Water!

Water is often overlooked when it comes to nutrition, but it is one of the most important parts of your diet. The big question is: How much water should I drink per day? The most common answer is the famous "8 glasses of water a day"! But there are variables that should be taken into consideration. For example, a 5 foot tall, 115 pound woman's needs would be very different from a 6 foot tall, 300 pound man's. Also, the needs of someone who is sedentary would differ from someone who runs 8 miles every day, as that person would perspire more.

The opposite side of hydration is dehydration. This is the condition in which one does not drink enough water to keep the body hydrated. Livestrong.com explains, "Getting enough water each day is important to avoid dehydration, which can cause headache, fatigue, weakness, dizziness and even unconsciousness in severe cases."

"You lose close to an additional liter, about four cups, of water a day through breathing, sweating and bowel movements," states the Mayo Clinic's website. Livestrong's website goes on to say, "Since food typically accounts for 20 percent of your total fluid intake, consuming two liters of water or other beverages a day in addition to your normal diet will typically replace your lost fluids".

 The benefits of drinking water are many. Here are just a few.

• Helps you lose weight by reducing your appetite
• Improves your mood because your body feels good
• Helps detoxify your body
• Helps with digestion and constipation
• Creates healthy skin
• Regulates body temperature
• Protects and moisturizes joints
• Transports nutrients and oxygen into cells
• Moisturizes the air in our lungs
• Helps with metabolism

So how much water should you drink? You can aim for the 8 cups of water or there is another technique. They say to take your weight, divide it by 2, and that is the amount of water that you should drink in ounces. So if you are 200 pounds, divide that by 2, which equals 100. So you would try to drink around 100 ounces of water each day, which is about 12 cups. That may seem like a lot, but you must remember that you also consume water through the fruits, veggies, and other beverages like coffee or tea that you consume. Pop/soda does not count in this list. Livestrong's site says though, "If you drink enough water where you rarely feel thirsty and produce at least 1.5 liters, or about six cups, of colorless or slightly yellow urine a day, your fluid intake is probably adequate."

So grab your water and drink up!

Fighting childhood obesity!

In 2010, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese. (CDC) It has even gotten to the point that it is affecting infants. It's no wonder because "more than two-thirds (68.8 percent) of adults are considered to be overweight or obese." (WIN).






Overweight and obese children are more likely to have:

• Higher risk for cardiovascular disease
• Prediabetes
• Bone and joint problems
• Sleep apnea
• Social and psychological problems

 It is also shown that children who are overweight or obese will grow up to be overweight or obese as adults. This puts them at risk for:

• Heart disease
• Type 2 diabetes
• Stroke
• Severe types of cancer ( including cancer of the breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, pancreas, gall bladder, thyroid, ovary, cervix, and prostate, as well as multiple myeloma and Hodgkin’s lymphoma)
• Osteoartheritis

 So what can we do to help the kids? 

There are several ways to help our kids get healthy. The most important thing that you can ever do, as a parent, friend, or family member, for a child is to lead by example! I can't stress this enough. Kids mimic the habits and behaviors that they learn at home. If you are overweight yourself, there is a great chance that your children will be too. As much as you think you can do what you want and tell them to do something else, "Do as I say, not as I do" rarely works. You also don't want to sit down and talk to your child about how they are overweight and you're concerned and they are going to be put on a diet and fitness regime. You never want to single out your child and make them feel bad or guilty about their weight; this only increases the chances of decreased self-esteem and may even push them into eating more and being less active.

Here are a few ways to help your child, without making them feel bad about it:

• Get active WITH THEM. Play outside with them, take them to a park, go for bike rides together. If they are into technology, get them into playing Wii Sports with you or have them show you how to shake your groove thang with one of the many different Wii dance games. It's active, it's fun, and you're not singling them out. It's great for the adults too because they will increase their fitness level by doing this as well. And it's a great way to interact and bond with your child.
• Pack them lunch for school. I cannot emphasize enough how much I do not agree with what has become acceptable to serve to kids at school. I believe they have even tried to pass off french fries as vegetables because they are made from potatoes. So pack your kids a lunch. Make it fun and make it delicious, but leave out all the processed junk that their little, growing bodies do not need. 
• Prepare healthy meals for EVERYONE at home. Creating a meal of pasta for the family, but giving one child a salad and chicken is NOT going to help their self esteem at all, and will only create resentment. If you want your child to be healthy, make sure you focus on the whole family getting healthy together, rather than trying to make little Julie lose weight. 
• Help them find an activity at school that they can be active in whether that is track, softball, football, or even the marching band. Don't force them into it and don't make it seem that they need to join to lose weight. Just get them involved in something physical where they can make friends and have fun. 
• Make sure they are getting enough good quality sleep each night. It's a bad idea for them to have TV's or computers in their room because they often stay up until very late and too much stimulation before bed time makes it hard to fall asleep.
• Try to reduce stress. Stress has been proven over and over to cause weight gain and difficulty losing weight. So talk to your kids, find out what is going on and try to reduce any stress that they may be dealing with. 
• Drink water, lots of water. Juices and pops are loaded with sugar. Instead of setting your kids up for a crash, a blood sugar crash, have them drink lots of water throughout the day. It will give them energy and is exactly what their bodies need. 

