When most people think about weight loss, they automatically think about food. What can and can’t they eat. But one area that always gets overlooked is drinks and fluids. Now whilst many diets will advise you to drink more fluids during this time, they never really advise on which fluids to drink.

Of course water is always the number one recommendation: low in sugar, calories and 100% natural, there is nothing you cannot gain from water which isn’t positive.

But other fluids, will get called ‘no, no’s’ with no clear indication as to why they are not allowed.

For this reason we have chosen to explore all our favourite drinks, to ascertain which ones you can still take whilst you are trying to lose weight.

And to do this, we have gathered all their calorie readings, so that you can see exactly what you are drinking in one cup/glass.

Coffee with whole milk (220ml cup): 15.4 calories with 0.9g of fat, 1.1g of carbohydrates and protein

Coke (330ml can): 139 calories and 33g of carbohydrates

Orange Juice (200 ml glass): 88 calories, 19.8g carbohydrates and 1.2g protein

Tea with whole milk (100ml): 10.8 calories, 1.5g carbohydrates, 1.2g protein and 0.2g fat.

Half a pint of beer: 70-110 calories depending on the type

125ml wine: 85-120 calories

Spirits (50ml) – whiskey, gin or vodka: 120-140 calories

And these are just a sample of the calories you could be consuming every day without even realising it. 

But as you can see, even 5 cups of tea can mount up to 54 calories. Calories which you have ingested without a single thought.

So what can you take from the above figures? The answer is simple.

To effectively lose weight you need to be aware of everything, even what you drink.

Saying this we are not telling you to cut out any one of these from your lives, but to drink them in moderation. Especially soft drinks and alcohol. They may taste nicer, but they taste nicer for a reason. 

What to do? You want that little bit of joy at the end of the meal, but you don’t want to become a lard ass. Well, you can have your cake and eat it too. We will discuss some of the more healthy deserts that you can eat. First I want to say, don’t get fooled by this low fat stuff. It isn’t worth the time. You will eat twice as much of it to fill your cravings. It is because it is missing something, the fat. The one thing that you are craving the most. In the end you aren’t really doing yourself any favors. You are falling in the trap that all fat people fall into. They think since it is low fat, they can eat twice as much of it. That maybe true, but only if you don’t want to loose weight.

Fresh fruit is always a good desert. You can prepare it easily and it tastes great. Nothing tastes better than fresh fruit that is in season. Make sure that it is perfectly ripe and ready to eat. If it is ripe, it will be sweet and juicy. If you eat fruit that isn’t ripe it will be hard and not have all the flavor that it can yield. You don’t have to stick with the ho hum fruit salad. You can choose a ton of different ways to eat fresh fruit. You can bake apples for example wrapped in tin foil with a little bit of brown sugar. This is wonderful.

One of my favorite things is bananas sliced in orange juice. The sweet tangy flavor of the orange juice is really different compared to the banana. I could eat a truck load of this stuff. It is also a great pick me up if you are feeling sluggish. We have all seen those wand mixers advertised on television. Some people call these boat motors. It is a hand held mixer/blender that you can use for a lot of things. I love these things. If you have one of these, it is easy to make a great low fat desert.

Here is a simple desert using your boat motor. Take skim milk. You need to make sure that it is ice cold for this. Take your milk and put it in a drinking glass. Use your boat motor to whip air into it. You will notice after awhile it kind of looks like whipped cream. Add some bananas and strawberries and a little pinch of sugar to make it sweet. This is very low fat and it tastes great. You get that desire for fat taken care of that you have been craving so much. The whipped milk really almost feels like whipped cream. You won’t believe how much it feels like the real thing.

You can also use this to add some zing to all kinds of things. You can use it to make your low fat milkshakes. You can add your protein mix to this for a great meal with very little fat. You will be surprised at how many things you can do with this whipped topping. People will think that you have fallen off of your rocker when they think you are eating a big serving of whipped cream. Before you know it, all your buddies at the gym will want you to make them something to eat with your boat motor. That is when you will have to tell them to get their own.

You can also eat gelatin. Make sure that you get the unflavored kind. It will come in either envelopes or in sheets. There will be directions on the package to tell you how to make it. You can add fruit juice or you can add fresh fruit to your gelatin. If you have a boat motor, you can use it and add some of that whipped topping you make from the skim milk. You will love this. You can also eat some low fat cakes. Just because it is cake, doesn’t mean that it is bad for you. Just make sure that there isn’t a whole lot of eggs or dairy involved. Also sometimes people sneak in mayo in their cake batters. Make sure you know what is on the cake. Also jam or jelly is great instead of frosting.

