take you to their website. 

The things floating in this one is Chia Seeds. 

They reduce food cravings by preventing some of the food that you eat from getting absorbed into your system. This blockage of calorie absorption makes them a great diet helper.

But you can get the GT's Kombucha without the Chia Seeds and it stills tastes great and has wonderful benefits. 

So why are you still drinking all of those sugary or "diet" drinks that make you swell up, get headaches and are overall bad for you?  

It is time for you to not only think healthy, but live healthy!