don't drink your calories

this is one of the simplest and quickest ways to cut large amounts of calories from your diet, especially if you're used to drinking lots of soda, sugary juices, enormous lattes or large amounts of alcohol.  these can add huge amounts of calories into your diet and current research shows that although you're still consuming calories liquids don't trigger satiety mechanisms the way that eating solid food does.  so you get the calories without any of the fullness factor.  there isn't much room for any of the above drinks in a healthy diet, but there are lots of good alternatives to quench your thirst.  ones that i like:

1)  water.  your body needs it.  your body loves it.  if you don't yet, you should try it.  if you're not a big fan of plain water try to spice it up.  i love to squeeze lemon or lime juice into my water and add a few drops of stevia to sweeten.  you can do this with sparkling water as well and it's almost like a healthy soft drink.

2) tea.  black, green, herbal.  i drink and love them all.  green tea has gotten lots of press lately for it's high antioxidant content and ability to help boost metabolism.  once again i often sweeten with stevia because i like it, it's natural, and it's calorie free.  

3) coffee.  if you don't like it black, try swapping a latte for an americano with a few inches of steamed non-fat or 2% milk.  it obviously won't taste as rich at first but eventually your taste buds will adjust and you might find that you come to prefer it.

4) i try to stay away from juice, but sometimes i like to add a splash of pommegranate juice (an antioxidant super-power) or cranberry juice to sparkling water.  add stevia to sweeten if needed.  

anybody else got any other good drinks they'd like to share?