I’m sure that you can come up with your own ideas as well. Just think of what you already like to eat and put a spin on it. Please, stay away from the low fat stuff. All that will do is make you crave more of that than you should be eating. In the long run, you aren’t saving any calories.

Here are some practical, easy, everyday ways to keep your appetite under control:

Get Enough Sleep

Sleep deprivation causes an imbalance in certain hormones, including ghrelin (which increases appetite) and leptin (which decreases appetite). When we don’t get enough sleep, our levels of ghrelin go up (weight gain) and levels of leptin go down (so we are hungrier). That said, adults should aim for at least seven hours of shuteye each night.

Eat Protein and Fiber at Meals

Compared to carbohydrate and fat, protein takes more time to digest and therefore keeps you full longer. Fiber helps by absorbing water, and then expanding in your stomach – literally creating bulk to make you feel fuller and have less room for more.

Less Variety, More Satisfaction

Keep less variety of snacks foods in the house and you’ll be much better off. Research has shown the greater your options, the greater your appetite.

Don’t Be Left in the Dark

When you go out to dinner, sit in a well-lit part of the restaurant. That’s because when you’re eating in a well-lit area, you’re more likely to consume fewer calories. You are more self conscious and feel others can see what you’re eating, so you’re likely to curb your appetite accordingly. In a dim corner of the room… well, anything goes.

Play Mind Games

Serve up your food on small plates and smaller food portions will look more volumous. Be sure to keep your snacks out of sight at home and at work (out of sight, out of mind). Also, wear great smelling perfume or cologne and light scented candles when you have the opportunity. Interesting smells can often take your mind off of food.

Few foods are as delicious as they are guilt-free. Given the pressures on our time and the scores of options on our supermarket shelves, you may not have paused long enough to be aware of some fantastic food options at your supermarkert that can help with weight loss.

Below are six hidden treasures on the shelves of our GTA – Greater Toronto Area – supermarkets. These low-cal treats have become grocery-list must-haves, whether we’re dieting or not.

1. The Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedges

If you haven’t yet discovered the wonders of these 35-calorie, 2g-of-fat soft cheese wedges, you need to wheel your cart into the dairy section immediately. In Original Swiss, Garlic & Herb, and French Onion, this cheese is perfect in recipes, as a flavored cream cheese swap or sandwich spread, for making sauces, and more. It’s the only decadent soft cheese out there that’s portion-controlled, not loaded with fat and calories, and DELICIOUS. Plus, a giddy cow is involved, and who doesn’t love that?!

2. Salad Dressing Sprays

Thick, gloppy dressing gushing from a container is so 2005! Even so-called light dressings can add too many extra calories and fat grams to a perfectly guilt-free salad. But with THREE lines of spritzable low-calorie dressings around, there really is a salad spray for everyone. Wish-Bone Salad Spritzers and Ken’s Lite Accents both offer huge flavor selections, from their ginger-y Asian ones to Ken’s Honey Mustard Vinaigrette. And Newman’s Own All Natural Salad Mist is perfect for those opposed to artificial ingredients. A 10-serving spray of any of these has just 10 – 15 calories, and they all taste fantastic (really!).

3. Fiber One Bran Cereal (Original)

Wake up, people. This is so not your grandma’s bran cereal. It’s crunchy with a perfect texture, slightly sweet, and totally delicious. It has just 60 calories and 1g of fat per fiber-packed half-cup serving. But best of all, this cereal is a serious multitasker. Not only is it great in your breakfast bowl, but it’s also an AWESOME ingredient for pie crusts, dessert toppings, parfaits, snack mixes, and more. And it’s the KEY ingredient in all of HG’s “faux fry” recipes. If it were legal (and not weird) to marry a cereal, we’d be ring shopping.

4. Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze

Speaking of cereal, you’ll need the perfect no-guilt milk product to pour over it. Skim milk is boring, and not everyone enjoys soymilk. But Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze is rich, creamy, vanilla-licious, and insanely low in calories — an entire cup has just 40 of ‘em! BTW, it’s also all-natural and dairy-free. One sip and you may just swear off regular old milk for good. Look for UVAB on supermarket shelves with the other non-refrigerated boxed milks.