If you have talked to your child about how they have a weight problem and they responded poorly, as is expected if it is addressed as their problem,  Jillian Michaels recommends talking to them and being honest. Explain to them that it isn't their fault and you aren't unhappy with them and that you will love them no matter what, but that you are feeling like you have let them down by not showing them healthy behaviors and that the whole family is going to focus on getting healthy together from now on.

I hope my tips have been helpful. Have a happy Wednesday!

My Journey

I always thought of myself as being overweight. Even back in high school, when I was chubby at best. I would wear baggy, or frumpy (as my mom liked to call it), clothing every day to school. Looking back at my pictures from high school, I don't know what the heck I was thinking. I looked fine! Here is a picture from my junior year of high school. You can see how uncomfortable and insecure I am with my arms crossed over my tummy. Nowadays I would kill to have a figure like that again, not to mention the nice skin.

I wasn't particularly active in high school, but I was in the Flag Corps and that had me getting in a bit of exercise. I'd never been serious in any other sports or jogging or roller blading or anything though. I would eat whatever the school prepared for lunch (french fries, pizza, chicken & noodles, etc.) and then would go home and eat whatever my parents had made for dinner. I would snack off and on, with little consequences. I still had that fat-girl mentality though so I went back and forth with different diets and different exercise regimes that usually failed within the first week. This is pretty much how I lived all throughout high school.

Then I went to college.

I started eating at the dining halls, keeping snacks in my room, and the only exercise I had was from walking to and from my classes, which were a 10 minute walk each way. This is also when I met my first boyfriend. We would spend a lot of time together, and I would eat what and when he did. This period of my life started me in a very unhealthy pattern. We would eat Taco Bell or Wendy's every day, sometimes twice a day! We would eat a box of macaroni for dinner. An entire box! For each of us!! We drank pop like it was going out of style. Normally, I would be fine, not hungry, content, etc., but then he would say he was hungry and he would get something to eat. I saw what he got and wanted some too because it smelled/sounded/looked good. So I was eating way more often and in greater quantities than I should have been. I started gaining weight.

I was gaining much more than the freshman 15. I don't remember what my weight in high school was, but I remember being somewhere around 190 in a 5'6" frame when I started college. Towards the end of the first year in college, I remember weighing myself, and I had reached over 200 pounds. I started crying immediately. I was horrified that I had let myself get over 200 pounds. I decided I would go on a diet. So I started eating grilled chicken every day. Every meal... To this day, I don't really care for grilled chicken because of how often I used to eat it.

I was trying to eat healthier, but wasn't getting in any activity and didn't really understand the Nutritional Information that was on the food labels. So I cut out pop, but started drinking a huge amount of chocolate milk. As is expected when you deny yourself something, I got tired of it and gave in. I did as I did in high school with trying different diets, but none of them stuck. I continued to gain more and more weight. Things got worse as my time in college continued. I was basically living off campus and eating fast food ALL THE TIME instead of in the dining halls! We would just go grab something to eat from whatever greasy place sounded the best at the time. I continued to stock the apartment with horribly fattening foods and pop and chocolate milk and chocolate and candy.

My dad, as well as the rest of my family, was beginning to notice the change in me. He would tell me about it, in a very blunt way, which did nothing but offend me. My doctor was telling me that I needed to change something, and soon, or I would be living a short, unhealthy life. I am a stubborn person, so instead of taking their advice, I did the opposite. I ate more. I was beginning to see how big I really was, but felt out of control. I didn't know what to do to stop it. This pattern continued until I went to Spain.

I studied in Spain for 4 months. During that time I ate, mostly, only what my host mom made. She would make wonderful meals for lunch, full of vegetables and chicken and seafood. We had water for every meal, except orange juice for breakfast, and we would have fruit for dessert every night. The problem was that she would make us a huge portion so that our tummies hurt when we finished eating. My roommate and I were too afraid of offending her to tell her that we didn't want to eat it all. We had tried telling her that we wanted to lose weight, but she refused to give us smaller portions. Then for dinner, we would have all fried foods: fried eggs, fried ham/chicken/fish, hot dogs, french fries, etc. So, even though we had a different variety of food, the portions were too large and the choices were not always healthy. I was walking a ton more than I ever did in the States, but even with all the walking, I still continued to gain weight.

I remember trying to go jogging with my roommate and another friend. I ended up injuring my knees so bad that I could barely walk for 2 weeks. I would wake up in the mornings and cry because my knees and my ankles were swollen and so sore I couldn't put pressure on them before I took my Tylenol. I didn't realize how much weight I had gained because I didn't have a scale to weigh myself on, but when I got back to the States, I did weigh myself. I had crept up to 260 pounds! I am the one on the left, obviously. I had to take these pictures off of Facebook because I was so embarrassed by them. I keep them, though, to remind me of how easy it is to slide to that weight.

