Tamra's Fitness Tips: Healthy Living With Alcohol

As summer is ramping up and clothes are coming off, Real Housewives of Orange County's resident fitness guru Tamra Judge is here to save the day—she's been sharing her health and exercise tips and tricks right here on the Dish. So far, she's schooled us on what it takes to stay motivated and she sent us an example of her lean, mean daily diet. This week, she answers a very important question about a very important subject: alcohol!

Facebook fan Pamela Young Sims asked, "How do you drink alcohol and still look great?" Tamra spills the beans (the wine?) below.

Great question! If you watch the show you would think we ladies are drinking all the time. Well, for me, that is not true. I actually struggled with this a lot while filming...should I or shouldn't I drink? Off-season I rarely drink, but of course having a glass of wine before filming is almost always a must—it calms my nerves and gives me a little liquid courage. OK, maybe a little too much courage.

I often do a 21-day challenge and you are not allowed to drink alcohol at all during this time. After doing a challenge you feel so good you don't want to put alcohol in your system. Alcohol is a terrible substance for many reasons. Worst of all, it does not metabolize well in our system—what your body cannot metabolize it will generally store as fat. Having this knowledge gives me the power to decide if having "this drink" is worth the super hard effort I'll have to put forth in order to metabolize it.

Drinking in moderation to me means maybe once or twice per month. I always hate when people say "Everything in moderation." What the heck does that mean if everyone has a different opinion of what "moderation" is? All I can say is be smart about it. Do you really need that glass of wine on a week night with your dinner? Chances are NO! If you know you have that party to go to next weekend, maybe hold off until that party, and have a couple drinks as your reward for being so good.

Alcohol not only affects the physical system, it affects the nervous system as well. Drinking too much slows me down and makes me lethargic. With that, I must admit that I am not as motivated to work out or stay active—I simply cannot get myself to work out. So, in a nutshell, I usually opt for sparking water with lime. And if I absolutely feel like I want a drink, I have one glass of wine.

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