5. Canned Pure Pumpkin

Canned pumpkin may not seem all that thrilling, but it happens to be one of the most exciting foods ever to be confined to a can. Use it to make HG’s 133-calories-per-slice pumpkin pie, mix a serving of it with a sugar-free vanilla pudding snack for a TOO-EASY tasty 100-calorie dessert, and make freakishly good, guilt-free brownie muffins with it! It’s also AMAZING stirred into your morning oatmeal. We love pumpkin so much it hurts!

6. Freeze-Dried Fruit

Okay, regular dried fruit is pretty lame when you think about it. It’s basically shriveled, sugary stuff that has way more calories (ounce for ounce) than regular fruit. And while freeze-dried fruit was once only for babies and astronauts, it’s hittin’ the mainstream. We couldn’t be happier! Freeze-dried fruit is light, sweet, and airy, and you can eat a huge serving of it without wasting a whole lotta calories. It’s good as a straight-up snack, on top of cereal, mixed into yogurt, for making low-cal trail mixes, and more.

Look for lines like Sensible Foods Crunch Dried Snacks, Cereal Toppers, Gerber Mini Fruits (so what if it’s meant for toddlers, it tastes awesome and is easy to find!), Just Tomatoes, and Crispy Green Crispy Fruit. A half-cup of the stuff typically has only 60 – 70 calories and less than a gram of fat.

We recommends fat-free or light dressings and dips. The light category—low-fat, reduced-fat, and low-calorie—is midway between totally fat-free and regular, and it’s often more pleasing to the palate than fat-free.

Dressings can be used as all-purpose condiments, dips, toppings, even cooking liquids. They already contain a mixture of ingredients, so just slather them on vegetables, seafood, and pretty much anything else. Or cook with them to make up for the lack of butter or oil.

In addition, keeping several varieties of dressings and dips on hand, including at least one creamy version. Try brushing a light creamy dressing on seafood, then broiling; the dressing adds moisture and flavor.

Candy

Yup, candy. The real thing—not the dietetic variety—is best when your sweet tooth starts aching. Dietetic candies have almost as many calories as regular candies, often lack flavor, and are an incentive to eat more. Stick to the real thing.

• Chewing gum or gum balls: any and all
• Hard candy: any and all, including sour balls, candy canes, lollipops such as Tootsie Pops or Blow Pops, Jolly Ranchers, Werther’s Original, and TasteTations

Frozen Desserts

Any fat-free frozen yogurt, frozen nondairy substitute, or sorbet is a fine addition to the freezer. Try the lower-calorie choices. Here are some examples:

• Soft serve: up to 25 calories per ounce, including Skimpy Treat; TCBY, Colombo nonfat frozen yogurt, and Tofutti
• Hard pack: up to 115 calories per 1/2-cup serving, including Sharon’s Sorbet, Low-Fat Tofutti, all Italian ices, and Sweet Nothings
• Frozen bars: Creamsicles, Fudgsicles, and Popsicles; any others containing up to 45 calories per bar, including Welch’s Fruit Juice Bars, Weight Watchers Smart Ones Orange Vanilla Treats, Tofutti Chocolate Fudge Treats, Weight Watchers Smart Ones Chocolate Mousse, Dolly Madison Slender Treat Chocolate Mousse, and Yoplait
• Individually packaged frozen bars: up to 110 calories each, including FrozFruit, Hagen-Dazs bars, and Starbucks Frappuccino Blended Coffee Bars

Beverages

Avoid beverages labeled “naturally sweetened” or “fruit-juice sweetened,” but help yourself to these:

• Unsweetened black coffees and teas
• Diet teas and juices: Crystal Light, Diet Snapple, Diet Natural Lemon Nestea, Diet Mistic, and others
• Noncaloric flavored waters: orange, chocolate, cream, cherry-chocolate, root beer, cola, and other flavors of bottled or filtered water
• Seltzer: plain or flavored, but check the calorie count if the product is labeled “naturally sweetened,” since this usually means that the product has sugar in one form or another
• Hot cocoa mixes: 20 to 50 calories per serving, including Swiss Miss Diet and Fat-Free and Nestle Carnation Diet and Fat-Free; avoid cocoa mixes with 60 or more calories per serving

Let’s Go Shopping

Today’s supermarkets are filled with choices for the weight conscious. Here are some of the lowest-calorie choices for a variety of food categories that aren’t covered in the Anytime List.

