I want to talk about what you shouldn't be drinking if you're trying to build muscle, burn fat, and live healthy.
Let's get straight to it…
Processed fruit juices filled with sugar, vitamin water filled with sugar, gatorade, and other sugary drinks are no good at all.
If you use a juicer and make your own drinks from fruits and veggies…
That is great BUT most juices you find at the grocery are no good for you at all.
There is one time you can drink sugary drinks and that is first thing before, during, or after a weight lifting workout.
But, I'd rather you choose some better options that you'll learn about within the diet and nutrition section of this site.
What About The All-Important Coffee?
Coffee should be kept to an absolute minimum. You do not need coffee every morning!
I know this is going to be tough for some of you, but just get over it and stop relying on coffee to wake up in the morning. There are no excuses! Just do it.
Stop telling yourself that you MUST HAVE coffee. Really? You're not going to die without coffee.
I don't need coffee to wake up every morning.
Millions of other people don't need coffee to wake up in the morning. Why do you need coffee to wake up in the morning?
You don't! You just think you do.
A huge part of this program includes becoming mentally strong in every aspect of your life. Start with getting rid of coffee from your morning routine.
Coffee is packed with caffeine and is very addictive. When you stop drinking so much caffeine, you will get headaches and more. This should tell you that caffeine isn't good for the body in huge doses every day.
Caffeine is okay for increased focus and energy before a workout, and that's about it!
FACT: Did you know coffee is a natural pesticide? It's true.
So, if you have to have coffee, just have a cup before your workout. And you'll be fine. Just remember, you don't need coffee!
If you aren't drinking it all the time, 2 to 3 times per week before a workout will give you increased energy. If you drink it all the time, it's effect on you is next to nothing.
What About Milk?
The BEST milk to drink is raw milk straight from the cow. If you can find raw milk in your area, I highly recommend it.
I do not recommend pasteurized and homogenized milk that you find in grocery stores and pretty much any other store.
Most raw milk is illegal to sale in the United States so you have to buy shares of real milk cows. If you own shares of the actual cows, you can get their raw milk legally.
The government believes that raw milk can be dangerous, but that's really not the whole truth.
The milk you find in grocery stores is loaded with stuff that's very bad for you.
If you can't find raw milk, I wouldn't bother drinking milk at all.
Alcohol is Your Enemy
Another liquid you need to minimize intake of is the all powerful and popular alcohol. Before I say anything else, you need to realize that alcohol is a poison to the body.
Let me say it again… alcohol is poison.
Sure, you can have some fun with alcohol, but alcohol does not help you in any way.
You will never hear me tell you to not have some fun in your life. You can have fun without getting so drunk that you can't walk, you're throwing up, and it takes you 3 days to recover from one night of drinking. There's no need for that!
I've seen too many people absolutely destroy their bodies with excessive alcohol use. And they don't even care! They wonder why their health is so bad…
They drink alcohol every day and wonder why they feel so bad and tired all the time. Alcohol is a poison to the body — that's why!
If you have to drink alcohol one night, have a few drinks and have some fun. Limit those nights of drinking. Your results will be much, much better without alcohol.
Always have fun in life, and that means to not drink so much that you get out of control. And never drink and drive. Never take that chance — you could take your life and other very important lives with you.
Have fun but stay in control of your life.
Don't forget that alcohol has calories too! If you drink, you are wasting those calories! Alcohol contains empty calories which means your body gets no benefit from those calories.
You must count those calories towards your daily intakes.
A few drinks (wine) may even be good for your health, but you will definitely be taking some huge steps backward if you drink much more than that. All the hard work goes straight down the drain.
I don't know about you, but I'm not wasting all of my hard work on alcohol.
Before you write me off and ignore my advice on alcohol, just take a quick look at what alcohol can do to your body and your results:
- Alcohol is poison to the body and must be metabolized as quickly as possible. Fat burning and muscle building will never take priority over getting rid of poison in your body.
- If you drink, you will not be burning fat or building muscle until the alcohol is completely gone from your body.
