We probably should make this habit number one. If you’re drinking soft drink and fruit juice, get rid of it! It’s the quickest, easiest way to add a whole lot of unnecessary baggage to your diet.
We’ve seen people lose substantial amounts of weight by just taking this one action and replacing with water. Soft drinks and fruit juice are liquid sugar bombs, adding a big calorie load for zero nutritional value. No one gets off the hook with this one – sorry!
The only beverage that has a regular place in a healthy diet is water. Drinking at least two litres a day of water will help your fat loss efforts, fuel your workouts and help you learn the difference between hunger and thirst.
What about sugar free diet soft drink?
Diet soft drinks have to go too. It’s a common diet habit to compulsively down diet coke all day. But you’re not doing your health or your weight any favours. Yes, diet soft drinks are virtually calorie free, but they’re filled with caffeine, artificial sweeteners and other chemicals your body doesn’t need.
Despite being sugar free, the chemicals they contain are a disaster for your health. Artificial sweeteners dull taste buds and cause us to crave sweet foods more. Our bodies also treat artificial sweeteners like the real deal, triggering an insulin response which switches your body into fat storage mode.
Our ultimate goal with our diet is to eat whole, unprocessed foods, not chemical laden franken-foods with no nutritional value.
Isn’t fruit juice healthy?
Many of us were raised to start the day with a big glass of orange and believe that this is indeed a healthy habit.
Let’s be clear: WHOLE fruit is very healthy and contains fibre and vitamins that will assist in fat loss and general health. In fact, we recommend up to two servings a day of low sugar fruit (check out Healthy Habit 1).
Fruit juice, even 100% natural juice, is loaded with sugar. You wouldn’t sit down and eat 8 oranges, yet this is the amount of oranges it takes to make your glass of OJ. Juicing removes all the fibre in the whole fruit which would slow down the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream.
By starting your day with juice you’re actually setting yourself up for failure. It causes a huge blood sugar spike and subsequent crash, which will have you craving sugar and carbs all day.
How to kick the soft drink and juice habit
While we say the simplest way to improve your health almost immediately is to cut out soft drink and fruit juice, I’m not saying it’s easy. Start by significantly increasing the amount of water you drink and cutting back on the junk.
If you don’t fancy water, we need you to learn to love it! Here are some tips for dressing it up a bit.
- Prepare a big jug of water with mint or basil leaves or slices of cucumber and lemon and pop in the fridge.
- Experiment with herbal teas. You can enjoy any herbal teas that are caffeine free as much as you like. Herbal teas are a great replacement for flavoured drinks and keep food cravings in check.
- Green tea is packed with phytonutrients that are great for your health and also has a slight calorie burning effect (bonus!) Drink a few cups a day. Remember that green tea does contain a small amount of caffeine so watch your consumption later in the day.
- Enjoy one green juice a day if you’re really missing your fruit juice. Keep the fruit content to one green apple, with the rest vegetables.
