Oh crap, this is a tricky situation….
…My friends are going out tonight and most likely we’ll all be drinking…
…I love doing that…
…it’s tons of fun!…
…but I’ve been eating SO WELL these last few days and I don’t want to blow it!
Those are typical thoughts I had during this Getting A Six-Pack Experiment….what’s worse is I live Downtown now, so 6th Street and literally 200+ bars are all within a two minute walk (or stumble) from here.
To Drink?
or…
Not To Drink?
Well like any normal human being I like to have my cake and eat it too….so I’ve found a pleasing compromise by doing a little research:
BEFORE WHEN I WAS DUMB AND IGNORANT:
….a big night of drinking starting at 10PM and going till 3AM could involve:
- Eating a decent sized (but not too big) meal to make sure I don’t get hit by the liquor too quickly.
- One Blue Moon beer
- A mixed shot from bar with all sorts of sweeteners
- One Dos Equis beer
- One rum and Coke
- One vodka and Red Bull
- One vodka and Red Bull
- One Irish Car Bomb (Guiness beer + a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream and quick chug)
- One vodka and Red Bull
- One Rum and Coke
- One Blue Moon beer
- After all the drinking naturally most of crave REALLY HEAVY FOOD, and I’m no different. I’ll usually go out for street food and get two giant slices of pizza or a giant bratwurst sausage loaded with sauerkraut and all the condiments.
Now this seems excessive, but over a 5 hour span this is probably LESS than most people drink on a crazy night….technically that’s only 2 drinks per hour which doesn’t seem like much. This would just keep a person in a relatively buzzed but not-overly-drunk state (depending on who you are).
Now let’s do some quick math with this same night:
- Eating a decent sized (but not too big) meal to make sure I don’t get hit by the liquor too quickly. (Chips + queso + quesedilla) 800 calories (and I’m being conservative on that one)
- One Blue Moon beer (171 calories)
- A mixed shot from bar with all sorts of sweeteners (120 calories)
- One Dos Equis beer (130 calories)
- One rum and Coke (182 calories)
- One vodka and Red Bull (177 calories)
- One vodka and Red Bull (177 calories)
- One Irish Car Bomb (Guinness beer + a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream and quick chug) (237 calories)
- One vodka and Red Bull (177 calories)
- One Rum and Coke (182 calories)
- One Blue Moon beer (171 calories)
- After all the drinking naturally most of crave REALLY HEAVY FOOD, and I’m no different. I’ll usually go out for street food and get two giant slices of pizza or a giant bratwurst sausage loaded with sauerkraut and all the condiments. (I’d say each slice is 400-500 calories…for a VERY CONSERVATIVE total of 850 calories).
Oh…my….god. I don’t even want to do the math because I’m scared.
Calories from drinks: 1,724
Calories from drinking-related foods: 1,650
Total Calories from a night out: 3,374
HOLY…FREAKIN’….CRAP.
That figure doesn’t even include what you ate before that night out, or what fatty-ass foods you’ll eat when you wake up hungry for heavy foods (which alcohol tends to do).
To give you some perspective, a person like me is supposed to eat 2,000 calories per day at MOST unless there’s some insane amount of working out you do.
Currently during this experiment I’m only taking in 800 to 1,300 calories PER DAY….but on a drinking night out I might take in 3,000+ calories in a few hours!!! Is this blowing your mind yet!?!?!
No wonder people get so damn fat from years of drinking! It loads you up with empty calories that DON’T make you full or give you any nutritional value, plus it ALSO makes you hungry for super heavy foods. Double whammy.
NOW THAT I’M EDUCATED AND ENLIGHTENED:
….I’ve found a cure to get rid of all those calories:
Don’t drink. Simple.
..
….
…….
……….
…………..
HAHAHAHAHA!! Yea right! We’re trying to have our cake and drink it too!
So after my research I’ve come upon the drinks that have the fewest calories:
- Unflavored and clear vodka’s, rums, gins etc. If it’s clear and unflavored, it’s in the 90 to 110 calorie range. Each shot is considered (1.5 oz)
- Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Light….anything “Light” has around 110 calories.
- Club soda. If you NEED a mixer for that vodka, either get water or club soda….NOT tonic water (it’s the same amount of calories as a soft drink).
Well…those are the lowest calorie things I could find. Anything with flavoring or color in it has other additives that add calories and sugar or other crap. So I decided for this experiment that if I was going to drink, it’d be either straight vodka or rum (possibly with club soda) or “Light” beers.
Ok, so that sounds pretty boring, and like my get a cool plate post, I want to encourage you to make a cool drink!
So I started making these vodka and fruit concoctions I’ve affectionately termed as “Vodka Salad”.
I simply start by taking a fun glass and filling it with 1 shot (1.5 oz) of vodka:
Then I do what seems gross but actually tastes great and tear up a clementine and dump it inside the vodka:
I even squeeze some of the clementine pieces so they leak their juices into the vodka for taste. You can add ice or water as filler. You end up getting a great tasting, low calorie, nutritious, and cool-looking drink!
What’s even more cool is you get “Vodka Candy Pieces” when you eat the fruit!
I add all sorts of things into the drinks when I’m at home, one of my favorite fillers is grapes:
So far these Vodka Salad’s are what I’ve been drinking at home if we have a party. At first people are like, “Ummm, WHAT are you doing?” Then pretty soon they’re saying, “Ummm, can I have some of that fruit…please?” as they pick vodka-infused fruit from my glass like candy.
If you’re going to drink while trying to lose weight, I’d suggest follow these few quick tips:
- Compensate for drinking at night by eating very low calorie through the day.
- For liquor: Drink clear and unflavored vodka, rum or gin.
- For beer: Stick to anything with “Light” in the name.
- Skip that late night meal.
- Load your drinks with fruit if possible.
Bottoms up!
-Neville