Drinks
Water needs to be your main beverage. Cycle coffee and tea. Have a little cream with your coffee or tea if you choose. Avoid protein drinks, sodas, and fruit juices. Adult beverages should be limited.
Water
Water is the medium that moves fluid throughout the body and is extremely important to your health. Take a container with you to work each day; so, you can consume water consistently during the day and through your work hours. We recommend adding lemon and lime to your water since it improves taste, provides vitamin C, antioxidants, flavonoids, and helps kidney function. Water should contain natural minerals. Many bottled water manufactures supply reverse osmosis water with minerals added after the reverse osmosis process. Good quality water is water from your tap that has been filtered with a carbon filter like the filters on your refrigerator and a carbon filter. Tap water that has been filtered with a carbon filter will have natural minerals and the carbon filter will take out chlorine and organics. Many plastic containers contain BPA which is a harmful chemical that can leach from the bottle into the water. The recyclable, thermoplastic bottles the manufacturers use contain BPA. We recommend that you purchase a BPA free container. Many BPA free bottles are impact, stain, and odor resistant. Good quality, BPA free containers can be found at your local retailers and online. Alternating Diet and Fitness recommends drinking approximately 1/2 gallon for a small person to 1 gallon of water for a large person per day. To give perspective many bottle water containers are 16-20 ounces; so, that would be 4 to 8 bottles of water a day. Do not drink distilled water or reverse osmosis water. Both are void of minerals and are not a proper fluid for your body. A partial distilled or partial reverse osmosis water that contains minerals would be ok.
Coffee & Tea
Coffee and Tea in the right amounts can be good for you. Coffee and tea contain stimulants, antioxidants, and polyphenols. Alternating Diet and Fitness recommends having at most 400 mg of caffeine a day or 4 cups of medium roast coffee a day or 8 cups of black tea per day. Drink coffee or tea at least 6 hours prior to sleep as caffeine stays in the body for about 6 hours and will inhibit sleep. Avoid the sugar infused coffee, but use cream and spices to flavor your coffee. Alternating Diet and Fitness recommends cycling your coffee and caffeine and not drinking any on Wednesday and Sunday. The Alternating Diet and Fitness program promotes not working out Wednesday and Sunday and these are good days to not drink coffee or tea. This allows the body to continue to get the good effects of caffeine. There is approximately 100 mg of caffeine in a cup of Arabic medium roast coffee, 100 mg of caffeine in a 30 ml shot of espresso, and about 50 mg of caffeine in a dark roast cup of coffee. A cup of black tea has about 50 mg of caffeine and a cup of green tea has about 40 mg of caffeine. Caffeine is great as a pre-workout because it is a stimulant to boost workouts and promotes defecation. The antioxidants in coffee and tea neutralize free radicals and help protect the cells. Polyphenols are prebiotics that feed the bacteria in your gut and improve gut health.
Coffee & Tea Alternatives
Organic Chicory Root and Mushroom Powder are great coffee and tea alternatives to cycle caffeine. Organic Chicory Root Powder is a great product to use as a coffee alternative when you are cycling off of caffeine. Chicory has a rich flavor and can be mixed with cream to provide for a tasty beverage. Chicory Root is prebiotic and feeds the microbiome. Other benefits of Chicory Root are digestion improvements, blood sugar regulation, and it is rich in beta-carotene. Mushroom Powder (not mixed with coffee beans) is a good coffee alternative that mixes and tastes good with cream. Mushrooms reduce inflammation, provide Vitamin D2, help cognitive function, are prebiotics, and help the body cope with stress and anxiety. Decaffeinated coffee is another alternative, but it does contain about 14 mg of caffeine per cup, so limit it to one cup. Alternating Diet and Fitness promotes Chicory Root and Mushroom Powders to help you cycle coffee, Tea, and caffeine.
Fruit Juice
Fruit juice is promoted as a healthy product because it is natural. It is a product that has removed most if not all of the fiber. As a result of removing all the fiber it creates an insulin spike because fruit juice contains a lot of sugar without the fiber to slow the sugar secretion in the body. Alternating Diet and Fitness recommends avoiding fruit juice as a result. It can be consumed on cheat day or with an adult beverage, but in moderation.
Protein Drinks
There is only so much protein the body can absorb for muscle synthesis in an hour or in a day. The standard theory is that only 1 gram of protein per lb. of body weight per day is good for maximizing muscle synthesis. If you break that up in 3 meals, which you should that is about 0.35 grams per lb. of body weight per meal. If you follow the Alternating Diet and Fitness plan you will attain enough protein per day through natural foods. Eat whole foods and good quality organic naturally fed meats to attain your protein. Alternating Diet and Fitness does not recommend protein drinks, many of which contain high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners.
Soft Drinks
Soft Drinks/Sodas whether sweetened with sugar or artificially sweetened are not recommended. There are still many questions as to the effect of artificial sweeteners on one's health. There will be more information to come on artificial sweeteners. As a point of reason for the Alternating Diet and Fitness does not recommend consuming synthetic products and artificial sweeteners are synthetic products. If you consume an adult beverage with a soft drink on cheat day, use one that does not have artificial sweeteners.
Adult Beverages
Alcohol has a dehydrative effect on the body which reduces muscle growth and cellular function. Alcohol also converts testosterone to estrogen. Wine is not a health product as some try to market. Most adult beverages contain a lot of carbohydrates. Juice and soft drinks are used as a medium for the alcohol in many cases. Alternating Diet and Fitness recommends reducing your adult beverage/alcohol intake to cheat day and limiting that intake to an enjoyment level not a drunk level. If you have a bourbon, try it with soda water on the rocks and lime.
Milk
Individuals that have issues digesting lactose should avoid milk. Milk can provide quality protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Alternating Diet and Fitness recommends fermented dairy products like cottage cheese, yogurt, and cheese. Cream is a great product that contains fats and is a great additive to coffee and tea.