Alcoholic drinks can be a sneaky source of calories, sugar, and even salt – but not when you play bartender. Here are 10 tips for cutting down the calories while still enjoying your favorite cocktail:

1. Use only fresh-squeezed or 100 percent fruit juice to reduce added sugars. Fruit juice can still be high in sugar, though, so sometimes it’s best to dilute it with water or ice to cut back on calories.

2. Choose seltzer water over other carbonated waters to eliminate added sodium and other additives. For recipes that call for soda, skimp on portions, or try Crystal Light Pure (the natural version). I’m not sure how a dirty martini would be when cutting back on half of the vodka/gin and replacing it with seltzer or diet tonic or club soda?… but that’s what I’d try, so that you can cut the calories in half and still enjoy a couple drinks with friends.

3. Make simple syrup with honey, which has some added benefits, like a healthy dose of antioxidants. It also gives you better control of the sugar content. Any recipe that calls for simple syrup will use the following recipe: 1/2 tablespoon honey mixed with 3/4 tablespoon warm water. You can also make simple syrup with Stevia.

4. Use whole fruit instead of sugar or flavored syrups. The fruit itself adds fiber, natural sugars, and vitamins.

5. Choose light alcohol over dark alcohol. The dark stuff contains more compounds known as congeners, which can worsen hangovers.

6. Limit yourself to one shot per drink. Multi-alcohol cocktails can pack in serious calories, so we kept ours to one shot (or 1 1/2 ounces) each. The shooters and shots we included actually contain less than one shot each to further lessen the caloric load.

7. Size matters—especially when it comes to consuming liquid calories. That’s why we kept all our drinks right around the 8-ounce mark.

8. Choose nutritious ingredients. Ginger, coffee and lemon star in several of our drinks. They’ve each got their own proven health benefits, even though they may not totally counteract the negative effects of alcohol.

9. Don’t forget water. For every alcoholic drink you have, drink at least one extra glass of water. This will help your body metabolize the alcohol and may counteract some of the dehydrating effects of the alcohol on the body, such as next-day hangovers.

10. Don’t drink on an empty stomach. Skimping on food in order to make room for drinks will most likely end up backfiring. Here’s why: Most cocktails are loaded with sugar, so during a night of drinking, people end up with soaring blood sugar, followed by a crash that leaves them ready to devour anything in sight.

You can prevent this from happening by having a snack at home before you go out that includes a protein, natural carb with fiber, and a small amount of healthy fat. A good example would be a half an apple, string cheese, and a large glass of water. Greek yogurt, berries, and almonds is another good one.

Well-balanced, healthy snacks like this will help stabilize your blood-sugar without slowing down your metabolism. An added benefit of snacking before having a drink is that the alcohol will be absorbed more slowly into the bloodstream, thereby minimizing its fat loss-damaging effects.