Lose Weight by Drinking Diet Cocktails

2 Parts:

Tips and Tricks

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A rye and diet ginger ale garnished with a lime wedge.

It is possible to lose weight drinking alcohol cocktails as long as the ingredients you are using a low in carbohydrates and sugar-free. If you can stick to this rule, you can cut a number of calories in your alcoholic calories by one-half or even more.

Here are some ideas for some cocktails that you can drink guilt-free because they are low in sugar and carbs and do not pack on the weight like some other alcoholic beverages.'

1. 1
   Make a Diet Bloody Mary

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   In a tall highball glass mix together six ounces of tomato juice with tomato juice and lemon juice and mix with a long spoon. Season with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and a dash of celery salt, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, pickle juice, freshly ground black pepper and pinch of horseradish. Garnish the drink with a lemon wedge, celery stalk, cucumber, cocktail shrimp and either green or black olive. Be aware that the less tomato juice you use and the more ice that you use, the more full of carbs this recipe will be. Each ounce of tomato juice contains one gram of carbohydrate so if you use four ounces of tomato juice instead of six you are saving yourself some carbs. If you minimize your garnishes and have only a celery stick as a garnish, you will also cut calories from your drink. Adding a protein like shrimp to your Bloody Mary garnish helps prevent sugars from the tomato juice in the cocktail from causing insulin spikes.

   

   A diet Bloody Mary.

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2. 2
   Make a Diet Cosmopolitan

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   In a chilled cocktail shaker half full of ice mix together a jigger of lemon vodka, two teaspoons of thawed frozen unsweetened cranberry juice, two tablespoons of distilled water, a tablespoon of fresh lime juice and two drops of orange extract. Shake well and pour it into a martini glass. Garnish with a curled lime peel and frozen cranberries. Making a cosmopolitan (cosmo for short) this way cuts four teaspoons of sugar and 16 grams of carbohydrates from the regular version of the drink.

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3. 3
   Make a Diet Margarita

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   Wet the rim of a margarita glass with lime or lemon juice and dip it into some fine Himalayan salt or similar type of gourmet salt. In a cocktail shaker, combine one jigger of tequila, two tablespoons of freshly squeezed lime juice, two drops of orange extract, one tablespoon of stevia or Truvia and a handful of ice. Shake until well blended and pour the liquid into a cocktail glass filled with ice. Serve this diet alcoholic drink with a wedge of fresh organic lemon. This recipe cuts the sugar that would normally be part of the simple syrup in this recipe. Using an artificial sweetener instead of the sugar syrup cuts about 60 calories from this drink.

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4. 4
   Make a Diet Mojito

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   Crush eight to ten mint leaves with a mortar and pestle or the flat back of a large metal spoon and put the mashed leaves into a chilled highball glass filled with ice cubes and a teaspoon of artificial sweetener, Truvia or stevia. Muddle the ingredients together with a small spoon and squeeze the juice of a whole organic lime into the glass. Add one jigger of white rum and then top the drink off with more ice cubes and club soda to fill the glass. Garnish the rim with lime peel or a wedge of lime if you like. Cutting the tablespoon of white cane sugar or brown cane sugar that is usually used in this drink will eliminate about 30 calories from this traditional cocktail.

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5. 5
   Make a Diet Pina Colada

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   In a blender puree together one jigger of rum, five tablespoons of coconut milk, four tablespoons of sugar-free pineapple syrup, three drops of stevia (or vanilla flavored stevia, which has a bit of a coconut taste) and one cup of ice. Blend all of the ingredients together and then pour the resulting thick liquid into a tall chilled glass. Garnish the rim with a fresh pineapple chunk and a banana slice on a toothpick spear. This drink is usually made with coconut cream, which is very sweet and full of carbs. Using coconut milk instead, strips about 350 calories from the drink. Using sugar-free pineapple syrup, such as the one made by Da Vinci Sugar-Free Pineapple Syrup cuts about 100 more calories from the traditional pina colada recipe.

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6. 6
   Make a Diet Strawberry Daquiri

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   In a blender, mix together half a cup of frozen strawberries, one tablespoon of lime juice, a jigger of white rum, a teaspoon of Truvia or stevia and a bit more ice. Whirl it all together until frosty and garnish with fresh strawberries and mint. The traditional recipe has at least 100 grams of sugar in it and if you use the ready-made packets of instant Daiquiri mix, hormone disrupting additives and dyes that can cause weight gain.

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7. 7
   Make a Diet Tom Collins

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   In a tall glass filled with ice cubes, mix together 1 jigger of gin with 1 jigger of freshly squeezed lemon juice and two drops of liquid stevia or liquid sucralose. Top with club soda and use a lemon slice and a frozen sweet or tart cherry for a garnish. Note that you can also make this drink using vodka or rum. Traditionally it is made with a lime sour mix, which can add at least three grams of sugar to the beverage, but this diet version has next to no calories.

