It is that time of year again … ‘Tis the season for barbeques!! Although barbeques are great for the whole family, BBQ foods can be high in saturated fat, low in fiber and packed with calories. If you are trying to maintain your shape or lose a few pounds for bikini season, don’t fret, there are so many healthy and delicious foods to substitute.

Tanya’s Tips

1) Simply grill it: With barbeques comes barbeque sauce. One tablespoon of sweet barbeque sauce has 20 calories, 4 carbohydrates and no fiber. Although this doesn’t seem like a lot of calories, who only uses 1 tablespoon of BBQ sauce? Eliminating sauces can be an easy way to cut calories.

2) Choose lean protein: Lean meats, such as chicken, fish, turkey and sirloin provide less calories, saturated fat and cholesterol than high-fat meats, such as hot dogs, and full-fat hamburger meat. One ounce of lean protein has 45-65 less calories, and 5-8 grams less fat than high-fat meat. Opt for chicken or shrimp skewers, and if your hamburger craving is a must, chose USDA Select or Choice grades of lean beef trimmed of fat, such as ground sirloin.

3) Choose whole-grain buns: Whole-grain products have more fiber than white bread. Remember, fiber is the indigestible part of carbohydrate that provides bulk without any calories. Fiber fills you up without filling you out.

4) Skip the potato and pasta salads: Traditionally-made potato and pasta salads are loaded with calories and fat. They provide excess calories in the form of carbohydrate without any fiber, which may cause drops in blood sugar, making you feel lethargic and irritable an hour after you eat them. Instead, make a big salad mixed with all your favorite veggies. Spinach and rocket lettuce are in season — or throw some sliced vegetables on the grill — asparagus is also in season and grills very nicely.

5) Choose your alcohol wisely: Alcohol is allowed on the F-Factor diet, however, some choices are better than others. So, if you want to have a drink in the shade and you are a beer-lover, try low-carb beer. Otherwise, chilled white wine is always yummy or vodka and Crystal Light tastes great, especially when it is blended with some ice!!

6) Don’t forget to hydrate: Although alcohol is allowed on the F-Factor diet, drinking in the sun can speed up the effects of alcohol. Alcohol plus sun can equal headache and dehydration. Therefore, it is important to drink adequate water when the sun is hot, especially if you are drinking alcohol. Drinking 6-8, 8 oz. glasses of water every day is great for your skin, helps regulate bowel function and will prevent dehydration, so don’t forget to DRINK UP!

F-Factor Best Bets

*On the Grill – a serving size is about 4-5 oz.

Depending on how lean the meat you buy is, this will vary. Try to get lean meat, trimmed of fat.

Instead of Potato Salad and Cole Slaw – Try this!

Tanya’s House Salad

1 bag romaine hearts (or spinach, rocket lettuce)
1 bag baby carrots
2 celery hearts
1 red pepper
1 seedless cucumber
1 box cherry tomatoes
1 14-ounce can hearts of palm
1 14-ouce can garbanzo beans
1 red onion

Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD is a nutritionist and founder of www.Skinnyandthecity.com.    She is also the creator of The F-Factor Diet™, an innovative nutritional program she has used for more than ten years to provide hundreds of her clients with all the tools they need to achieve easy weight loss and maintenance, improved health and well-being.  For more information log onto www.FFactorDiet.com.

Everyone loves a good drink.  The problem is, by indulging in common cocktails, the pounds pack on. Many drinks contain as much as 500 calories. Additionally, it’s hard to have just one drink. As one cocktail often isn’t enough, it’s important to be smart when it comes to choice of beverage. Below, you will find the best and worst cocktails while dining out — also 3 great cocktail recipes you can make at home. 

Worst:

1. Margarita:
If you’re planning on ordering that margarita you may want to think again. This one drink has about 750 calories and 56 g carbs. Substitute it for a Corazon Blanco tequila on the rocks with a splash of lime.

2. Long Island Iced Tea:
How about that Long Island Iced Tea? You may want to reconsider. A long Island Iced Tea has about 750 calories 44 g carb. Try substituting this for rum mixed with Diet Coke and topped with a slice of lime; it will save you more than 600 calories.

