The Building Blocks of Life: Water

We all know how important water is for our daily diet.  Most of us have been taught since we were children that we all need a certain amount of water intake a day in order to help maintain a proper diet, etc.  And I am not refuting this teaching by any means.  Because my logic is, our bodies are mostly made of up water at the very basic level.  Common sense would dictate that we NEED to take in water.

I am not going to tell you that you have to take in 8-12 cups of water a day.  That is entirely up to you.  Your preference.  As I states before, I am NOT a doctor or a medical authority of any kind (I'm a computer geek just trying to get healthy).  For "official" advice consult your doctor.  Give this URL a read sometime from the Mayo Clinic as it covers daily intake etc.  Instead I will tell you what has made a difference in my life.

My Story:

I weighed myself yesterday and found that I have lost a total of 11 pounds within the last 7 weeks.  And I must be honest that I haven't been actually trying to loose weight.  We went on vacation, ended up doing a bunch of walking and drinking a lot of water to stay hydrated and the water habit seemed to make it's way back home with us.  Basically I replaced my soft drinks and sodas with water.  And a couple weeks ago when I hit the scale for the first time in forever, I was amazed to see that I had already lost several pounds.  Sure, the vacation walking helped me.  But I didn't sustain that behavior during the weeks after my vacation (although we have since started back up), the only real difference was changing my soft drinks over to water.  We don't snack much here at home.  So we rarely have the "bad" foods we should probably distance ourselves from.  So it definitely helps that we don't keep that stuff here in the house.

My Result:

I find that by replacing the sugary, soft drinks with water even my appetite is affected.  I don't get hungry quite as easy (or quickly), I have less of a desire to snack (when we do have snack foods).  And I feel better overall.  I have had less headaches and joint aches since being off of the soft drinks as well.  I even rest better now.  Does this mean that I haven't had a Pepsi or another various soft drink.  No way.  I have about one a day.  And that's really about all I need (or want).  I have, in a sense; taught myself moderation of soft drinks.  And I still have a cup of coffee about every morning with breakfast.  So basically 2 caffeinated beverages a day is what I limit myself too. And personally, I feel great.

And the awesome thing about it was, I saw how quickly I dropped a few pounds that otherwise I probably would have killed myself over in the gym.  But you see without making a change, there would have been no catalyst there to help ignite a little weight loss.  And as a result of seeing a few pounds drop off the scale, it ignited a desire to push a little harder and loose a few more in the process.  As a result, I've started working out on my lunch breaks.  Days where I can't go to the gym, I use a small set of free weights I have here and I utilize Xbox Fitness on the Xbox One game console to sneak in a lunchtime workout (when I can).  And being sore has never felt better.

So at least in my case, I don't adhere to a "rule" or a set amount of water.  I drink a glass of water when I get thirsty and with my meals.  Do I NEED more water? Maybe.  Am I comfortable with my current intake.  Yes, I am.  My challenge to you.  Start replacing one of your "non-water" beverages a day with a glass of water.  Do that for a week, and see if you don't start feeling better.  From there start working your way down.  I understand dropping the soft drinks cold turkey is hard.  Been there, done that.  It's a hard, tough process.  But the payoff is well worth it in the end.

Read more »

If the pants fit...

In our last post we discussed reasons why your scale may not be reflecting changes you are trying to achieve.  So in this post, we're going to take that conversation a little further.  And chat about why sometimes it's better to ignore the scale.  And as always, let me explain myself with some previous experience.

I have a pair of jeans that fit.  They haven't always fit well.  But they fit.  They have never been distastefully tight or saggy.  But they haven't exactly been the most comfortable pair of pants that I own.  These are my "baseline" clothes.  I also have a couple shirts that were a little snug as well.  For the first couple of weeks, I didn't see much of a change to my "scale weight" even though I was taking in half the calories that I was used to on average, and I was hitting the gym 3 to 4 times a week.  However, after a few days of no squeezing into these jeans.  I began to notice a change.  Essentially, I would come home Monday through Thursday and change out of my work Khaki pants and into my gym shorts and go workout.  Therefore, leaving me wearing my jeans on Friday nights when we would go to our local High School Football games.  The second Friday that I wore my jeans I noticed I was able to not only get in them easier with less work, but I was also getting comfortable wearing them.  The big indicator that my body was changing was a few weeks ago (after seeing the scale budge a few pounds less), I was able to actually pull the waist of my jeans away from my body about an inch without any trouble.

I said all of that to say this.  You may be focusing way too much on the scale.  I used to weigh obsessively every day, now I weigh once a week.  Maybe twice a week if I'm just curious. I have lost a little better than 10 pounds and am able to start seeing the changes in the mirror.  This helps keep me away from the scale, even though it took a lot of hard work to get to that point.  And I am still a long way off from my goal.  But seeing the physical changes makes for a great substitute to seeing the scale change.

