How is that Water Challenge Treating Me?

So .. as I discussed in a previous post I am taking a 30 day water challenge. You may ask .. how is it going?

The first couple of days were miserable .. at one point I wanted to move my laptop into the bathroom to save myself the walking. The bonus in this? I easily hit my daily quota in steps walking back and forth again, and again, and again, and …

Things I’ve Learned …

• Don’t drink massive amounts of water before you are going to be in a situation where you cannot go to the bathroom. Thankfully I ‘thought’ about this and tapered before I had to teach classes at the gym. That would have been miserable!
• When you drink water more consistently that ice water really keeps your body temperature lower. I switched to luke warm water pretty quick
• After a couple of days I started to drink it more consistently on my own (I was having an app buzz me every hour to drink water) .. it definitely feels both that my body needs it and wants it

Things I’ve Noticed …

• For some reason my system feels cleaner, head to toe. I really don’t know how to explain it but I feel like I’m flushing myself out constantly.
• I’m not as hungry as often as I thought I was … that is in part because we sometimes mix up signals of hunger and thirst and well, I’m definitely never thirsty! 🙂
• My skin feels better .. I noticed today that some of my dark circles seem a bit better (and it’s not because I’m getting enough sleep at night because that is one of my issues..)
• I am more alert during the work day, which is great because right now my job is slooooow

Are they related? I don’t know but they are different, and positive.

I’ll post another update on this soon but I’m pretty sure that 30 days will end up being a permanent change!

Happy day and thanks for reading!

I have tons of playlists on Spotify, by BPMs, by moves (i.e. seated flats, standing climbs, etc). Feel free to follow me as I am constantly adding to my playlists 🙂

Christina

Feel free to follow me on social media!

Follow @joschmoblo

Follow @_findingfitness – my blog’s twitter

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This is Good For Our Health – Taking a 30 Day Water Challenge

At times, I am fantastic at drinking water. If you count the water in my coffee then most days I’m great. Other days I really don’t drink enough. Part of it is that whole out of sight, out of mind aspect.

Water bottle in hand, ready to take this 30 day water challenge!

So .. I have decided to take a 30 day water challenge. That sounds easy, right? You would think so! For the next 30 days I’m going to make it a point to drink at least my quota of water .. and let’s see how life is when I’m done.

How much water? Well, I was doing a bit of research and there really is no straight answer .. so I’m going to go based on what the Mayo Clinic has posted…

For females they recommend 74.4 ounces, and they say …

• Short exercise sessions (but where you still sweat) increases that number by 1.5 to 2.5 cups (or 12 to 20 ounces). If it lasts longer than an hour (this is me a few times a week) it requires more (although they don’t specify how much).
• During the extended exercise sessions they advise to drink sports drinks containing sodium to help replenish the sodium lost.
• They also advise to continue drinking after exercising (<< — this is never a problem!)

Ok .. so I’m going to wrap my brain around this for a minute .. but I’m doing this! Let’s see what happens and feel free to join me if you are up for it!

Why drink more water?

• It helps your complexion .. I know this because on consecutive days where I don’t drink enough water my complexion goes South. If for no other reason I’m doing this for my skin 🙂
• Cravings control .. did you know that sometimes when we think we are hungry our body is actually just thirsty? Yep .. I used to think it was just because I was looking for an excuse to eat
• It could give you that energy you need .. one of many signs of dehydration is becoming tired. This could cure that
• It keeps your muscles hydrated .. when we sweat during workouts we are losing water from our muscles so definitely make sure you drink just enough to stay ahead of the extreme muscle fatigue
• It keeps your internal systems moving along .. our body is made up of 60% water .. drinking keeps everything internally moving ahead

I’m sure there are a bunch of reasons but instead of looking them up I’m just going to find out for myself! See you on the other side 🙂

Thanks for reading!

I have tons of playlists on Spotify, by BPMs, by moves (i.e. seated flats, standing climbs, etc). Feel free to follow me as I am constantly adding to my playlists 🙂

Christina

Feel free to follow me on social media!

Follow @joschmoblo

Follow @_findingfitness – my blog’s twitter

 

Losing Weight – There Are No Shortcuts

I teach group fitness classes, in case you did not already know, so I’m in constant contact with people, discussing their goals and desired outcomes.

The other day I was at the gym, waiting for one of my classes to start, and one of the members came up to me. They began talking about their goal to compete and how they needed to lose weight. Then I was told that they were only eating 500 calories. This was at 5:30pm and she was planning on taking 2 classes with such little fuel in her body.

Yes, I immediately was like .. WHAT?

This is that ‘trap’ that people fall into. They want to lose weight and they want to lose it RIGHT NOW. We all know that to lose weight we have to eat less calories than we ‘burn.’ Somewhere along the way, even the smarter people try to convince themselves that if they ‘starve’ their body then they’ll get their quicker and can go back to normal.

Before I continue let me say this, if it was that easy to lose weight, would we have an obesity problem in the US? Probably not.

Ok .. back to the topic.

A deficit helps with weight loss. Smart eating helps with weight loss. Exercise helps with weight loss. There has to be a balance with the first and last one.

Your body needs enough fuel to survive, so it has to be a reasonable deficit otherwise it will go into an almost hibernation mode or, worse, start burning off muscle. Also, you’re body is going to react .. your energy levels will tank, you could get sick, and so many other side effects. Most recommendations aim at about 1 – 2 pounds a week is a safe number / goal for weight loss. 1 pound is roughly 3,500 calories … so 3,500 calories of a deficit over 7 days is about 500 calories less a day.

Exercise helps but exercising all day long, beyond the point of being reasonable is not going to help your cause. The body will aches, the muscles could become damaged, the body could also react to this. I’ve seen people who exercise too much that are constantly fighting off illness and infection. Your mood will suffer. Again, things need to be reasonable.

Now, one more statement on this … when you exercise you are burning calories, which in turns adds into the equation of the number of calories that you should consume each day. Let me explain…

So … with a 500 calorie deficit and let’s say a daily goal of 2,000 calories, with no exercise your goal is about 1,500 calories.

If you exercise and burn 300 calories the numbers change. Your body is expected to burn those 2,000 calories plus you just burned 300 more on your own, taking your daily number to 2,300. Subtract your 500 calorie deficit and now you want to 1,800 calories in order to properly refuel the body.

We’ll talk about this again … it’s a common topic that people seem to get sucked into. The moral of the story is that there is no shortcuts to weight loss.

It takes work, dedication, and focus. If you play the game the way it should be played, you’re in luck. Changes will happen. Trust the process and stick with it.

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to follow me on social media!

Follow @joschmoblo

Follow @_findingfitness – my blog’s twitter