Cereals

• Cheerios: a whole grain cereal with 110 calories and 3 g fiber per cup
• Kellogg’s All-Bran with Extra Fiber: 50 calories and 15 g fiber per 1/2 cup
• Original Shredded Wheat: 80 calories and 2.5 g fiber per biscuit
• Fiber One: 60 calories and 14 g fiber per 1/2 cup
• Wheaties: 110 calories and 2 g fiber per cup
• Whole Grain Total: 110 calories and 3 g fiber per 3/4 cup

Spreads

• Peanut butter
• Low-sugar or sugar-free jams and jellies with 10 to 40 calories per tablespoon

Breads

• Light breads with 40 to 45 calories per slice: oatmeal, premium white, wheat, rye, multi grain, sourdough, Italian
• Whole grain regular breads or rolls

Rice and Pasta

• Whole wheat/whole grain pastas: Hodgson Mill, Ancient Harvest
• Brown rice
• Whole wheat couscous
• Pearled or hulled barley
• Other whole grains: quinoa, whole grain cornmeal, kasha, bulgur, millet

Frozen Meals

• Low-calorie frozen breakfast foods such as those from Kellogg’s, Aunt Jemima, and Pillsbury—and a special mention for the low-calorie, whole grain offerings from Van’s
• Low-calorie, vegetable-focused frozen meals in the 150- to 350-calories-per-package range, especially the Amy’s brand

Beans

• All beans, dried or canned
• Health Valley canned bean/chili combinations
• Low-fat or fat-free refried beans

Snacks

Make it a point to eat starchy, crunchy snacks only in conjunction with a food from the Anytime List. For example, have fruit with popcorn or soup with crackers. Fill up on the former, and go easy on the starchy snack.

Protein Foods

• Legumes: beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas
• Soy products: bean curd/tofu, meat-replacement products by Boca, Gardenburger, Yves, and Lightlife
• Seafood: fresh (do not fry!), smoked, canned, frozen

Please Note: Calorie counts in this story may vary depending on the brand of products used. Remember to check the labels.

Every time you toss a low-calorie food into the cart, you’re taking responsibility for losing weight—even before you sit down to a meal.

There’s a very simple formula for low-calorie eating: Stock up on low-calorie staples. These are the basic packaged, canned, and frozen ingredients that you’ll reach for to create tasty, healthful, low-calorie meals anytime.

The Picture Perfect Anytime List is a menu of the lowest-calorie produce, soups, sauces, condiments, marinades, dressings, dips, candies, desserts, and beverages available. Stuff your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer with them, and reach for them anytime. Feel free to go to the foods on the Anytime List when you want a snack or are planning a meal. Eat any amount of them for any reason. When the Anytime List becomes the core of your eating—in other words, the main dish around which you build your meals—you’ll have no trouble staying thin for life.

The Anytime List
Fruits and vegetables

All fruits and vegetables—raw, cooked, fresh, frozen, canned—belong on the Picture Perfect Anytime List. Avoid any packaged fruits that have added sugar. Otherwise, the more fruits and vegetables you eat, the better.

Soups

You’ve heard of value for your money. Soups give you very good value for the calories. They are filling; a bowl of soup can be an entire meal. They are satisfying. For many people, they are more satisfying than raw vegetables, while many give you all the benefits of veggies (if you choose the soups chock full of vegetables). They are inexpensive, convenient, easy, and quick to make. Soups don’t make you feel like you’re on a diet. Above all, soups are versatile. They can serve as a snack, as part of a meal, or as a cooking ingredient.

Sauces, Condiments, and Marinades

Put the following items at the very top of your shopping list. They’re invaluable for adding flavor, moisture, texture, and versatility to every food and every meal.

• Salad dressings: oil-free or low-calorie (light or lite)
• Mayonnaise: fat-free or light
• Sour cream and yogurt: fat-free, plain, or with NutraSweet (or low-fat nondairy substitutes)
• Mustards: Dijon, Pommery, and others
• Tomato puree, tomato paste, and tomato sauce
• Clam juice, tomato juice, V8 juice, and lemon or lime juice
• Butter Buds or Molly McButter
• Cooking sprays (such as Pam) in butter, olive oil, garlic, or lemon flavors
• Vinegars: balsamic, cider, wine, tarragon, and others
• Horseradish: red and white
• Sauces: salsa, cocktail sauce, tamari, soy sauce, A1, Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, duck sauce, chutney, relish, and others
• Onion: fresh, juice, flakes, and powder
• Garlic: fresh, juice, flakes, and powder
• Herbs: any and all, including basil, oregano, tarragon, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, dill, chives, sage, and bay leaves
• Spices: any and all, including cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cumin, nutmeg, coriander, curry, paprika, and allspice
• Extracts: vanilla, almond, peppermint, maple, coconut, cocoa powder, and others