Drink without ruining your diet

The festive season is here and your social life is reaching its pinnacle! Cocktails, bubbly, shooters and spirits are going to send your diet packing or maybe not.

With Christmas and New Year wishes come an onslaught of toasts and tipples – something that’s definitely not one for your diet sheet. Have no fear, with a few smart adjustments, you can keep the kilograms off while enjoying a drink or two.

Empty kilojoules?

As Diet guru, Robert Atkins says, “Here's the problem with all alcoholic beverages, and the reason I recommend refraining from alcohol consumption on the diet. Alcohol, whenever taken in, is the first fuel to burn. While that's going on, your body will not burn fat. This does not stop the weight loss, it simply postpones it, since the alcohol does not store as glycogen.”

Choose wisely

As with food, certain drinks are better than others. So what’s the best drink to have that won’t give you some extra padding come January? Actually it shouldn’t be any alcoholic beverage, but if temptation is far too strong, here are some hints.

Alcohol to avoid

Kilojoule-dense and loaded with sugar these options are definitely no-go if you want to fit into your clothes come 2012.• Liqueur• Sweet wine• Sherry• Spirit coolers

Watch your mixers

Opt for plain soda or water as a mixer instead of Coke, lemonade or juice which only serve to add more kilojoules to your drink. If you simply must have colddrink as a mixer try something with less kilojoules like Sprite Zero.

Nurse your drink

Go for drinks that take longer to drink rather than a shooter you can finish in one gulp. This is more likely to keep you feeling satiated for longer as opposed to a shooter which simple leaves you craving another.

Make your own wine spritzer

Try combining plain soda with wine to create your own wine spritzer. The soda helps dilute the wine so your drink lasts longer without adding extra kilojoules.

Best choices if you’re watching you weight

In moderation, these options have the lowest kilojoule contents than their alcoholic counterparts.• Light beer• Champagne• Red or white wine• Jack Daniels • Vodka

So there you have it, the guidelines to drinking alcohol over the festive season without too many weight-loss goal set-backs.

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