Drinking More Water? The Brita Stream Filter Can Help You!

You know by now that water is good for you and so I'm always on my campaign to get people to drink more water. In New York City, we are blessed with pretty clean water so people can drink right out of the tap compared to most places. So when I received the Brita Stream water filter to try out, I was more concerned with how pretty it looked...lol. Don't blame me!

Drink More Water in the Winter

We're often told that the heat causes dehydration and so we need to re-hydrate in the hot summer months. But did you know that your body also loses a lot of water in the winter? When it is terribly cold outside, you lose water through your breath as well. It is therefore just as important to hydrate in cold months as it is in hot months.

If you are an avid exerciser, this is definitely doubly true for you as you also lose water when you work out (in sweat). Dehydration can cause your muscles to be fatigued and your body to feel tired. I don't know about you, but my muscles are already always tired and stiff in the winter so the water loss makes it worse.

What should you do to stay hydrated? Drink more water! Also, eat less salty foods that cause you to feel bloated. This is especially important in winter as we tend to go for more comfort foods when it is cold.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Think Before You Drink That Lemonade

The diet trap that a lot of us fall into is drinking our calories. If something says "fruit" on it, that does not always mean it is the best for you. One of the biggest traps is with lemonade.

What You Drink is Just as Important as What You Eat

So by now we all know how calories affect us, right? Food in - Activity out? Here's a picture to show how it works:

April Challenge Week 4!

You guys, it's the final week of the April 'Abs are Made in the Kitchen' Challenge! That means we successfully made it through 3 tough weeks! To be honest, this week was the easiest for me so far because I found that I mostly like to eat complex carbs anyway. But it was interesting for me to always have to think about the category of any food before I ate it.

Water: How Much of It Do You Need?

If you are like me and spend time reading all sorts of health “suggestions”, you’d know that there are so many different notions on how much water each person should drink per day. If you are alive, you probably know that water is very important. When the body needs water and we don’t feed it, that could lead to various levels of dehydration. And even a little dehydration doesn’t let our bodies function optimally.

Exercise and Your Skin

It is no secret that exercise has many benefits, but is healthy skin one of them? When we refer to our skin, we talk of cleansing, toning, and moisturizing (I hear the guys go 'huh?'), and even what foods you should or should not eat. But folks often skip the benefits exercise has on the skin.

Exercise increases blood flow to all the organs including the skin. Organs perform better when there is better oxygen flow. However, I think the other end of exercise concerns most people: sweat.

You've probably heard that sweat is bad for your skin. Well, that is not entirely true. Sweat in itself actually clears out your pores. The problem is the bacteria that gets attracted to the salt in sweat. This is why it is very important to let the sweat do its job while you exercise, and then give your face a mild wash right after. So sweat is good, but leaving it on your skin is bad.

Well, for the ladies, because we wear makeup on your faces, we tend to wash our faces more than we should, which removes the nutrients from our skin. And when you exercise in the middle of the day or the evening, it probably means you wash your face both before and after exercise. If you absolutely have to wash your face multiple times a day, use a very mild wash so it doesn't strip your skin of the good oils it needs.

Now, although we've established that exercise is great for your skin and your circulation, there are things we do that may hurt our skin when we exercise. For one, constantly touching, rubbing, and scratching can have negative effects on the skin, especially sensitive areas like the face. If you are in a bacteria-infested environment like the gym, it is even worse. Try to stay away for constant contact between your fingers and your face, make sure you wear clothing that doesn't cause uncomfortable friction, and try not to let your skin come in direct contact with shared items without washing them or wiping them down (e.g. equipment, towels, headphones, mats).

At the end of it all, one of the most important things to remember is to hydrate. Water is great for your skin, and if you lose a lot of water when you exercise, you need to replenish the body's supply.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: MadameNoire.com

Water - The Source of All Things Good?

Yep. All humans know that water is good for you. Water is one of the greatest creations because it’s everywhere, it’s cheap, and we all need it desperately. So why do we need it, and how much do we need to stay healthy?

Benefits

Water replenishes the body and makes you less tired. Most of us know that. But there are other positive benefits that may not be so obvious. One of them is the fact that drinking adequate amounts of water may help you eat less. The thirst and hunger sensations are usually triggered together, so thirst can be easily mistaken for hunger. If you keep your body well hydrated, it may reduce the frequency of your vending machine visits.

Water also helps to lubricate the joints, and regulate body temperature, thus contributing to a better athletic performance. So if you play sports or exercise a lot, it is essential to stay hydrated to reach your maximum potential. Plus, since water gives you more energy, that can’t hurt your performance either.

As you drink more water, you’ll also notice improvement with your skin. Water keeps the skin moisturized, more elastic, and radiant. Drink tons of water to keep your skin looking younger.

Quantity

How much water should we drink to stay healthy? A rule of thumb is to drink about 8 glasses of water a day. However, I would use this as a suggestion because there are so many other factors that affect the amount of water we should be drinking. Weather is one major factor. Because we lose water when we sweat, individuals usually need more water in the hottest months of the year. On the other hand, our bodies expel water simply by breathing. And when it is really cold, our bodies expel even more water when we breathe. So we also need more water in the coldest months of the year.

Because men tend to sweat more than women, and usually have larger muscles, males usually need more water than females for better physical performance. If you exercise though, you need more water than someone who does not because you sweat much more.

