Water: The Hidden Diet Ingredient

Water is vital for our survival but it can also be critical in helping you lose weight.  When beginning a weight loss program, many people fail to incorporate enough water into their diet, causing them to lose the benefits that water can provide.  As a result, they don’t lose as much weight as they should.

It has been said that water is a natural way to counteract hunger pains.  When you drink water, you tend to feel full faster.  It also flushes out your system, allowing your body to rid itself of harmful toxins.  Water can also boost your energy level and improve your metabolism, allowing you to consume calories more quickly.

Research indicates that hunger and thirst may be inextricably linked.  That means that at times, you may think that you’re hungry, while actually you’re thirsty.  Drinking water during those periods can help you to feel satiated without expanding your waistline.    As a result, by consuming water, you may feel less of a need to eat.

You might be wondering, however, how much water is enough.  Generally speaking, you should be drinking half of your body weight in ounces.  Check with your doctor to determine how much water is right for you.  You should also be sure to drink water when you are exercising in order to replace fluids that you lose through perspiration.

Of course, you may not enjoy the taste of water, particularly tap water.  As a result, you might consider drinking infused water, eating soup, or consuming fruits high in water content.   Water can combat high blood pressure and can decrease your cholesterol levels.  It can also be a remedy against water retention, kidney trouble, skin problems, and migraines.  It may even help to prevent cancer.

Water can also enhance your muscle tone, helping you to achieve a more clearly defined physique.  Therefore, it is particularly important that you drink a great deal of water if you enter into a strength training program.  You cannot expect your muscles to work properly if you do not hydrate them.

The temperature of your water can also make a significant difference.  It is believed that water that is cold is digested faster than water that is of a higher temperature.  In fact, water that is relatively cold in temperature can actually serve as a calorie-burner.

You may be surprised to learn that your body is comprised of nearly 70 percent water.  Therefore, water is crucial for the proper functioning of your metabolism.  Water can also help to regulate your body temperature, enabling your body to work more effectively.

Certain symptoms will emerge if you’re not consuming enough water.  For instance, you may find it difficult to concentrate.  You may also have a constant feeling of being tired.  You may be constipated or experience dry skin.  At times, you may also feel constipated and you may notice that you’re not passing as much urine as you should.

Of course, if you are not getting enough water in your diet, the remedy is simple—just turn on the tap and let it flow.  However, realistically, it can be difficult to get into the water habit.  Therefore, you might have to trick your body into drinking water.  How do you do this?  To begin with, you should consider drinking a glass of water as soon as you get up in the morning.  This will ensure that you are getting your day off to a healthy start.  Have a drink in mid-morning and another right before lunch.  If you drink a cup with lunch, you will have already had half of your daily water requirements.  Have a drink in the mid-afternoon, another at dinner, one after dinner, and one right before bed.  In this way, you will likely be getting all the water your body needs.  Try this experiment for a few weeks, and you may be amazed at the difference you see in your health and appearance.

4 Ways Water Can Help Regulate What and How Much You Eat

Weight loss can be a hard task for anyone. There're so many different elements that go into losing weight it can be like learning a whole new set of information. There is one simple thing that you can do to help regulate how much and what you eat. Drinking water is not a magical cure-all, but it may seem like it after you learn what it can do to help you regulate your eating.

Water Aids Digestion Through Saliva

Digestion starts with saliva. Saliva is made mostly of water. According to Everyday Health, the enzymes in saliva are the beginning of the digestive tract. These enzymes help break down food so that they can be properly digested in the stomach. Without these and times food would never be able to be processed in the stomach.

Water also helps break down the fiber. Water-soluble fiber is one of the biggest factors of filling full after you eat. If you have not had enough water, or are dehydrated digesting water soluble fiber becomes almost impossible. Make sure that you can digest this food element properly by drinking lots of water.

Water Soluble Vitamins

One of the reasons that we eat food is to get access to vitamins. Vitamins and minerals are vital to various body functions. Deficits in these minerals and vitamins can cause cravings in the body. San Francisco Gate tells how the body cannot digest certain water-soluble vitamins without enough water in the body.

Water-soluble vitamins are vitamins that can only be absorbed with the aid of water. These vitamins break down with the water in the digestive tract and men are absorbed into the body. Absorption of these essential vitamins stops when dehydration occurs, or when there is not enough water in the body. When even slight deficiencies are present, you may begin craving additional foods even though you’re not hungry. These cravings are due to vitamin deficiencies and not hunger so make sure that you have enough water so that you can digest all your water-soluble vitamins.

Eat Fewer Calories

Water can help you eat fewer calories than you would if you didn’t drink water before meals. Livestrong notes a study where participants consumed 75-90 fewer calories with 2 8-oz glasses before dinner per meal. Now consuming 90 fewer calories per meal may not seem like a whole lot. However, if you did this every meal you could lose up to 28 pounds a year.