After all, we diet and workout to feel good and look good.  The weight thing should fall into place if you are doing proper nutrition and exercise.  Sometimes we just need to relax and press on with our progress and not let the scale run our lives.  Trust me, I've been there.

And once you find you can slide into that pair of pants or that favorite shirt without any stretch or effort, that feeling to me is much greater than hitting a particular weight goal.  Not to say I don't get happy when I loose a pound of two (after all I am working toward a goal weight).  But my point is, with the right nutrition and amount of exercise the weight loss will come.  You just need to stay encouraged enough to stick with it.  You will get there eventually.

As for me, right now I am 15 pounds lighter than I have been in 8 years.  Even though I am still 56 pounds away from my first goal, I am satisfied with how things are going.  After all, we have nothing but time.  I doubt many of us have to hit a specific weight by a certain date.  So remember, take your time and do it right.  A rule of thumb I have been living by is easy come, easy go.  These dangerous crash diets will get you into the clothes you want and will probably help you get to a certain weight.  But you are hurting your body with the drastic loss and crash diet after effects and your chances of gaining that weight back are extremely high as these crash diets and fads do not exact a "lifestyle change".  So once you get to you goal, you stop using them and in no time you are back where you started.

So my advice to you, is if you are going to strive towards a weight loss or fitness goal.  Do it the right (healthy) way.  And I would encourage you to go into your closet and find that pair of pants or a shirt that are a little snug to fit.  Make a point of trying them on once every couple weeks or so.  I guarantee if you're doing it right, you'll see a difference without even looking at the scale.

Read more »

No Gym? Body Weight Routines Can Lend a Hand...

I was faced with an interesting dilemma this week.  As I may have mentioned in a previous post, we recently joined a local gym.  And it is amazing; with great people, plenty of equipment, and a great atmosphere that is conducive to wanting people to succeed with their goals.  We love it there!  But what happens when things arise that prevent us from going to the gym?  To be honest, we don't have a lot of equipment laying around the house.  We have a dumbbell set that includes 4 x 7.5 lbs. plates and a set of light weight resistance bands.  That's it.

I encountered this type of situation twice this week.  Both of which were due to work conflicts, that prevented me from dropping by the gym.  But the beauty of this situation is that a gym is NOT needed to exercise... You may be saying: "Whatever..." or "Yeah, right!".  But it is true. Your physiology is equipped with the basics you need to get in a decent workout.  Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical at first, myself.  But after last nights Body Weight Routine, I can say without a doubt that it does work. *Note: I am NOT a doctor or offering medical advice. As always consult your physician before using any workout program for health and safety purposes.

Don't get me wrong, I love hitting the Elliptical and the Stationary Bikes and I thoroughly enjoy hitting the dumbbells and various bench presses and pulldowns.  But when the event arises where you just have to burn some energy or need to feel that welcome burn in a particular muscle set.  There are other options.  For example, here is the workout I did last night upon returning home from working late:

Body Weight Squats: 4 sets of 10 reps each

Oblique Crunches: 3 sets of 40 reps, set 4 was pushed a little further to failure at 44 reps.

Body Weight Lunge: 1 set of 20 reps, 1 set of 16 reps, and 1 set of 14 reps

Push-Ups: 1 set of 14 reps, 1 set of 20 reps, 1 sets of 22 reps, and 1 set of 24 reps

Jumping Jacks: 3 sets of 40 jumping jacks

Plank: 1 set of 1 rep (lasting for 45 seconds)

Total Time: 45 minutes to 1 hour

Going into this routine, my initial thoughts were that there was no way I would feel like I nailed a decent workout.  But essentially what I did was starting with the Body Weight Squats, I would do a set and then move into the Oblique Crunches and do a set.  Then I would bounce back to my Squats.  Basically when I felt I needed to rest from a particular exercise in the routine, I would move on the another one.  If I did something like a set of Push-Ups, I would follow with a set of Oblique Crunches or Jumping Jacks to keep my heart rate a little elevated.  Gradually I worked my way through the routine towards the dreaded Plank.

On average I am able to hold a decent Plank anywhere from about 00:01:05 to 00:01:15, but after the workout I was lucky to hold it for 45 seconds.  The only things needed for this routine was a little bit of floor space, and a stop watch for measuring Plank time.  And I use my cell phone's Stopwatch feature for that.

And by the end of the workout I could feel muscles that I have never felt before.  My quads, hamstrings, and thighs were sore, my Abs and Obliques were hurting, and I was sweating as if I had just went 10 minutes in Moderate Intensity on an Elliptical.  The best part about it, it was a "sore chore" getting out of the bed in the morning.  But it was well worth it.

So let this be a lesson to those who sit back and deny that they can try to get fit because of a lack of gym equipment or even lacking a gym membership.  Body Weight exercises are not to be shrugged off.  I currently weigh 230 pounds and trust me, that is a heck of a workout.

Read more »