How do I drink all this water?

First of all, you should know that you need a minimum of 8 glasses of water a day.  That's 64 oz. of pure, crystal clear, no flavorings added water.  Now I know what you're thinking, "I don't really need that much.  I'm fine with what I drink."  Or maybe you're thinking, "Well, I drink that much fluid.  Coffe and soda count right?" 

WRONG and WRONG!

Here's the thing.  Your body is made up of about 70% water (we all learned this in junior high right?)  And when you keep yourself hydrated properly, your body doesn't have to work as hard on a cellular level to do all the things it needs to do.  But when you don't hydrate properly, your body will start to fall out of balance.  You will end up with more salt and sugar than you need, and the ratios get all thrown off.  And when this happens, your body will start to hold on to the water you do give it, and store it!  So how many pounds of water do you want to carry around with you everyday?

When you drink enough, this is what water can do for you:

So now we get to the nitty gritty.  How the heck do you get all that water in your body each day?  I won't lie to you, some days it is really hard to do, and other days it's not so bad.  The first thing you want to do is get a good water bottles (or a few) and know how much water they hold.  Plan to use these every day.  Fill them up each morning, and make sure you get through them by the end of each day!  See?  So simple! 
Ok, maybe it's not that simple.  So here are a few ideas to help you REMEMBER to get in all your water each day.

**Mark your water bottles at every 8-16oz. and write the time of day you need to finish that amount by (or plan to chug it at that time).  Here's an example:

**You can also set an alarm on your phone to go off every couple of hours to remind you to drink down another glass.   BEEP  BEEP  BEEP  BEEP!  DRINK YOUR WATER!
**When you are home, you can keep an extra bottle in your bathroom (I know, it's a little weird, but it works).  And every time you use the bathroom, chug 8 oz. before you leave.
**Depending on how many times a day you are eating (3-5), you can chug 8-16 oz. 30 minutes before each meal.  That ends up being 5 of your galsses if you are eating 5 meals a day, and 6 glasses if you are eating 3 meals.
**Leave a bottle on your nightstand at night and when you wake up in the morning drink 8-16 oz. first thing.

Enjoy your water!

NUTRITION BOOTCAMP!

Nutrition Group
Bootcamp!

We will be starting on Monday October 22nd, going for only 4 weeks, and finishing in time for you to have all the tools you need to get through the holidays this year!  The goal of this group will be to help you learn how to eat correctly for life.  Already know how to eat correctly and cleanly?  Great!  Need a little or a lot of help in this area?  I'm your girl!  And this group can really help you!  And this group will be a more intense version of my normal nutrition group, so be prepared to learn a lot.

Have you been working out and can't seem to get rid of the weight?  Or are you stuck on those last 10 to 15 pounds?  This is the group for you.  Exercise is great, but nutrition is what helps you really get the weight off.

I hope you will join me in this group.  It's going to be fun and informative.  You will learn so much.  For more information check out the Nutrition Challenge Group Tab at the top of the page, or click HERE!  I can't wait to see you there!

Making Time to Workout

Ok, so a lot of us have busy lives.  We work, we have to take care of our loved ones, we have to keep our homes in reasonable order and cleanliness, we have to eat, go to the bathroom, sleep, etc.  We are BUSY!  I feel this way most days.  So how do we find time to take care of ourselves and workout?  Well, you don't.  You MAKE time.  It's not always easy, but it's always worth it.  ALWAYS!

"But I really don't have time..."  But you do.  Do you have 10 minutes?  Maybe 10-15 minutes at least 3 times a week?  Are you really going to tell me that you can't make time for yourself for 10 minutes?  It's only 10 minutes, but it can mean the world.  In ten minutes you can go for a a short walk, do a bunch of jumping jacks, squats, push-ups, run up and down your stairs, or you can do a program like 10 Minute Trainer.  So can you scrape out 10 minutes a day?  And can you commit to it for just a week?  I think you can.  I KNOW you can.

So now what?  You've committed to 10 minutes a day for a week (or at least 3 times a week.)  So now you know you can do this.  Can you add 5 more minutes?  Can you add one more day?  Can you commit to doing THAT for another week?  If you can, and you do, you will see that this snowballs.  Somewhere along the way you will find that you are doing 30 minutes a day maybe 5 or 6 days a week.  Go you!  You see, you don't have to start big, you just have to start!

So, maybe you will only ever do 20 minutes 3-5 x's a week.  It's still better than what you are doing now, right?  And that's fine.  If you want to do more, great!  If this is all you can commit to right now, great!  It doesn't matter.  What matters is that you give yourself this time.  It is a gift from you to yourself.  Don't you deserve it?  I think you do.  I KNOW you do.

The Importance of Support

So here's the thing.  The beginning of any new journey starts with you.  No matter what kind of journey you are planning, weight loss, getting fit, eating healthier, whatever.  You have to decide what that journey is going to be.  You have to decide where you are trying to go.  And ultimately, YOU have to decide that you are going to take the first step.  But once you make that decision, you don't have to travel it alone.  Unfortunately though, so many people just don't seek out the support tools that are available.  They get excited to start their journey, they plan it all out, and then they go it alone.

           I can do it all myself!

The beginning is great!  When you have all that excited energy, it is easy to keep going.  And you can continue to feed off of it for a while.  But the longer you go, the more challenging the journey can become.  And there's more you have to handle.

So after a little time, what happens?  You start to stumble, you get a little lost and you end up feeling like you can't do it anymore.  You end up frustrated, and eventually feel like it is too much to handle alone.  And many people who get to this point just give up and quit.

What happened?  Well, when you try to take on too much by yourself, sometimes it just ends up being too much.  But what you forgot is that you don't have to do it all alone.  You have lots of tools you can use to help you get through it.

