Support System

Having a positive support system ups your chances of losing weight by more than 50%. So lets support each other. It can be a recipe, questions to everyone, how you are feeling, a workout you love, the fact that you ate the right food that day, anything you want it to be. There are days for everyone of us that we feel like we failed. We need to be the "pick me up" for each other.

Water

It is summer and so we tend to remember to drink more water but are we getting enough? You should be drinking 64oz a day.  I am going to talk a little bit about water and our workouts.  It is very easy to get dehydrated when you add workouts to your day. There are a few tips and ideas that can help keep us feeling great during and after the workout.  I don't know how many of you have weighed yourself before and after you workout but if you workout hard you can lose 2lbs of water in one workout.  That is totally normal. The question is how are you going to get those 2lbs back?  We are shooting for weight lose but not water weight.
Let’s start at the beginning.  Before you start the workout drink some water.  It doesn’t have to be a lot.  Start out with a little and work your way up to 2oz or so. Then, during your workout remember to drink water.  Depending on what I am doing I like to shoot for taking in water every 5 to 10 min.  Now, I'm not talking about 8oz at a time but enough to keep you going, maybe 1oz at a time.  After your workout you should drink at least 8oz if not more like 24oz.  You have all heard the rule of thumb, "If you are thirsty you are all ready dehydrated".  So don't wait until you are thirsty to drink water.  With all things having to do with working out it may take time to let your body adjust to drinking during a workout but it is worth the effort.  So next time you are thinking about it, weigh before your workout and then again after.  If you have lost more than 2lbs you are not getting enough water during your workout.  Remember your body needs the water to wash out the byproducts in your muscles from working out.  So drink it up and keep your body happy.

Tomorrow is weigh in day. If you are doing the challenge feel free to use your Sunday weigh in.  Your choice.

Sleep

If you want to lose weight you need to get enough sleep. I want you to shoot for 8 hours of sleep a night. Studies have shown that hours of sleep before midnight are when you get the best sleep with the most benefits. So the earlier you get to bed the better for your body and your weight loss. Studies also show that if you get enough sleep your body makes more of a hormone called leptin, which makes you feel satisfied after a meal. If you don't get enough sleep your body make less leptin and more of a hormone called ghrelin, which increases appetite and slows your metabolism. Your body also needs those precious hours of sleep to do maintenance and repairs on your body. You are working hard right now to lose weight your body needs time at rest to help it along. My goal is to head to bed by 9:30. This might be a challenge for some of us but if you get to bed earlier you can get up earlier and get just as much done in the day and maybe even more!