How?

If you save 90 calories a meal three times a day, that’s 270 calories every day that you’re not eating. If you do this every day for a week you’ve not consumed 1890 calories. Continue saving that 90 calories a meal every week for a year, and you’ve saved 98,280 calories. 3500 calories make up a pound. In weight loss, the theory is that a deficit of 3500 calories means 1 pound of weight loss. By saving 98,280 calories you’ve created a pretty big gap.

Meaning 28 pounds!

On the flip-side, if you were to continue eating as normal that 90 calories could be in excess. So, instead of saving, you’ve actually GAINED 28 pounds in a year. All this weight loss or weight gain is changed by only drinking two 8-ounce glasses of water before each meal.

Hunger and Thirst Cues are the Same

You may be reaching for a snack when what you should be reaching for is a tall glass of water. Spark People shared an article describing how the body sends out the exact same signal for hunger that it does for thirst. Many people don’t know how to tell the difference between hunger and thirst, and because we so rarely think about dehydration we assume that we are hungry. Next time you’re getting hungry signals from your brain try reaching for a glass of water instead. You may find out that you were just thirsty.

Now you know four surprising ways that water can help you control how much and what you eat. Helping you stop cravings and eat less water is a fantastic one stop shop for your diet solutions. What are some ways that you have noticed water help you with your diet?

5 Ways to Eat Healthier

It can be a real challenge for you to eat healthy and nutritious meals when you’re busy. There is of course the time issue – just not enough time in the day for shopping, preparation, and cooking. This means that you’re often eating ready-made meals, which are high in fat, salt and sugar content. Then there is the fact that very often, you’ll eat out more often, especially at fast food restaurants. This of course means eating foods high in fat and calories and lacking in the nutrients the body needs.

In these situations, it’s still possible for you to eat healthier. Eating healthy will actually make a person more productive at his work. So, healthy eating habits should be considered to part of a person's work schedule.

What are 5 ways that busy people can eat healthier?

Always have breakfast. 

This is often the most skipped meal in the day, but it’s the most important meal. Skipping breakfast can lead to weight problems and diabetes.

What constitutes a great, healthy breakfast? Foods rich in fiber. Fiber rich foods make the feeling for being full last much longer, therefore reducing the tendency to snack. Some foods to eat include whole grain oatmeal, whole grain cereal, fruits, and vegetables.

Protein from eggs is also a great way to nourish the body in the morning.

Foods with high sugar content and low fiber (donuts and pastries) should be avoided.

Plan ahead. 

As a busy person, you’ll be used to planning in advance to get things done. You would never think about going into an important meeting without planning. Eating healthy requires the same planning. When should this be done? Of course, everyone's schedule is different, but it should be possible to use some time in the week to plan for meals.

Weekends could be good days to use some time to prepare and plan meals. Remember to also plan your snacks, and make sure that you have healthy options. For this, plastic containers are a must.

If possible, try to shop for groceries online and have them delivered to your home or workplace. This saves a lot of time shopping. Of course, any shopping has to take into consideration healthy foods. Choose whole grains, fresh produce, and lean fresh meats.

Even the busiest people can take advantage of the many markets that sell prepared baked chicken, to save cooking time and have a source of healthy protein on hand.

Keep hydrated. 

A healthy body requires fluid. Make sure that you have plenty of water with you. Drink water frequently during the day. Don't overdo the coffee intake. Avoid sugary drinks like soda and remember that fruit juices are often high in sugars and low in fiber.

Eat healthily at restaurants. 

When at restaurants choose the healthy options. Many menus now have the calorie total for each meal and this can be a good guide. If there are no calorie guides then stick to this rule of thumb: meats should be grilled, potatoes boiled or mashed and vegetables steamed. Soups are good for entrees and for deserts choose fruits.

Be careful with alcohol. 

Many use alcohol to wind down after work and it is tempting to join with work colleagues after work. While an occasional glass of wine won't do any harm (and some studies even show that there are health benefits), you need to remember that alcohol is just empty calories. The over consumption of alcohol can also have a negative impact on health in general.

Even though you have a very hectic schedule, it doesn't mean that your health must suffer. The 5 tips for a healthier lifestyle here are very easy to implement. It just takes a bit of forethought and planning. Taking care of your health will result in a more productive day's work and a longer life!

Joining Creating Better Tomorrow for Stress Free Holidays

You open up your planner. And immediately you feel overwhelmed. School holiday party this week. Extended family next week. Christmas shopping sometime in the mix. Clean the house for your in-laws coming over. Does this look anything like your agenda throughout late November and through December? And many of you probably have travel in there too. First off, how about you and me, together, let's take a deep breath.

Did you do it? Ok, ready I'm here to help you create stress free holidays where you can actually enjoy your family and friends.