3. Pina Colada:
Your Pina Colada is costing you 650 calories and 90 g carbs. Instead, substitute this one with vanilla-flavored vodka and Diet Coke/Sprite, and you’ll save yourself more than 500 calories.

4. Cosmo:
Although Cosmos only have 150 calories and 10 g carbs, we all know that a Cosmo isn’t the only drink you’ll be having tonight. It may not have as many calories as the other drinks on our list, but you’ll drink this one quicker and find yourself ordering it again … and again. If you want to keep fitting into your sexy outfit, a simple solution is to order vodka with diet cranberry juice (yes, you can get diet cranberry) instead.

Best:

1. Gin and Tonic, Vodka and Tonic or Rum and Diet Coke:
It’s a three-way tie with only 65 cal per 8 oz. glass! This is because when you drink a one-ounce pour of most liquors and top them off with a non-calorie mixer, you have a drink that’s pretty low in calories, no matter what the combination. Be careful, as many places pour 1.5 ounce shots in drinks. Ask for a 1 oz. pour or a skimpy pour and you won’t pour out of the top of your jeans. Whether you choose gin, vodka, whiskey or rum, top it off with a mixer that adds nothing: club soda, Diet Coke or diet tonic waters. Make them special with infused alcohol flavors, baby splashes of juice or sugar-free syrups (though the latter two will add a few calories).

2. Mimosa:
Half champagne and half orange juice, the Mimosa is at its best when made with the freshest-squeezed juice imaginable for only 75 cal per 4 oz. champagne glass. Don’t even worry about which champagne. In all honesty, it doesn’t matter. If it makes you happy to buy the expensive stuff, by all means, knock yourself out. The rest of us will be skinny and richer.

3. Kahlua and Coffee:
The Starbucks coffee craze has gotten people thinking up crazy calorie-filled concoctions but luckily, one of the old standbys of classic cocktails can fulfill your alcohol needs and your caffeine needs with substantially less calories: 91 cal per 6 oz. Kahlua is the most famous brand of coffee-flavored liqueur, but any type will do, and the addition of coffee adds zero calories. With such a light drink, you can afford to add a bit of skim milk to make it creamy. You can enjoy this mixture in a steaming mug on a cool night, or ask your bartender to serve it iced in a tall glass. Iced Kahlua and coffee makes a stimulating slimming drink on a hot summer day, and you’ll see the results on the scale.

4. White Wine Spritzer:
Fashion models, celebrities and trendy barhoppers order spritzers when they want to cut their wine calories in half. The concept of the spritzer is simple: white wine mixed in equal proportions with club soda, but depending on the wine you use, it can be refreshingly pleasing and only 100 cal per 5 oz. glass. And while some might think it’s an atrocity to mix a nice Pinot Grigio with anything, it’s your body, and if you prefer a spritzer to a beer gut, it’s your prerogative. Make a spritzer pretty and pink with a blush wine, or add a squeeze of orange or lime juice for oomph. However many you have, it’ll be half the calories of drinking regular wine.

5. Martini:
Martinis are practically straight liquor, but shaken with ice and an aromatic splash of vermouth, they have a cocktail sensibility for 160 cal per 2.5 oz. glass. The taste can be strong for a drinker who likes more flavorful drinks, but the flavor can be enhanced with infused liquors at a cost of zero extra calories. Vanilla-flavored vodka makes a memorable martini, but if you want to be even more daring, try one of the many brands of spicy pepper-infused liquors. Garnished with a chili pepper, the heat might boost your metabolism an extra notch.

Cocktail Recipes to Try at Home:

1. Skinny White Wine Sangria
“Summer and peaches go hand in hand. Every year I hand this recipe out my patients and they love it!”

Serves 6

The Breakdown: 125 calories, 45 g of carb, 6 g of fiber

Ingredients:
-1 Bottle of Wine (Riesling, Albarino, Chablis, Gewurztraminer, Rioja, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Savignon Blanc)
-1/2 cup of Peach Schnapps
-2 peaches, sliced
-2 nectarines, sliced
-1 green apples, sliced
-1 pint of raspberries
-1/2 cup of Splenda
-.5 L of Diet Sprite

Preparation:

Pour wine and Schnapps in the pitcher and ass sliced peaches, nectarines, apples and raspberries. Next add Splenda and stir gently. Chill mixture for at least an hour. Add Diet Sprite before serving.