- Alcohol greatly decreases your natural production of testosterone. Testosterone is one of the primary hormones for increasing muscle mass. If you want to build muscle and burn fat, you definitely don't want to take a chance with alcohol.
- The over consumption of alcohol leads to so many health problems: high blood pressure, heart disease, liver disease, cancer, stroke, increased risk of breast cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, and even constipation. If this doesn't make you want to slow down on the drinking, I'm really not sure will. Don't wait until it's too late!
- If you've ever had a hangover before, you'll know that you just don't feel like exercising and eating healthy. It's better to not drink so you don't have to fight this. Your workouts will suffer and your diet will suffer!
- While your body is getting rid of alcohol, extra calories consumed will simply be stored as fat. Your body doesn't have the time or resources available to utilize the calories properly. The poison takes priority, and the extra calories are stored as fat.
- Alcohol will stop the body from absorbing important nutrients. Thiamin, Vitamin B, Niacin, and even Zinc levels will be greatly reduced when you drink alcohol.
- Alcohol leads to dehydration. And you've already learned what dehydration does to your body! If you weren't paying attention, let's just say that dehydration has devastating effects.
- More than one or two alcoholic drinks a week promote aging. Who wants to get older faster? It already sucks to get older. Let's not get older faster!
- One or two drinks can promote feelings of relaxation while more than that can promote aggression, anxiety, and depression. It's not fun when you don't even remember what you did while you were drunk. You can seriously harm someone and never know. That's not the definition of fun.
- Alcohol irritates the stomach, causes heartburn, ulcers, and even cancer. How does cancer of the stomach, esophagus, intestines, and mouth sound? Not too great, huh? The liver can be completely destroyed by alcohol.
- If you aren't influenced by any of the above, maybe this will do the trick. The use of alcohol in both men and women decreases sexual performance. I don't think anyone wants that.
- Drinking alcohol while pregnant causes permanent organ and tissue damage to your child. If a woman is pregnant and continues to drink, I personally think that woman should be locked away forever — there's nothing more important than an innocent baby.
- You'll get sickness such as colds and the flu much easier when you drink too much alcohol on a regular basis. Your immune system is weakened by alcohol.
- Your sleep will suffer. Your body repairs itself during sleep and this includes building muscle. You must have sleep to build muscle, burn fat, and be healthy.
Don't Let Others Pressure You — Be Strong and Be Your Own Person
Do your friends pressure you to drink? Don't fall into that trap. You live your life. Don't let your friends live your life.
You do what's best for you, and you try to help them do what's best for them because you care about them.
There's no reason to drink alcohol day in and day out or every weekend. Give it a break. Share with them some of the dangers of alcohol. If they don't want to listen, make them listen.
You don't have to cut alcohol completely out, but you do need to drink very responsibly. And for most of you that drink to have fun, this means a few drinks aren't going to get you drunk! So, why drink at all?
You don't need alcohol.
If you want to make the best progress of your life in terms of building muscle and burning fat, you definitely want to stop drinking alcohol completely. If you want to live a long and healthy life for your family and friends, don't drink!
I hope you see how large the list above happens to be. And there's more! You don't want all those bad things happening to you… right?
What About Energy Drinks?
We've got one more drink that we need to talk about and that drink is the energy drink.
From here on out, I want you to cut energy drinks completely out.
Energy drinks are filled with sugar and should never be consumed at any time during the day.
I see people drinking energy drinks all day long. Energy drinks are filled with caffeine. You've already learned about caffeine, so I won't go into those dangers again.
Just be sure to limit your total caffeine intake throughout the day. Don't have a few cups of coffee in the morning, an energy drink at lunch with more caffeine, and then another energy drink later in the day.
On top of that, you might add green tea and even more caffeine. Limit the caffeine, and you'll be fine.
Caffeine could be killing you.
The best fluid you can drink is water. When you're faced with a decision, always choose water over anything else. Water is THE most important nutrient to your body.
Always go with water above anything else.
Fruit Juices
Most fruit juices you find at the typical grocery store are complete trash. Those fruit juices are not healthy at all. Not even close. If you make your own fruit juices, this is much better BUT you still don’t want to drink so much concentrated sugar very often.
