Keto-Friendly Alcohol Choices for New Year's Eve

Keto-Friendly Alcohol Choices for New Year's Eve

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Rebecca Hannifan [00:00:00]:

If I wanna go to a New Year's Eve party, are there any kind of overarching considerations? Yes. What kind of drinks should I lean toward? What can you drink without really wrecking your diet and getting off track? So before we get into the specifics Want a simple way to cut carbs without complicated meal prep? Grab our free fast start to keto kit today. I wanted to take just a few minutes to talk about maybe what your plans for New Year's Eve are. Now we have talked over the last several weeks about the strategies for getting through the holidays, ways to prepare for holiday parties. What kind of foods that you want to avoid? What kind of foods you want to kinda lean to and really dig in with? But we haven't really talked about drinks other than ketones, which, you all know, I love my ketones so much. Yes. Ketones, amazing option. Yes.

Rebecca Hannifan [00:00:47]:

Water, an amazing option. But I'm gonna guess that some of you may want something a little bit stronger and a little bit different than water or ketones. 1st and foremost, want to encourage you, if you're drinking, make sure you have a plan for driving. Have a designated driver, plan to Uber or Lyft or use another ride share program, get a taxi. Maybe just go to a hotel party where the party is there and then you stay there and don't have to get out on the road. So if you choose to drink, make sure you choose to drink responsibly. Now as far as choices among the different alcohols, are there any kind of overarching considerations? Yes. So before we get into the specifics, make sure you stay tuned to the end, and I'll tell you what to drink and what to avoid.

Rebecca Hannifan [00:01:28]:

But kind of some general overview things that you need to know. 1, If you're following a keto diet, you need to understand that alcohol may affect you differently than it did before you were keto. You probably won't have as much of a tolerance. So you just need to be aware of that in choosing the alcohol that you drink, when you drink, and how much, it can really affect you differently. Also, if you are a faster, know that if you go into a party on an empty stomach and you start drinking alcohol, that can also affect you a little more quickly and a little more severely, if you don't have any food on your stomach to slow the absorption. So just be mindful of those things. The other thing that we always need to consider is drinking alcohol, as you know, lowers your inhibitions. It also might lead you to get the munchies and to maybe not have as much restraint as far as what you're eating and how much you're eating. So just know if you're gonna be drinking alcohol, it may also lead you to make poorer choices as far as what you eat and how much and when.

Rebecca Hannifan [00:02:26]:

So just kinda knowing that, maybe eat a good healthy low carb meal before you go to your party so you have some food on your stomach. And then I think it's always a good idea, of course, to moderate what you're gonna drink if you're choosing to drink alcohol. But if you're drinking at a party, maybe alternate a glass of wine with a glass or 2 of water before you have a second drink if you're going to choose to have more than 1. But you do need to realize that it can impact your food decisions as well as the calories that you're consuming from alcohol. I consider calories from alcohol kind of like calories from soda. They're just kinda empty calories. It's not like they're really doing any good for you. It's not like it's providing nutrients that you really need. So to me, I consider those just empty calories, so you wanna plan for those accordingly.

Rebecca Hannifan [00:03:10]:

Now it's New Year's Eve. You wanna have a good time, drink and do it responsibly. Have at it. Have a great time. I'm all about celebrations. I'm all about giving yourself some slack around the holidays, so I don't want you to take this as, nodding a finger at you at at all. Just kinda know, "Hey. If I'm gonna be drinking, I'm probably not gonna make the best food choices."

Rebecca Hannifan [00:03:28]:

Maybe I should, like, clean up my diet a few days before and be a little more strict a few days after just to kind of balance out your excess drinking, your excess eating. Getting into actually what should I drink, Rebecca? If I wanna drink some alcohol, what are some choices that are better and maybe not so good? Not so good choices like beer. It's really high in carbs. Now there are lower carb options now. So if you want beer, make sure you choose a lower carb option. Wine is generally better than beer. If you look into Dry Farm wine, that's wine that is farmed without irrigation. They tend to be lower in carb and low in sulfites.

Rebecca Hannifan [00:04:03]:

Sulfites might be why you get a wine headache afterwards. There's a company called Dry Farms Wine. They have lower carb, keto friendly wines, so that's a great option. But that's something that you've got to get an order in. So probably a little late for this year, but something you can keep in mind for your wine choices. Your basic spirits, they don't have any carbs in them. Now they still have calories. And, as I explained, they're kind of empty calories, but that would be something like bourbon, rum, vodka, gin, those kinds of, like, just straight liquors.

Rebecca Hannifan [00:04:32]:

Now you do have to watch out because I know that at least with rum and maybe vodka and some of the other ones, sometimes they have flavored versions of those alcohols, and you have to be careful that some of those flavorings might be adding some carbs in. So just know that going in.Now the problem with those is most people don't just tend to drink those straight up. They tend to mix them with something, and the mixes generally are where the sugar bombs come in. So if you are thinking about a frozen drink or a mixed drink with lots of different liquors and then some syrups or some juices, that's where those carbs can really add up. So if you're choosing, you might wanna choose a wine and maybe a lower carb beer or spirits, liquors without the sugary mixers. So even though I'm not a fan of diet sodas, having a diet soda with rum, that to me is a much better choice than a mixed drink with a whole lot of syrups or a lot of juices. If you drink the Zevia brand, I know there are some other brands, too.

Rebecca Hannifan [00:05:31]:

Zevia is the one that my husband and I like. They make really good canned carbonated drinks, And they they make ones that taste like cola. They make ones that taste like lemon lime. They have grape. They have cream soda. They have lots of variations. And those are made with Stevia and may not have any carbs, so those would be a great thing. You're going to a house party and you can bring those bring those as your own mixers.

Rebecca Hannifan [00:05:53]:

Now if you're out and about, I'm guessing most bars aren't gonna have that, so diet soda might be your better option. But it's really those mixed drinks that can get real dangerous real quick. And, yes. There are dangers to alcohol, but I'm talking about as far as carbs or sugar overload. It's mixing with a lot of the syrups and the fruit juices that can really add up your carb content.Making responsible choices, you can have a great holiday and not wreck your keto or low carb lifestyle. So hope this helps. If you have any suggestions as far as specific brands. or what you like to do for a low carb drink and you wanna add those to the comments, that would be amazing.

Rebecca Hannifan [00:06:27]:

Have a safe and happy New Year, and thanks for watching.