Admit it, your Thanksgiving was spectacular. Even though you would rather drink laundry detergent than torture yourself with another slice of Aunt Jane’s mince meat pie; or I don’t know, listen to a Britney Spears album rather than listen to your dad tell the same story of how he caught three touchdown passes in a high school game (30 years ago), it’s still great to come home.
While I was home last week, I had the opportunity to train with my brother and a few of his friends at their gym. It wasn’t more than a few weeks ago where I was talking to my mom on the phone and she had mentioned to me that my brother had joined a gym and was excited for me to come home so that I could help him out a bit. You see, despite being a two sport athlete in high school, and working a relatively active job now, my brother has never really been a “gym rat,” and you can imagine my surprise (and joy) when I found out that he was starting to train with his friends on a consistent basis.
A few weeks ago, I talked to him on the phone and he had mentioned to me that he wasn’t losing any weight. Normally I don’t worry about scale weight with people, but in my brother’s case, he needs to lose some weight and he has been perplexed as to why he hasn’t lost any despite training everyday with his friends.
When I arrived home last week, we sat down for awhile and discussed his eating habits. While he made some vast improvements with his diet, come to find out, he was still drinking three Powerade’s a day:
One of the first rules I tell people to follow when trying to “clean up” their diet is to eliminate ALL calorie containing beverages (alcohol, soda, fruit juice, Starbucks, and sports drinks).
One look at the nutritional label for a Powerade, and you find the following:
Serving Size: 1 cup (8 fl. oz)
Servings Per Bottle: 4
Total Calories: 68
Protein: 0
Fat: 0
Carbohydrates: 17 grams (Sugar: 15 grams)
Each bottle of PowerAde he has been drinking contains roughly 270 calories and 60 grams of sugar. Remember however, that he has been drinking THREE per day, which equates to 810 calories and 180 grams of sugar PER DAY. No wonder he hasn’t been losing any weight! This just proves my point that you will never out train a poor diet.
After hitting him upside his head, I instructed my brother that under no circumstances is he to drink anymore PowerAde. Ever. Unless of course, Jessica Alba herself knocks on his door one day while wearing a bathing suit and just so happens to be holding a Powerade in each hand. One for her. And one for my brother to sip while serving as Jessica’s personal “oil boy” during one of her photo shoots.
Dude, that could totally be a commercial. You owe me Powerade advertising executives.
