Hi again,
You asked about drinks.
I don't know how you feel about artificial sweeteners?
Some people love 'em, others hate them.
I don't like the chemically ones, but am fine on xylitol and erythritol. They aren't cheap, but they taste good and have no downside like bitter aftertaste (for me).
Either way, here are some cold drink suggestions that I can think of, just weed out ones that don't suit you.
- Water, plain, sparkling, with or without ice, slice of lime, lemon...
- Sugar free cordial, squash, fizzy drinks.
- I LOVE bitter lemon.
- We have a Sodastream, and get flavoured essences by Aromhuset from Amazon. You just fizz the water and put 3 or 4 drops of the sugar free all natural essence in. At the moment we have toffee, blueberry, strawberry and lemon in the fridge. They will never be like drinking real fruit juice, but they make a nice change
- We also get Sambucol effervescent tablets + zinc and vit c from Amazon. They're fab. Just drop one into a glass of water and you get a pink, slightly fizzy drink that tastes of berries. Approx 1g carb per drink.
- Cold chocolate- just hot choc made with equal quantities of cocoa powder and articulate sweetener, a dash of hot water to blend, then topped up with almond milk or water and a dash of cream. I know that sounds odd, but water with a dash of cream actually tastes rather like milk.
- Home made lemonade. Basically blend one or more lemons with ice and cold water. Add sweetener and extra cold water until you get your perfect flavour. Sparkling water adds extra zing.
- Tonic water
My daily drinks are usually a coffee, a tea, water, one or two sambucol tabs, a couple of Sodastream Aromhuset combos and maybe a hot/cold choc.
I'm really content with that variety, and enjoy them all without boredom.
Hope that helps.
Oh, one more thing. If you want to test out how something like full sugar coke is affecting your BG, then I suggest you do it away from food. Drink a can, or easily measured amount, and then test your BG every 15 mins until your BG returns to normal. This is because sugary drinks dump sugar into the bloodstream astonishingly fast. Much faster than food. And if you mix your measurement with food it will obscure the result.