After Spain, I went on a family vacation to Hocking Hills, Ohio. This is a place where you camp out in a tent or in a cabin. We opted for a cabin. They have caves and caverns and cliffs that you can go hike in, on, and around. That trip was one of the hardest I've ever taken. I'd sweat so much walking up the smallest hill. I would literally walk faster than everyone else, so that when I reached a checkpoint, I could stop and catch my breath while I waited for them to catch up. I was embarrassed by how out of shape I was. This picture is from the middle of June. It is hot, but I am so disgusted by my body that I refused to wear shorts. I was reluctant to take off the hoodie that I always wore, but the heat got to me. So here I am in jeans and a big, black t-shirt (my normal outfit). That summer of 2008 was the biggest I have ever been. I weighed in at a whopping 278 pounds! My health was failing me, and I realized I needed to do something about it.

Around this time, my mom had started doing Weight Watchers. I was skeptical of it, but was seeing amazing results in her. I talked to her about it and decided that this might be my last chance. I would put everything I had into this program, and if it didn't work, nothing would, and I would just have to accept being morbidly obese for the rest of my life. I weighed in for the first time with Weight Watchers on June 25th, 2008 at 275 pounds. I checked the recommended weight for my height, and accordingly, set my goal to be 160 pounds. I don't think I ever believed I would be that weight, but I figured that any loss was better than nothing. So I set my mind and committed fully to Weight Watchers. The first week was incredibly difficult. I had to weigh and measure everything. I quickly learned exactly how horrible the food I had been eating was. The normal meal that I got at Taco Bell once or twice a day equaled up to 31 points, without a drink, and without a dessert or extra taco that I sometimes got. That was almost as many points as I was allowed for a day. I started out with a BMI of 44 and a points allowance of 33.

So, after realizing how bad the food was, I stopped eating it and started making healthier choices. That first week, I lost a total of 8 pounds. The second week, I lost 4 pounds. The next two weeks, 3 pounds were gone. After that I started to lose 1-2 pounds consistently every week. The results were amazing! They are what kept me going when my cravings kicked in. From July of 2008 to December 2008, I lost 46 pounds. I was receiving compliments from friends and family and was even inspiring others to join WW. That winter, I got off track and stopped weighing myself and stopped tracking food, but tried to follow what I had been doing and managed to maintain my weight. In that February of 2009, I broke up with the guy I had been dating, after 3.5 years. This was very hard for me, but instead of going back to old habits, it renewed my strength and motivation, and I got back into WW with a vengeance. This was a very scary time for me because I was thinking about dating again, but I was still very large, and didn't think anyone would want me. I ended up joining a few dating sites and found that it was easier than I thought to find men who were interested in me. This was a huge confidence booster for me, and again, strengthened my decision to stick with WW. In addition to doing WW, I decided to start working out. I had lost a good deal of weight and decided to start out slow. I chose to do a C25k program. With doing WW and exercising, from December 2008 to August 2009, I managed to lose another 42 pounds. That summer, was introduced to P90x. I started doing that in September. I managed to lose another 12 pounds and hit a 100 pound loss by November!

I had gone from a size 22 to a size 8/10 pants. I had gone from a BMI of 44 to a BMI of 28. I had lost 14 inches in my hips, 12 in my waist, and felt amazing! After another relationship went back I let myself slide again. I stopped doing my workouts. I stopped tracking my food. Then the holidays hit. From November 2009 to March 2010, I gained 25 pounds back. I felt out of control, but this time, I knew what needed to be done. I set my mind once again and started tracking my points and doing the P90x and  Insanity religiously and have even completed running a half marathon.

After the half marathon, I took another hiatus. I let myself go into a slump that I am just now, in January 2013, pulling myself out of. I managed to maintain for quite a while, gaining and losing the same 20 pounds.

Then I got engaged. I was determined to lose weight for the wedding. I had a year, but still didn't lose the weight. I think I let the stress of it all get to me. I weighed about 190 on my wedding day. Then the holidays came and I decided that I was going to start doing well at the beginning of the new year (2013).

Well, now it is the beginning of the new year. I am one week into my resolution. I started at 197.4 and in the first week have lost almost 7 pounds. First week weigh in was 190.8. I also had the flu/recovery the first week of the new year, so I haven't been exercising yet, but focused on eating right until my body was well again. Today is Monday, January 7th, and I did my first workout of the year, Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30. It was hard, but not impossible. I felt great for the first two rounds and then lost some energy on the third, but I'm going to try again tomorrow and see how it goes. 

I have the support of friends and family and now my wonderful husband, Chris. I am in control again and this year I AM GOING TO HIT GOAL!!!! This is a promise I have made to myself.