Perhaps when you read the phrase stress free holidays your first reaction is like mine was...laughter. I didn't think the three words could go together. One night after journalling about the upcoming holidays and the stress I realized how sad this made me. How sad that I didn't even fathom that the three words could go together. When my faith and my God tell me this should be the most JOYOUS time of the year. I went on a mission. Help women create stress free holidays full of happiness! Are you ready I want to let you in on the secret. This formula is made up of three simple steps. And I am not naive enough to believe that these steps will remove all the family tension, the late nights, the travel worries, etc. BUT I am confident enough to KNOW that by including these three things in your life every day now through the end of the year you WILL end up happier come 2017. So without further delay...drum roll please...your formula for stress free holidays.

Move 30 minutes a day 6 days a week

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Drink half your body weight in water every day

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Practice self love and gratitude EVERY DAY

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Stress Free and Happy Holidays

Maybe you don't see how drinking water, moving, and loving yourself (and others) can have any impact on your holiday season. But I know these simple steps will have a huge impact. Here is where the magic happens. Each of these steps takes little time but you send the message to your brain that you are making time for yourself. The message that YOU ARE IMPORTANT and that your health and happiness haven't slipped to the bottom of the to do list. Isn't that what seems to happen every holiday season? Everything else MUST get done but at our own expense. I propose we all rebel. And this rebellion will actually bring the focus back on the JOY and the TRUE MEANING of the holidays.

I invite you to join me as I help you and many other women in Healthy for the Holidays.

Starting on November 20th I will be helping you reach that goal of stress free holidays. Together we will work to drink our water, move, and to love ourselves. You will receive a daily email from me with a self love and gratitude action step (won't take long I promise!) and you in that email will also be your daily reminder on water and movement! AND you will be added into my private facebook group for clients only! I'd love to have you and invite you to learn more or contact me with any questions sarah@creatingbettertomorrow.com. Most importantly though, whether you join me or not, I pray that this holiday season is the most joyous and blessed season for you and those you love.

Measure What Matters With LVL

Hey weekend warriors, let's talk about a new way to make sure that you're drinking enough water!

~SPONSORED POST~

Wednesday pre-ordering began for the LVL (pronounced "level") - a new activity monitor from BSX Technologies measuring your heart rate, sleep, and hydration (the only product to do so) in real time.  So now we have a new stat to check and track to see reasons why we're feeling good or bad throughout the day.

The Technical Side

Unlike other wearable tech LVL uses near-infrared light (NIRS) to monitor your body.  This red light is the same as they use in hospitals because it's more accurate and can measure more.  Other wearable tech uses green light because it's both cheaper and enables the product to be put on the market faster than red light.

BSX Technologies used a patented multi-wavelength NIRS technology for LVL to go deeper and measure more parameters at once compared to the traditional green light technology.  Their fancy algorithms predicts and identifies your current health and fitness state from anywhere on your body.

All About That Hydration

A photo posted by Cassandra Schmigotzki (@longandwindingroadtowellness) on Sep 7, 2016 at 11:23am PDT

Hydration is a fickle beast because frankly we suck at judging how much we should be drinking.  Studies have shown hydrating solely upon feeling thirsty results in only 30-70% consumption compared to match how much we lose from sweating.  Just 1-2% dehydration could lead to a 5.8% decrease in performance.  This kind of decrease results in poor skills testing similar to those at the legal limit for blood alcohol!

Being dehydrated also affects recovery.  If you're not drinking enough you don't sleep well, you're moody, your memory slips, and more.  Your body also gets confused between hunger and thirst, leading you to overeat.

SHOCKING FACT:  75% of Americans are in a chronic state of dehydration!

The good news is we CAN overcome dehydration, after all being properly hydrated has saved more lives than antibiotics.  Using science and cutting edge technology to track more physiological data it's possible to provide real time stats that'll help us perform better.

Who is Behind LVL?

BSX Technologies was started in 2012 down in the heart of Austin, TX, by Dustin Freckleton, MD, and Nithin Rajan.  Shortly before his 25th birthday Dustin suffered a stroke due to severe dehydration.  He was completely paralyzed on his left side and it took months for him to learn to walk again.  Once he finished medical school Dustin walked away from his career and started BSX.  He is dedicated to developing smarter tech to have better real time stats to keep everyone healthy.

In 2014 BSX developed and shipped the first wearable lactate threshold sensor (BSXInsight) that's now used by everyday athletes, pros, and Olympians worldwide who want to train with professional grade data.  This sensor identifies your optimal training zones, measuring your fitness capacity.  The technology has been independently validated by several academic and research institutions.  BSXInsight uses the same NIRS tech as LVL.

How & Where Do I Get LVL?

This first batch of LVL is scheduled to begin shipping next summer.  They are available for pre-orders at a discounted price for a limited time.

Let's all get LVL'd up and really Measure What Matters!

All LVL product images are courtesy of BSX Technologies in conjunction with this sponsored post.