Liquid Calories

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

So every month when I go to my nutrition appointment, we talk about a different topic that relates to life after the surgery. This last month, the topic was Liquid Calories.

Did you know that drinks such as coffee, energy drinks, juices, flavored waters, sweet teas, soda, alcohol, and milk are the LARGEST single source of calories in the American diet?! You don't even really think about the calories that come from these things because you aren't drinking them. Sure, everyone knows that soda is bad and has a ton of sugar, and that a Frappuccino from Starbucks isn't the healthiest thing on the planet, but you don't really think about the calories and sugar content associated with things like fruit juice, or even just a cup of black coffee.

Growing up in Seattle, it's pretty much mandatory that you drink coffee. I have always been somewhat of a coffee snob. I'm not a huge fan of the taste of coffee, so if I drink it (and let's face it why wouldn't I drink it?) it always has to be flavored so much that I can't taste the actual coffee.

 I've never been a huge breakfast eater either. I'm not a fan of breakfast foods in general, and usually just am not that hungry first thing in the morning. Breakfast is usually my most skipped meal. And let's face it. If I can sleep an extra 30 minutes and grab something quick to eat on my way to work, I would much rather do that! So, on my way to work every morning, I would usually pull in to Starbucks and get a Venti Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino with no whip (too many calories), and a bacon gouda breakfast sandwich.

The drink alone is 430 calories and 77 grams of sugar! To put that amount of sugar into perspective, 8 scoops of Coffee Ice Cream is 95 grams of sugar! I was drinking almost 7 scoops of Coffee Ice Cream worth of sugar every morning! Add to this the 350 calories from the breakfast sandwich, and I was consuming 780 calories first thing in the morning! That's more than half of my current daily limit!

Now, I'm DEFINATELY not advocating no coffee. Let's be real! It's just not possible to live a caffeine free life in my world. But, it is possible to live in a low calorie world that has caffeine in it. What I have switched to is something so much better.

Every morning, I go to my neighborhood coffee shop and get 3 shots of espresso over ice in a 20 oz cup. Three shots of espresso is 9 calories. I then pour a Premier Protein Vanilla shake over the coffee. The result is an iced coffee beverage that tastes similar to coffee with French Vanilla creamer in it, but all for a total of 169 calories, 30 grams of protein, and 1 gram of sugar! Not only does this satisfy my caffeine fix for the day, but I get the protein from the shake to help sustain me for a few hours, and as an added bonus my bank account feels much better about this change. I went from spending close to $10.00 a day to spending $2.65 for the espresso shots, and once the espresso machine that I ordered for forty bucks on amazon.com arrives, that number will disappear altogether.

Premier Protein shakes are something that I have consumed for years. I love this product and how versatile it is, and it has only gotten better over the past year. One of my favorite things to do is to use the vanilla shake as the base for a smoothie and blend it with blueberries, strawberries, and half a frozen banana. The chocolate and strawberry shakes are great just by themselves. Their new smoothie flavor of mixed berry is really good as well!

Here is a link to their website, so you can find out where they are sold in your area:
http://www.premierprotein.com/

Enjoy!
Jenelle