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4 Nutritional Swaps That Could Change Your Life

These swaps could save you hundreds (if not thousands) of calories per day.

You can look inside anyone’s diet and find simple “swap strategies” as I like to call them, where you can slide in one similar piece of food or beverage that could give that person the mathematical means to begin making progress with their weight/fat loss journey. In fact, many can make some of these changes without feeling like they are sacrificing anything simply because they didn’t know what they didn’t know! Additionally, this is a great starting point for most people that are overweight and need to begin making changes.

1. Almond Milk instead of Cow’s Milk

The example above is a simple swap out of 120 calories (150 – 30 = 120) per serving.
 
Life isn’t lived in a vacuum, but let’s just do some math on this one swap over the course of one year.
 
Let’s say you’re used to drinking 1 cup of whole milk every morning with breakfast, and then you switch to 1 cup of Unsweetened Almond Milk.
 
Whole Milk = 150cals x 365 = 54,750 cals/yr
Un. Al Milk = 30cals x 365 = 10,950 cals/yr
 
Now let’s subtract those two values from each other.
54,750 – 10,950 = 43,800 difference of calories.
 
Now let’s take that number and divide it by the number of calories it takes to lose a pound of fat, which is 3,500 calories.
 
43,800 ÷ 3,500 = 12.5lbs.
 
Little swaps may seem insignificant, but these habits become monumental with a little knowledge, discipline, and consistent application.
 
*And to all my dairy farmer friends out there, I ain’t hatin’ on diary. This gallon of whole milk came from my own refrigerator after all 🤣 Oh, and it’s quite obvious we love cottage cheese and Greek Yogurt too! But what I love more than dairy itself, is helping humans get healthier.

2. Wraps instead of Bread

The example above is a simple swap out another 110 calories (160 – 50 = 120) per serving by switching out this wrap for two slices of bread.
 
Once again, life isn’t lived in a vacuum, but let’s just do some math on this one swap over the course of one year.
 
Let’s say you’re used to having a couple slices of bread per day (avg 80 calories per slice). That’s 160 calories. Most people who eat sandwiches simply eat them because they are easy to make, and it’s just what they’ve always done. Since the Subway commercials of the early 2000’s with, lots of people have associated sandwiches with weight-loss and that it’s a healthy food. It’s not necessarily an unhealthy food item, but it can be rather calorie dense and carb dense, two things that most people consume too much of. 
 
So, let’s do the math on this one over the course of the year.
 
Bread = 160cals x 365 = 58,400 cals/yr
Extreme Wellness Wrap = 50cals x 365 = 18,250 cals/yr
 
Now let’s subtract those two values from each other.
54,750 – 10,950 = 40,150 difference of calories.
 
Now let’s take that number and divide it by the number of calories it takes to lose a pound of fat, which is 3,500 calories.
 
40,150 ÷ 3,500 = 11.5lbs.
 
Little swaps may seem insignificant, but these habits become monumental with a little knowledge, discipline, and consistent application.
 
*And to all my dairy farmer friends out there, I ain’t hatin’ on diary. This gallon of whole milk came from my own refrigerator after all 🤣 Oh, and it’s quite obvious we love cottage cheese and Greek Yogurt too! But what I love more than dairy itself, is helping humans get healthier.

3. Diet Soda instead of regular soda

I’m sure I’ll hear critical remarks on this one from all the keyboard warriors, but simply swapping out a fully leaded soda (high sugar and high calories) for a diet soda (no sugar and no calories) is a step in the right direction. Is it healthy? Depends on how your definition of healthy. Is there a better swap, like water for example? Absolutely, and that would be ultimate swap, but this is about making some super simple changes that can be built upon with more changes in the future. Think of it as a continuum of changes if you will and this is just a starting point.
 
The example above is a simple swap out another 140 calories (140 – 0 = 140) per serving by switching out a regular can of coke for a can of diet coke. 
 
Once again, life isn’t lived in a vacuum, but let’s just do some math on this one swap over the course of one year.
 
Let’s say you’re used to having one can of fully leaded coke per day. That’s 140 calories, not too mention a butt-load of sugar, but let’s not even discuss that right now. Now, let’s just swap in the diet coke over the course of the year to see what happens calorically.
 
Fully Leaded = 140cals x 365 = 51,100 cals/yr
Unleaded = 0cals x 365 = 0 cals/yr
 
Now let’s subtract those two values from each other.
51,100 – 0 = 51,100 difference of calories.
 
Now let’s take that number and divide it by the number of calories it takes to lose a pound of fat, which is 3,500 calories.
 
51,100 ÷ 3,500 = 14.5lbs.
 
Little swaps may seem insignificant, but these habits become monumental with a little knowledge, discipline, and consistent application.

4. Greek Yogurt instead of Regular High Sugar Yogurt

Here’s another simple swap for people. Yogurt is a staple for many people; however, many people think regular yogurt is a health food, but I assure you, it is not. Now greek yogurt on the other hand surely is a healthy food option and can make a profound difference when swapping that in for regular high sugar yogurt.
 
The example above is a simple swap out another 90 calories (150 – 60 = 90) per serving by switching out a Yoplait Strawberry regular yogurt for Chobani Greek Zero Sugar. 
 
Once again, life isn’t lived in a vacuum, but let’s just do some math on this one swap over the course of one year.
 
Let’s say you’re used to having one serving of fully leaded yogurt per day. That’s 150 calories, not too mention a butt-load of sugar, but let’s not even discuss that right now. Now, let’s just swap in the  Chobani Greek Zero Sugar over the course of the year to see what happens calorically.
 
Fully Leaded = 150cals x 365 = 54,750 cals/yr
Unleaded = 60cals x 365 = 21,900 cals/yr
 
Now let’s subtract those two values from each other.
54,750 – 21,900 = 32,850 difference of calories.
 
Now let’s take that number and divide it by the number of calories it takes to lose a pound of fat, which is 3,500 calories.
 
32,850 ÷ 3,500 = 9.4lbs.
 
Little swaps may seem insignificant, but these habits become monumental with a little knowledge, discipline, and consistent application.

As you can see, making a few simple swaps can pay big dividends in the long run. Now, this is assuming that more calories aren’t being picked up in other places over the year. For some people, these changes may just take you from weight gain mode to weight stay mode, which is better than weight gain mode for most people. For others who are hovering at a weight stay mode, these simple swaps could lead to the results mentioned above. Additionally, tack on 3 or more strength training sessions per week, and you’re really onto something.

Be consistent, stay the course, and fight the worthy battle of the bulge. This example shows how 48.5lbs of extra calories could be eliminated with some simple swaps over the course of the year.