Weekends often bring about a time for Happy Hour and cocktails with friends and family. Whether out and about, at home or at a gathering, by making smart cocktail choices, you can allow for a drink or two, without the guilt. Use these helpful tips to help you make your guilt-free choices!
Beer is not a favorite but if you are a Beer Lover be sure to go Light. A bottle of light beer has around 100 calories, some have as few as 55 calories!
If you are a wine drinker, go for red over white for more antioxidants, less sugar and not to mention the health benefits of resveratrol. A 5-oz. glass of wine has about 120 calories. Typically a glass or two is a perfect cocktail to complement a meal. Be sure to stay away from “wine coolers” as those are NOT the same as regular wine and offer a ton of sugar!
Go clear or light-colored with your alcohols! These have about 100 calories per 1.5-oz. shot. Vodka, rum, tequila… All good choices. A one-shot drink over ice or shaken with ice as a martini with a calorie-free mixer and a squeeze of lemon or lime is a nice refreshing way to go! You can also opt to infuse your own liqueur by adding berries, cucumbers, etc. to the martini shaker and making your own infused tasty cocktail.
BEWARE, tequila is NOT all the same! Be sure to always look for 100% agave tequila because if it isn’t 100% it is only partial agave and the other part pure sugar! You can usually tell a good bottle by the price, go figure…
Favorite Gina Approved Tequila Cocktail:
-1.5 oz 100% pure agave tequila
-4 oz fresca (lime flavor) OR Soda Water
-juice of 2-3 keylimes*
*keylimes really make the drink so be sure to get keylimes not just regular limes 🙂
If you choose to use Soda Water, add 1 packet stevia to sweeten it up.
Serve over the rocks, mix well and enjoy!
Be sure not to get a drink that looks like a dessert. Creamy, sweet beverages can be loaded with ice cream, syrups, cream and more alcohol than you might think. You end up drinking an entire meal’s worth of calories, or two, in one drink! No Thank you!!
Pick club soda (or soda water) over tonic water. Club soda has no calories, while tonic water, unless diet, has about 80 calories per cup! People think tonic is “club soda” but they are very different. Restaurants typically do not carry Diet Tonic so your best bet is Club Soda. Diet soda of any sort also makes for a great zero-calorie mixer.
Yes, fruit is not a bad thing but do not forget about the calories in fruit juice! A splash for flavor is OK, but a 1/2 cup can add around 60 calories to your beverage, not to mention all the sugar! That is just the “splash of juice” type cocktails. If we start looking at the blended fruit cocktails, that takes us into a days worth of calories. Remember that eating whole fruit is the way to go rather than blending it up, adding sugar, syrup and alcohol, that is NOT the way to go. You may think you are going for a smarter choice by getting the fruitier option but think again….
With cocktails comes food…. Don’t go give into happy hour finger food. Stay away from fried, fatty, and simple carby options such as cheese sticks, fried egg rolls, wontons, crab cakes, chips, fries, etc. Go for something lighter such as our pure protein options like shrimp cocktail, oysters, ceviche, grilled skewers or lettuce wraps.
REMEMBER, of course, BALANCE and MODERATION IS KEY! No reason you can’t still enjoy a drink or 2 and NOT jeopardize your fitness results!
Happy Happy Hour!!