Making San Pellegrino a treat again

I love San Pelligrino. My favourite flavour is this one. I like it mixed with orange juice and ice too.

People often treat it as the healthy alternative to pop. See here.
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While it’s true it’s just 80 calories, its also true that those calories are all sugar, 19 grams of it. I don’t think sugar is evil. See here and here. But I like my sugar in the form of yummy desserts. I’ve taken to drinking it weeknights and bringing it for lunch sometimes but I don’t think that’s a habit I want to keep up.

But what’s the right comparison? What’s the alternative?

When I did the Precision Nutrition program a few years ago one of the healthy habits I picked up was no liquid calories. Now I’m not recommending this to others. I’m not offering a prescription for anything here. You do you, as the kids say. But I am reflecting on how that habit felt for me.

How’d that work out, the no liquid calories thing? What were the changes I had to make?

Alcohol: Most people doing PN struggled with alcohol and empty calories. Pretty much all the perimenopausal and menopausal women concluded you can’t meet your nutritional needs, eat a reasonable amount of calories, and drink alcohol. Alcohol tips you over into the excess calorie category, they claimed. I don’t know if that’s true but I did hear a lot of whining about wine.

Luckily I don’t drink. And in the end the sub group of coaching clients I bonded with were athletic, vegan, and sober.

Pop: Diet Coke is my go to bar beverage and drive thru drink. Both are rare occurrences in my life. No sacrifices there either.

Coffee: I struggled a bit here since my preferred drink is a latte or flat white. Milk isn’t zero calories. But since I was aspiring vegan anyway, I used this as an opportunity to switch to Americanos. I realized a few years ago that the only reason I drank milk in my coffee was to moderate the temperature. But ice cubes work well for that too. Thanks Rob for teaching me that trick.

Here’s Men’s Health making the pitch for black coffee.

I do drink tea but it’s either green or mint and that’s another zero calorie drink.

Festive beverages: But what about a treat? When other people are drinking alcohol with a meal? That’s when I’ve been drinking San Pellegrino. I like sparkling water. But it doesn’t feel festive. Might be time to break out the kamboucha again! It’s even fizzy in the way that I like. See What the hell is kombucha? and Sam tried Kombucha and she liked it!

Likely I’ll keep the San Pell around for fun occasions and move to plain sparkling water on regular nights.

What’s your go to drink for fun and festivity?