Pilates 1901 wants you to drink up and slim down!
Imagine for a moment that you were offered you a potion that would magically strip away pounds from your body, improve your overall health, lengthen your life, make you more attractive to the opposite sex and keep you lean forever! And imagine you could have a lifetime supply of that potion for FREE! You'd probably think it was too good to be true. But the reality is, it is true. DRINK THIS, NOT THAT, a book in the Eat this, Not that series, explains.....
You CAN have all the magic weight loss potion you want for free, and start stripping away pounds - perhaps even dozens of pounds this year alone without exercise, without dieting, without even visiting the neighborhood surgeon. You can by drinking this magic elixer called WATER.
Once you begin to see that alot of America's weight problem is linked to not just what they are eating, but what they are drinking, you'll become aware that you may have developed a bit of a drinking problem yourself. Follow these 5 steps from DRINK THIS NOT THAT to drink up and slim down, starting today!
Step #1 - GET RID OF THE SODA AND ICED TEAS. (Annual weight loss up to 20 lbs!)
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a government nutritional study measured among other things where most of our calories come from. Researchers broke up America's food intake into 143 categories and discovered, to their horror, that the category making up the largest percentage of our caloric intake (7.1%) was not food at all- it was soda. (this beat out vegetables, chicken and fish! at 6.5 and 5.7% respectively). This means if you are consuming about 3000 calories a day and you cut that by 7% (2790 calories), you'd automatically save about 1.8 lbs per month- you could be 10 lbs smaller in just 6 months without changing anything else! That makes me want to drink water right now!
STEP TWO: DRINK 8 CUPS OF ICED WATER EACH DAY! (Annual weight loss up to 26 lbs!)
Yes, the magic elixir really does have magic powers! In one study, 173 overweight women were put through a diet and nutrition training using mainstream diet programs. Researchers followed them for 10 months with diet and body composition being documented for up to 12 months after the classes were over. All women in the program lost weight but those drinking more water lost more weight. Drinking 1 lieter of water per day (nearly 4.5 cups) was associated with over 5 lbs more weight lost in 12 months! Just when you think this doesn't sound like much, think about how long you've been trying to get those last 10 lbs off! 5 lbs is 1/2 way there! 5 lbs could be a pant size!
Researchers at the University of Utah found that people who drink the most water have higher metabolisms! In a study, subjects drank 4, 8 and 12 cups of water each day. Those who drank at least 8 cups reported better concentration and higher energy levels- and they were burning more calories than the 4 cup per day group!
While drinking water will help you look, feel and burn better, drinking that water on ice will up the ante again! Studies suggest that just making that water cold will force your body to burn up to 64 more calories per day just warming up the water to use. Other studies show folks who drink a full glass of water first thing in the morning (before coffee, before breakfast)- cut their daily caloric intake by up to 13 percent!
STEP #3 ENJOY 1,2 OR 3 YOGURTY DRINKS A DAY! (Annual weight loss up to 10 lbs!)
A combination of ice, dairy and fruit does more than just make your blender rattle. It also helps you strip pounds from your body! They're packed with nutrition (especially if you start with greek yogurt and add berries, some whey and flax seeds) and their thick consistency takes up alot of space in your belly, so they're filling! Researchers at Purdue University found that people stayed fuller longer when they drank thick drinks than when they drank thin ones. People that drank yogurt shakes that had been blended until they doubled in volume ate 96 fewer calories per day than those consuming thinner drinks.
A University of Tennessee study found that men who added 3 servings of yogurt a day to their diets lost 61% more body fat and 81% more belly fat than men who didn't consume yogurt. The reason: researchers think that calcium helps your body burn fat and helps limite the amount of new fat your body can make! That makes me say MOOOOO!
STEP #4 DON'T DRINK JUICE DRINKS (Annual weight loss up to 19 lbs!)
Imagine a world where we called products what they really are! Sunny D would be called Obesi-D because there's nothing sunny about a drinke marketed to kids that looks and tastes like juice but is 95 percent water and corn syrup. While even 100% juice has it's problems (dense in calories and no fiber) , juice drink and their ilk are the worst offenders. On 16 oz bottle of Sunny D packs a whoppoing 180 empty calories and 40 grams of sugar! If you drink one per day and stop- you'll lose 19 lbs in one year!
STEP #5 DRINK COFFEE, NOT COFFEE DRINKS! (Annual weight loss up to 18 lbs!)
Researchers studied the drinking habits of Starbucks customers and found they opted for blended coffee drinks over regular brewed coffee 2/3 of the time. The average caloric impact of the blended drinks was 239 calories. The regular coffee about 63 with added cream and sugar. So even if you like your coffee like mine (coffee milkish) you can save 176 calories a day, just by making this one swap!
Of course, unless you're currently engaging in all of the bad habits listed above, you probably won't have 93 lbs to lose this year. But this does illustrate how easy it is to shed extra weight, lots of it, just by watching what we drink! And that, says DRINK THIS NOT THAT , is something worth raising a glass to!
NEXT WEEK: WE ARE WHAT WE DRINK: Cocktails 101 and other interesting facts about the booze we love most......