A real cup of fruit juice before and after workouts is okay, but remember you will be drinking a huge amount of concentrated sugar which is never a great thing. I would rather you eat the actual fruit than get accustomed to drinking so much fruit juice.
Soft Drinks or Sodas of Any Type
Regular soda or diet soda is not allowed at all when using the WLC System. Sodas are trash. Get rid of them completely. There are so many drawbacks that I could write an entire book on the subject. Let’s just make it easy and forget about sodas.
Sweet Tea
Tea is very good for you, but not when you add heaps of sugar. Sweet tea with sugar or any other sweetener is not good for you. I personally do not even recommend stevia as a natural sweetener. I just don’t trust sweeteners at all. What’s wrong with regular tea? Nothing! If you have tea, have it straight with no sweetener.
Sugary Lemonade
Again, sugar doesn’t work when using the WLC System. You don’t need ANY drinks filled with a huge amount of concentrated sugars. Real lemonade made from lemons with no sweeteners is very good for you.
Milkshakes
I doubt I really have to list milkshakes as you should know that you can’t have these. But, I thought I would throw this in here just in case you try to get sneaky on me. Now you know for sure that you can’t have milkshakes.
Sports Drinks
Drinks like Gatorade and Powerade are not allowed when using the WLC System. You don’t need these drinks at all because they are filled with simple sugars. I believe you see the theme here. You can’t have any drinks filled with sugars or sweeteners or any other bad substances.
Homogenized and Pasteurized Milk
Milk from large commercial dairy farms is not healthy at all. Raw milk from grass-fed cows is illegal to sale in grocery stores throughout the United States. So you won’t find healthy milk in grocery stores anywhere in the USA. You should find a local farmer and buy cow shares or goat shares from that farmer. Then you will have healthy milk to drink.
Soy Milk
Never drink soy milk. Ever. It’s always marketed as a “health food” to you, but trust me… it’s not even close to a healthy drink. Avoid soy milk at all costs.
Fancy Coffee Drinks
Don’t drink all of the fancy drinks from Starbucks or similar coffee houses. If you must have coffee, limit your coffee intake and have it black. Water is a much better choice.
A cup of coffee before your workout can actually help your intensity due to the shot of caffeine. The fancy named drinks from coffee houses are loaded with calories and zero nutrition to go along with those calories. Avoid those coffee based drinks.
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Avoid any drinks that contain high fructose corn syrup. Check the ingredients list. Sometimes high fructose corn syrup is abbreviated HFCS. If you see any ingredients you don’t recognize, put it back. Don’t drink it.
Navigation Links for the WLC System
You are currently within the WLC System section of the website.
– Previous: The most important nutrient to your body
– Next: Protein is the building block
Here's where you're at within Weight Lifting Complete:
You're Here: WLC / WLC System / Dangerous Drinks
Melanie says
Love your website! Thanks for all the helpful, free advice and guidance!! I found your site when I did a search about the major muscle groups.
You are right on regarding these drinks. Though I will say not all energy drinks are created equal. 😉 My family and I use an energy drink that is packed with vitamins and minerals and natural caffeine. It also only has 45 calories and 11 carbs, so it’s not loaded with sugar. My kids sometimes try to get me to let them have Monster, etc. and I put the kibosh on that right away.
Thanks again!!
Josh from WLC says
Hey Melanie, glad you love the site. You are very welcome.
As far as energy drinks, I do believe there are some fairly healthy energy drinks out there today. 5-Hour Energy actually seems to be a decent option. I personally have never tried it but I hear about it all the time. Did some research on it before and it looks okay to me. Good move on not letting them have Monster energy drinks.
I have been doing a lot of research lately on other healthy drinks. Water is always good, real teas are great, real lemonade, and fermented drinks are awesome. I made my own batch of Kombucha Tea a few weeks ago. Absolutely love it. Great for the digestive system too. Very easy to make. You should try it… it’s very refreshing to me and has already become a favorite of mine.