You can join a group, work with your friends, use message boards to ask questions and get answers, and work with a coach.  Even professional athletes have coaches, trainers, health professionals, family and fans helping them on a daily basis.  So why do you think you have to do this alone?

Let me put it another way.  If you've been following my blog, you know that I had a rough patch last week.  I almost had my old friends Ben & Jerry over for a little pity party.  This has become an ingrained habit for me when I am feeling low.  But I didn't really want to ruin everything that I've been working toward, so I used the tools that were available to me.  I talked through some of it with a great friend, talked it through some more with my husband, and later in the day when I was at my worst, I sent a mesage to my coach.  Within 5 minutes I got a message back.  She spent the next hour with me working through what was going on in my head, and what the results of my choices would/could be. And did I mention that she was trying to make dinner for her own family at the time?  And she has a toddler? 

THIS is why she is an amazing coach, and has become a very good friend too.  But you see, if I hadn't used all the tools available to me, I might have eaten that ice cream.  And yeah, I might have gotten over it the next day because nobody's perfect.  And I may have still done my workout.  And I might have had to work off all the sugar that I jammed into my system, and the weight that came with it for the next week.  This was not what I wanted, and I was very grateful to have had so many ways to work through what was happening and so many support tools at my disposal.

So you see, this journey is something that you do have to start alone, but it doesn't have to be lonely.  I hope that one day I will be able to be as amazing of a coach to my customers and friends as mine is to me.  But that is part of my journey right now too.  And guess what?  I'm not walking that one alone either...

You take the first step, and I'll help you with the rest.

Emotional Blows

So you're trudging along, doing your workouts, eating heathy, and feeling pretty good about yourself.  "Look at me!  I'm doing great!  I'm losing weight, my clothes are fitting better, and I have more energy.  Woo hoo!"  You're reconnecting with friends, going out more, happy with the way things are going and then, BAM!  All of a sudden some huge emotional bomb goes off!

Maybe you have a fight with your spouse.  Maybe you lose a friend.  Maybe your parents are driving you crazy.  Whatever your emotional bomb, it takes a huge toll on what you've been working toward.  So how do you get through it?  Do you give in?  Do you go get that food you've been craving and let old habits take over?  Do you stop exercising?  Do you let life pass you by until you get through your crap?  Well, yeah, you could do that.  I almost did.  But it doesn't HAVE to be that way.
I lost a good friend this past week (and no, luckily he did not pass away), but it still sucks.  We'd known each other for a long time and had been close with each other's families.  Anyway, something got in the way of our friendship, and now it is non-existant.

So there I am, just sitting there after finding out, and I'm pissed!  I mean Furious!  LIVID!  Ready to go POSTAL on the person behind the issue.  But I can't.  It won't help anyone.  And as much as this sucks for me, I have to respect what my "friend" needs to do.  So now I am resigned. 

"This too shall pass." 

Well that's what they say right?  I talked to a good friend while it was happenening, and that kind of helped calm me down.  So I'm going on with my day, and...

AGAIN!  What the!?!?  All of a sudden, it really hits me.  I'm standing in the middle of my kitchen, and the tears just start pouring down my face.  In retrospect, these are some of the normal stages of grief, but no one died, why am I crying?  Well, I guess a good friendship just died, so I was grieving the loss of that.  I called my husband and told him what was going on.  He was great!  Sympathetic and kind, and he said all the right things.  He even made me laugh a little.

So I'm feeling a little better, but still sad.  And about an hour after that, I realize just how much this has impacted me.  I was supposed to workout, shower and then go to an appointment.  I did not feel like working out.  Ok, no big deal, I can do it later, and if I don't one day is not going to kill me.  (I've already talked about this one in "I've Missed Another One?!?")  So I'm going to get through this hellish day, and move on.  Tomorrow will be better.  I grab a protein bar on my way out and move on with my day.

In the afternoon, I realize that I'm not very hungry.  Uh-oh!  I just got finished with my cleanse, I just got my hunger signs back on track, what is going on?  Well, if you've read my story, you already know that I have a history with anorexia and over-eating.  So here I am, it's getting close to dinner time.  I'm not hungry becuase I am so upset.  But I should eat because, well, I just should. All I've had to eat was my morning Shakeology and that protein bar.  But I realize that in this moment, I have some old friends hanging around on my shoulders.



This is Skinny ED (Eating Disorder).  This is the guy that whispers in my ear that I should just forget it and not eat.  "You're so upset...don't worry about food right now...you don't need it."  And unfortunately, I used to think that maybe he was right.





This is Fat ED.  He sits on my other shoulder and tells me it will all be ok.  "Eat the ice-cream, it will make you feel better.  It's soothing and you need some soothing.  Maybe you should put some chocolate syrup on that...it will make it even better."  Obviously, I have listened to this guy in the past as well.



So now what?  Not only am I upset, but I haven't worked out and all my old bad behaviors are threatening to come out.  I even called my husband and asked him to bring home some "old friends."
UGH!  So I wrote a message to my coach.  She wrote me back.  We talked through all the crap going on in my head, and she helped me get past it.  I ended up eating a mostly healthy dinner, and then had green tea for the rest of the night.

Now I'm not going to say this was easy.  And it didn't just vanish the next day.  But I brushed off my shoulders (bye-bye Eds) and I made myself eat healthy and do a short workout the next day.  So for now, the Eds are gone again, and I'm working my way back up to full exercise mode. 

Going through a tough emotional experience is different for everyone.  But I shared my story to let you know that you CAN make it through.  And it is possible to do it without falling back into old bad habits. 

Not easy, but possible.