One Simple Change That Could Help You Lose 5, 10, 20 Pounds or More Effortlessly

What if I told you that you could lose 5, 10, 20 pounds or more without lifting a single weight, running an inch, or starting a grueling no-carb crash diet. Sounds too easy to be true, right? Although this might seem obvious to some people, cutting out all soda and sugary drinks from your life can have an astronomical effect on your weight, body composition, skin, oral health, and overall health. And yes, that includes nixing all diet soda as well.

Drinks like soda, diet soda, Slurpies, Hawaiian Punch, YooHoo!, Monster/Red Bull/other energy drinks, Arizona Iced Tea, and Gatorade are high up on the list of the worst things you can possibly put into your body. I would even go as far as to say that their negative impact on health compares to that of cigarettes. These drinks are loaded with sugar, chemicals, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners, and completely lack anything close to nutritious. One can of Coca-Cola Classic has 140 calories/40g of sugar, and one can of Hawaiian Punch has 180 calories/45g of sugar...plus both have high fructose corn syrup listed near the top of the ingredients list (ingredients are listed in order of appearance in the product. The first ingredient listed is most prevalent, while the last ingredient is most likely very minor). That's almost more sugar than you should eat in an entire day! And lets be realistic...if you're an avid soda drinker you're probably drinking multiple sodas or sugary drinks per day.


Before I go on a rant about how awful these drinks are for your body, I want you to visualize how much sugar you're actually taking in. Measure out 10 teaspoons of sugar and put it on a plate. That's the amount of sugar you're consuming every time you drink a single Coke! Nasty! It's amazing that a drink would ever need that much sugar to taste good.

So how does all of that sugar effect your body? If you drink one Coke per day, something most people think is pretty harmless, it adds up to 980 calories per week and 51,100 calories per year...that's about 1/3 of a pound per week and 14.6 pounds per year. And that's only drinking one Coke per day. If you drink two Cokes per day that doubles to about 2/3 of a pound per week and 29 pounds per year! Think of all the hard work in the gym it takes to lose that kind of weight. Better yet, think of how much better your results would be--and your body would look--if you cut out these sugary drinks altogether.


Here are a few of the other ways soda and sugary drinks have a negative impact on our overall health:

• They're a leading cause of obesity.
• They have no nutritional value, protein, healthy fats, vitamins, or minerals.
• They take up a part of your daily caloric allowance that could better be spent on nutritious, whole foods.
  
• They stimulate appetite and cause you to eat and drink more. Soda and sugary drinks are empty calories that won't fill you up and will keep you feeling dissatisfied.
• Their high sugar content spikes insulin levels, which causes the body to store excess fat. Additionally, the large HFCS content will cause the body to store even more body fat. Every single soda or sugar-laden drink you gulp down will literally make you fatter. For a more comprehensive explanation of how insulin and HFCS effect body fat levels check out my post at http://bryanfitlife.blogspot.com/2010/03/understanding-insulin-hfcs-and-carbs.html
• Guzzling these drinks often will repeatedly spike your insulin, cause insulin resistance, and eventually lead to Type-II Diabetes. Not fun.
  
• By drinking soda and sugary drinks you end up drinking less water, milk, green tea, or other drinks that can have a positive impact on your health.
• They can cause acne and blemished skin.
• They can cause cavities, tooth decay, and poor oral health.
• Soda causes bone weakening. The phosphorus in soda saps calcium from our bones, making them more frail and prone to injury.

The moral of the story: Cut soda out from your life. It's just making you work harder to achieve the body you want.