Don't fear alcohol on a diet! 6 low-calorie alcohol drinks that your health and wellness nuts approve of!

It is okay to drink alcohol while sticking to a healthier eating and exercise plan! When you drink these 6 low-calorie alcohol drinks you will have nothing to worry about. These healthy alcoholic drinks are even approved by those healthy friends, you know the ones I am talking about.

Certain occasions like birthdays, weddings, dinners, and business trips include partaking in drinking a few alcoholic drinks. The key to any successful lifestyle change (and the key to my 65 lb weight loss) is making changes in moderation.

Alcohol is fat-free and low in carbs, but the calories add up quickly which is what you need to watch especially if weight loss is your goal. Alcohol and dieting don’t generally mix well, mainly because your body knows how to process the alcohol first, leaving the carbs and fats to be stored rather than used. Good thing I have you covered with this 6 ways to naturally detox article, making it more than okay for you to indulge and have a few alcoholic drinks when you feel like it.

I wanted to provide you with a quick guide so you have the 6-low calorie alcohol drinks to reach for next time. Not all drinks are the same, there is a way to make better choices. My hope is you use this guide to make your low-calorie alcohol choices, this will guarantee you can stay on track with those health and wellness goals.

If you're looking to be healthier while drinking alcohol occasionally, these are the 6-low-calorie alcohol drinks you can choose from:

Wine: The Healthy alcohol Choice

Wine rings in at about 20 calories per ounce and does not contain any sodium or fat. The discussion around the risks and rewards around drinking wine are long and unclear on what is true or false. While there are many other promoting food and drinks out there, wine - particularly red wine - does contain several antioxidants which do play a part in helping prevent heart disease. Here is it, you ready for it? This fitness professional is going to say it. Go ahead, have a few glasses of wine each week. Get rid of the guilt around it and just enjoy the wine.

If you want to take this to the next level, here is the nutritional information for some popular wines:

WINE CARBS PER 5OZ SERVING

Hard Liquor: Not so hard on your healthy diet

Moving onto the hard stuff. Hard liquor is higher in calories per ounce when compared to wine. The kicker with hard liquor is that it is often mixed with soda, which adds to the calorie count and sugar content.
My recommendation for you if you are going to drink hard liquor is to use calorie-free mixers like diet tonic water or soda water. When you add juices, mixers or other sweeteners with your hard liquor for your favourite cocktail creations, the calorie and carb content adds up extremely quickly.

To make it easier for you to decide which hard liquor to choose, here is the nutritional information for some favorites:

HARD LIQUOR CALORIES PER 1.5OZ SERVING

Cocktail nutritional information for some favourites:

COCKTAIL CALORIES PER TYPICAL SERVING

Beer: Don’t hop into these too quickly

Have you had one of those heavy beer binge/food binge nights and wake up the next day with a headache and a sore, bloated belly? While beer is the next best choice for dieters coming in at about 150 calories for a 12-ounce glass, they add up quickly. When choosing beers, if possible opt for a light beer which will drop your calories.

Beer hack: Grab a smaller glass if pouring from a pitcher, drink slowly and have a water every now and then.

Here is the nutritional information for different types of beer:

CALORIES PER 12OZ

Liqueur - Small but strong

Where are my sweet lovers at? Liqueurs are delicious, which is the reason they usually pack the most calories per ounce. Served alone or over ice can be a great way to enjoy these drinks. Of course, adding mixers will quickly increase the calories in your drink and usually the fat content with the type of mixers/drinks you are probably making. Enjoy them, but tread lightly. No need to undo all of your hard work towards those health and wellness goals for these guys.

ALCOHOL AND MENTAL HEALTH

Short term, reaching for a drink after along day may feel like you are taking care of your sadness, anxiety, bad mood or frustration. Unfortunately, reaching for a drink is not what I recommend for you in these situation. For example, a glass of wine may help you relax but it can also contribute to the feelings of depression and anxiety. It can make stress harder to deal with, you can have a crappy sleep that night and then wake up feeling guilty about it the next day. Drinking regular interferes with our neurotransmitters (in your brain) which are needed for good mental health.

There are alternative ways to deal with stress, which we discuss in depth in the 8-week program. Reaching for a glass of wine or cracking a beer after a hard day isn’t going to benefit you long term. You are better than this. You can have the life you want, sometimes you just need a little bit of help getting there.

6-Low calorie alcohol drinks summary:

You can still lose weight and drink alcohol. Try and keep drinking to special occasions if possible.

When choosing alcohol, use these above nutritional tables to make better decisions. You can see that red wins contain the most health benefits, filled with antioxidants so opt for red wine over white wine. Consider choosing wine over beer. Darker beers over lighter coloured beer. Try to avoid mixing hard liquor and liqueur drinks because these are where you calories will add up quickly!

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