Serve and Enjoy!

2. Vodka with Fresh Oranges and Raspberries
“This drink recipe is super low in calories but strong in taste.”

Serves 4
The Breakdown:  150 calories, 6 g of carb, 2 g of fiber
Ingredients:
-1 cup of vodka
-1 ½ cups of Crystal Light, Orange Sunrise flavor
-½  cup fresh raspberries
-½ cup fresh oranges
-Ice, crushed

Preparation:
Blend together vodka, crystal light, fruit and ice. Pour into tall glass. Add fruit to garnish. Sip and Enjoy!

3. Van Gogh’s Garden (Image Available)
“A new favorite! This cocktail makes you feel like you’re indulging, without having to worry about packing on the pounds.”

Serves 4

The Breakdown: 125 calories, 10 g of carbohydrate, 1.5 g of fiber

Ingredients:
-Slices of cucumber
-Slices of Kiwi
-8 packets of Splenda
-1 ½ oz Lucid Absinthe
-1/2 L Club Soda

Preparation:
Muddle two slices of cucumber and two slices of kiwi with Splenda in a whiskey glass.
Fill with ice, add shot of Lucid Absinthe and top with club soda.
Garnish glass with an unpeeled kiwi slice and/or cucumber slice on the rim.

Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD is a nutritionist and founder of Skinnyandthecity.com.    She is also the creator of The F-Factor Diet™, an innovative nutritional program she has used for more than ten years to provide hundreds of her clients with all the tools they need to achieve easy weight loss and maintenance, improved health and well-being.  For more information log onto www.FFactorDiet.com.

At a time when we are all feeling the economic crunch, it is too easy to turn to comfort foods as a way to make us feel better. But this short-term pleasure can have a long-term “cost” to our health. And comfort sugars and comfort fats often sneak their way into our stomachs from what we drink as well as from what we eat.

We tend to think of diet as involving food, but it also involves drinks. Especially around holiday time, where too many beverages may contain fattening creams. Since almost two thirds of all Americans are overweight, we can ill afford these indiscretions, which can easily turn into bad habits in the new year. Being overweight puts us at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and some cancers (colon and breast).  Excess sugar is stored by the body as fat, which is not very healthy.

We are too easily fooled by the holiday spirit into drinking things that are bad for us. Take Starbucks, for example, where the number one holiday drink, the peppermint mocha, at 16 oz. has 470 calories and 22 grams of fat (13 grams are saturated). By contrast, if you order the 12 ounce non-fat version without whipped cream, it is only 220 calories and 2 grams of fat (0 grams are saturated). This is a significant difference worth remembering when you reach the Starbucks counter.

The same caution must be taken with alcoholic beverages as with coffee beverages. Hot buttered rum is 418 calories with 17 grams of fat. Eggnog, even without the liquor, is 350 calories with a whopping 19 grams of fat.

By contrast, margaritas have 400 calories but no fat. Of course, the sugar itself is bad enough. Mojitos or martinis are better calorie choices with 180 calories, and most wines are even better yet, with 80-100 calories, and vodka with 70-80 calories (without the mix).

The problem is that few of us will have just one drink around holiday time, and the more drinks we have, the more the calories build up. Sparkling cider may be an alternative, at 140 calories per 8 ounce glass, and we may be less inclined to have more than one.

Dr. Siegel’s Best Tips:

• Be aware of what you are drinking and how the calories increase with each additional drink.
• Ask your bartender (not your doctor) what he is putting in the drink you ordered, and be at least vaguely aware of the calorie count (more difficult to do the more you drink).
• I am a fan of two fisted drinking, meaning alcohol in one hand, water or seltzer in the other. Glasses of water will help you slow down the number of drinks you have while keeping you well hydrated. Water is a much better choice than coffee, which like alcohol, is a diuretic and can dry you out and worsen your hangover.

Dr. Marc Siegel is an internist and associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. He is a FOX News medical contributor and writes a health column for LA Times, where he examines TV and movies for medical accuracy. Dr. Siegel is the author of “False Alarm: The Truth about the Epidemic of Fear” and “Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic.” Read more at www.doctorsiegel.com