Other sources of water besides water

We also get a lot of the water we need from the food we eat. But because we have begun to rely on TV dinners and other packaged foods, we may need to make an effort to eat foods that keep us hydrated. Fresh fruits are a very good source of water because most fruits are made up of more than fifty percent water. Other liquids like milk, sports drinks, and juices contain a lot of water as well. But please be cognizant of the other contents of the liquids you drink. Sports drinks are good for people who work out because they not only replace the water, they also replace the sodium you lose in your workout sweat. As for juices, they may be hurting you more than helping you if they contain more sugar than fruit. As a side note, alcohol does not help with hydration. It actually dehydrates you. I just thought I'd mention that little fact :)

This week, try to drink more water to increase your energy and your workout performance. Don’t always wait till your really thirsty!

Thanks for your support! Check out my other columns at 360Nobs and Style House!

Cheers.

Healthy Option Week

As I said a few weeks ago, sometimes the easiest change to make with food is to replace something you eat with a healthier option. I figured we could challenge ourselves this week to try to make the food we eat healthier. Here are a few suggestions:

• Replace the pork, goat meat or chicken thighs in your food with fish or lean beef
• Boil or roast your meat rather than fry it
• If you eat spaghetti or pasta, try to substitute it with whole wheat spaghetti or pasta
• Replace one-quarter of your usual portion with spinach, broccoli, or any other green vegetable
• Rather than eat a sugary cereal, eat some oats in the morning
• Drink water or milk rather than soda
• Eat fruits for dessert
• Replace ice cream with frozen yogurt
• Replace packs of chips with popcorn
• If you’re craving chocolate, rather than have a chocolate bar, have some low-fat chocolate milk or some dark hot chocolate
• Replace white rice for brown rice
• Replace white bread for whole wheat or whole grain bread
• Use brown sugar over white sugar
• Drink green tea instead of black tea

Try these this week, and let me know how you feel at the end of the week! After one week, you're already on your way to making more little changes that can have a big effect on your health.

Create a Nutrition Lifestyle

Most people seem to have trouble with where to start when it comes to diet and exercise. Because we live in a world of instant gratification, we are constantly looking for quick-fixes when it comes to our bodies and our health. But we have to accept that for any process to actually last a lifetime, it will probably begin pretty slowly. Also, no matter what the commercials on the television say, it cannot possibly be so easy or everyone would be doing it.

I was meant to write about how to jump-start both your nutrition and exercise regimen, but there is so much within each category, that I will split them into two weeks. This week, we will focus on the diet portion. I have documented some steps that I believe will help to jump-start a healthy diet (and of course hopefully avoid slacking off within the first week).

1.      Eat a healthy breakfast: Your breakfast kind of sets the tone for the day, so don’t eat a load of rubbish in the morning. And try not to skip breakfast. It just makes you hungrier so you eat much more during the day.

2.      You love what you love: Don’t give up food you cannot live without or you’ll be back where you started in a matter of time. Cut down, not out. For example, if you absolutely adore bread, you should probably not be on a protein-only diet. So many people think “If I cut out all food that seems ‘bad’, I’ll be fine”. But I don’t agree. Everything should be done in moderation. Cut out things that you know you can live without. Think about it. You'd be surprised to discover how much bad food you eat that you actually don't care too much for.

3.      The ‘Fast’ diet fad: Diet programs are exactly that – ‘programs’. People forget this and believe they can drink a Slim Fast, Muscle Fast or basically anything with ‘fast’ on the end of its name, and just shrink. Understand that these are created as part of a diet program, and if you do not follow the program to the letter, stay away from it entirely. If you look at the nutrition information on a can of Slim Fast, you will see that it is actually not that fantastic on its own. But as part of the program, it’s fine. Now, the program does require that you give up a lot of meals, so we’re back to item 1.

4.      Food Replacement: If you can replace something you eat for a healthier version, this is an easy way to lose some weight. Examples would be to replace white bread with whole grain, replace sugary cereal with a brand that includes whole grain or oats, replace white rice with brown, etc.

5.      Portions: We’ve heard this before. Just eat less. Don’t starve yourself, but don’t pile that jollof rice on your plate like your life depends on it. This is not boarding school; there will be more food tomorrow. And I know your mother said you must finish whatever is on your plate or in the pot, but you’re older now so you don’t have to keep doing that. Form the habit of eating till you’re satisfied, not till you’re about to blow up. This may take a few weeks to get used to, but your stomach will definitely adjust. I’ve read that it takes about 3 weeks for your body to adjust to a habit. 

      Also, sometimes, people believe because something is healthy, they should eat as much of it as they want. No. Everything has calories. Some have less, but the more you eat, the more calories you consume.

6.      Cut back on the booze: While you’re drinking that beer or martini, realize that alcohol has a lot of calories. Although you want to have a good time, you could wipe out days of working out by drinking too much. Beer and abs don't go together, no matter how much we wish they did.

7.      Water is the source of all things good: Reduce your intake of soda (Coke, Pepsi, etc.), and replace it with tons of water. Soda is a very sugary type of drink, and we all know that. On the other hand, water helps to replenish the muscles, helps with digestion, regulates body temperature, and does a ton of other great things to your body. There is a reason most of the world and most of our bodies consist of water. It is good for you. Period.

These are the main tips to jump-start your diet. Remember to go slow because if you shock yourself, you may start craving food even more and be right back where you started.

Next week, we’ll talk about jump-starting your exercise program. Sign up as a ‘Follower’ or join the Eights and Weights Facebook page here to get notifications when a new blog comes out every week. Please leave feedback, comments and questions.

Have a lovely week!