Good morning everyone.

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are somewhere on the road to recovery after national Eat Your Face Off Day. For the record though, if you still have any pie left in your fridge… its been a week… its time to throw it out!

Moving on to today’s topic, last week a client of mine asked me if there are any exercise or dietary rules that I follow universally. As in, are there any dietary rules I never break?

Now in general, my team and I are not fans of “unbreakable” rules.

Incorporating rigid inflexible rules almost always cause more harm than good. Because “universal” rules are inflexible by nature, it means you can’t adapt yourself to less than ideal eating situation when (not if) they arise. And given that flexibility and adaptability are key attributes to a successful and sustainable dietary program, we are not fans.

However, there is one dietary rule that I follow almost universally. As in I have broken this rule probably once (no exaggeration) in the last two years.

I don’t drink Soda, sports drinks like Gatorade and PowerAde, and processed fruit juices like Tropicana Orange Juice and Snapple.

Why?

Three reasons.

First and foremost, these types of drinks are absolutely packed with sugar, they are calorically dense, and they provide absolutely zero nutritional value.

For instance, according to the website, eatthismuch.com a 20 ounce Coke contains 248 calories, an absolutely unreal 68 grams of sugar, and literally nothing else. No fiber, no vitamins, no minerals, no nothing. (As I’m writing this I am truly in awe of how terrible a 20 ounce Coke is for you.) That is a caloric and nutritional combination that leads directly to fat gain… and nothing else.

Second, every time you drink soda, you do so instead of drinking water. Now keeping things short and sweet, you need water for literally everything in your body and when you get dehydrated literally every function in your body suffers.

And given the majority of us are already drinking too little water, choosing soda over water when you need to satisfy your thirst is only going to make a bad situation even worse.

And finally, soda, sports drinks, and processed fruit juice all cost money. So even if they were as healthy as water, why would you want to pay $2 for a bottle when you could just go to the nearest water fountain, or your kitchen sink (remember NYC has some of the best tap water in the world) and get some water for free?

So when I look at the equation, I think to myself, why would I pay to slam my body with what amounts to poison, when I could just go and drink incredibly healthy and satisfying water for free?

So like I said, my team and I don’t usually prescribe to rigid rules, but for me, the “no soda, sports drinks, and processed fruit juices” is just too beneficial and too easy to follow for me to ever really break.

Alright, that’s it for this week and I’m sure you all will never drink another soda ever again, right?

See you all back here next week.

Your exercise and dietary coaching team.

Zach Moore Training.

And everyone, if you found today’s article insightful, inspiring or enlightening and you have a friend, family member, colleague or peer who you think would benefit from what we’ve talked about here today, pass this email on.

One of the best things you can do for those you care about is help them build a healthy and great looking body.  A body that is strong, capable and moves without pain and a body in which they feel confident and happy.