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8. 8
   Make a Diet Whiskey Sour

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   In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine one jigger of bourbon, one jigger of freshly squeezed lemon juice, one jigger of spring water and two drops of liquid stevia. Shake the ingredients well and pour it into a glass full of ice. Garnish the drink with a thin lemon, lime or orange slice. Traditionally this drink recipe uses a powdered or bottled whiskey sour mix which can be between 25 and 60 calories depending on which brand that you use. If you use a commercial lemon/lime or sour mix, the sugar content of the Whiskey Sour skyrockets to being 6 grams or more. This diet version of a Whiskey Sour has almost no calories except for the five or so in the squeezed lemon and no sugar.

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9. 9
   Make a Diet White Russian

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   In a short cocktail glass filled with ice mix together one jigger of vodka, one jigger of whole fat heavy cream and one jigger of Da Vinci's Sugar-Free Kahlua-Flavored Syrup. You can garnish it with a wedge of bitter chocolate or chocolate shavings if you like. Normally this cocktail would be made with Kahlua and be worth about 270 calories and have 16 grams of sugar. This version also cuts the cream content in the White Russian by about two-thirds bringing it down from 300 calories to 100 per cocktail. The cream is also a source of protein which prevents you from getting drunk too fast, a condition that often leads to a craving for high-sodium snack foods.

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10. 10
    Make a Diet Grasshopper cocktail

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    In a blender, mix together one jigger of Smirnoff Peppermint Twist, one jigger of Torani or Da Vinci Sugar-Free Chocolate Syrup, and one jigger of whole fat heavy cream with a cup of ice. Blend until smooth and frosty, pour into a tall glass and top with raw chocolate shavings and serve. This recipe traditionally uses Kahlua or crème de cacao, and by using sugar-free syrup instead, there are 100 and 350 calories cut from this recipe. Yet, another 100 calories are eliminated from this minty drink by using Smirnoff Peppermint Twist Vodka instead of the usual sugary crème de menthe. The drink can easily be served with no calories, thus saving you, even more, calories.

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A jigger of gin.

• A jigger is a common bar term used to describe an ounce and a half of liquid
• Two tablespoons of a liquid is usually equally to one ounce and ¼ of a cup is usually equal to four tablespoons of a liquid
• Watered down juice that is freshly squeezed is best for cocktails calling for fruit juice as it can help reduce the glycemic impact on your blood sugar
• Use fresh or frozen ingredients as a garnish whenever possible and forgo ones that are packed in sugary, calorie-laden syrups.
• Use cherries packed in syrup rather than bright pink maraschino cherries and maraschino syrup because maraschinos are very high in sugar and packed with additives and food colorings that disrupt hormones and cause weight gain
• Gin, vodka, tequila, whiskey, and rum have no carbohydrates and can be sipped neat with no risk of weight gain
• Mixing hard liquor with a diet tonic, such as a gin and diet tonic, usually results in a cocktail with no carbs, no sugar, and very few calories
• Using a flavor-infused spirit, such as orange-flavored vodka can help you to cut down on the use of sugary syrups and sweet liqueurs in your cocktails
• Avoid using super sweet liqueurs in your cocktails, like grand Marnier, Kahlua or peppermint schnapps and instead use a drop or two of an orange, chocolate or peppermint extract and a pinch of stevia
• Use dry vermouth instead of a sweet one in your cocktails and you will cut three grams of carbs per ounce of vermouth used from your drink
• Avoid mixing your drinks with citrus fruit juices, such as orange juice, which usually have 2 to 3 grams of sugar per ounce.
• Fresh juices that have the highest amount of carbs and that should be avoided are pineapple and cranberry juice cocktail, at two grams an ounce
• Tomato juice is the least sweet of cocktail mixers to use at only one gram of sugar per ounce
• If you are worried about the glycemic impact of a cocktail drink it along with crackers and a bit of cheese to slow its progression into your bloodstream
• Instead of making simple syrup with sugar (made from equal parts of boiled down sugar and water) make it with an artificial sweetener and save yourself from consuming about 400 calories per cocktail
• Make a sugar-free sweet and sour cocktail mix to use in cocktails with half lemon or lime juice to half of the same measure of artificial sweetener or stevia
• Use Crystal Light lemon or lime flavor or lemon/lime flavor to make your own sweet and sour mixer, as the sucralose sweetener it is made of does not add calories
• Some pre-made syrup companies, such as Torino and D Vinci sell sugar-free syrups that can be used as you would use a regular commercial syrup in a cocktail and many of them come in the flavors of popular liquors such as Bailey's Irish Cream, Crème de Menthe, Cointreau, Amaretto and Kahlua
• You can cut five grams of carbs simply by not adding Aromatic Bitters to your cocktails and instead add just a touch of a flavored liquid stevia, which has no carbs or sugar
• Freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice usually tastes better than the bottled concentrated lime and lemon juices
• Be aware that the carbs in coconut milk can vary widely from brand to brand and that it is very important to read the nutrition labels to make sure that you are buying a lower carb version

If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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