Tricks to help you increase your daily water intake

We all know we’re supposed to drink a certain amount of water each day. We also know that a large percent of people do not drink enough water. What is the suggested daily water intake? I can answer that for you – half your body weight in ounces is how much water you should be drinking daily. For example, if you are 150 pounds you should be drinking roughly 75 ounces of water a day.

“Now that sounds like a lot of water”is probably what you’re thinking. But if you get in the habit, it’s not as hard as it sounds. Drinking the correct amount of water each day will help you lose weight, stay healthy, and provide you with more energy.

Here are some tips for increasing your water intake –

1. Drink a glass of water right when you wake up 

The best way to start the day is drinking water. This will wake you up and help you feel ready for the day. While you are sleeping, you become dehydrated throughout the night, so drinking a glass of water right when you wake up will replenish you.

2. Plan it out

You don’t have to plan it out exactly. But make a broad timeline in your head that will help encourage yourself to keep sipping throughout the day. For example, plan to finish your first water bottle by 10 a.m. and then your second by 1 p.m. This will help you stay on track. Once you get used to this plan it will become part of your routine.

3. Add fruits and citrus 

Some people have a problem drinking water because they don’t like drinking something that doesn’t have a flavor. Adding lemon to your water will give you the flavor satisfaction without all of the added sugars in sodas and teas. Note: Adding flavoring bought from stores is not good for you. Use natural ingredients to flavor your water so you know exactly what you are drinking. 

4. Use straws

For some reason using a straw makes us drink more. Purchasing a plastic cup with a straw is a must. Not only does a straw make it easier to drink because you don’t have to open anything, but it also is tempting to drink out of when you’re bored.

5. Buy trendy reusable water bottles

Camelbacks, Swells, Yetis, whatever floats your boat. Purchase a couple of water bottles that fit your style. This will encourage you drink more water because you’ll want to use your cool new water bottle.

 

7 Tips For Pushing Yourself

I have a history of playing sports and coaching sports as well. Going along with that, I notice athletes that don’t push themselves to become better. If you know me, this is one of my biggest pet peeves. If you don’t push yourself to that extra step, you aren’t going to improve. So what’s the point of working out or training for something if you aren’t going to push yourself for further results?

It’s the new year and we don’t want to give up on those resolutions, so let’s push ourselves to keep going. Here are some tips on how to push yourself to get better results –

1. Go to the max

If you are working out but only putting in half of the effort that you could be, you are wasting your time. If you are on your last set of 10 but you think you can push it to 12, do it. This is where people give up. It’s important to implant an idea of ‘pushing to the max’ in your brain before you go to the gym, that way you are able to get the maximum results out of your workout.

2. If it’s easy, make it hard 

This is something I notice a lot with sports teams. Everyone’s strength and athletic ability is different. When a coach tells a team to do 10 push up’s each during their training, there are athletes that don’t push themselves to 10 and there are athletes that do 10 without a problem. If you are someone that can’t make it to 10, take your time to slowly push yourself to 10. But if you are in a situation where the workout is too easy, why settle with that? Push yourself and do more. Make the workout as hard as possible so the workout is benefitting you.

3. Don’t think about it

I tell myself this every time I’m on the treadmill. DON’T THINK ABOUT IT. Don’t think about how much time is left. Don’t think about how tired you are. Listen to music, watch TV, distract yourself. If you catch yourself thinking about negative things that might slow you down, quickly take your mind off of it. Use the technique of thinking about the workout in small increments. This will help you push yourself to the next goal without giving up.

4. Just go to the gym

The first step in getting the results that you want is to actually get off of the couch and go to the gym. Even if you are tired, just get up and go to the gym and don’t overthink it. It’s important to make going to the gym part of your routine. Not going for a couple of days in a row can turn into not going for a week in a row, which can turn into giving up overall. Don’t ruin your routine!

5. Don’t use soreness as an excuse

It’s important to take a recovery day during your workout routine to let your muscles recover. But some people take advantage of this. It’s key to know that being sore doesn’t mean you can’t work out. Warming up with cardio for 10-15 minutes then using rollers to roll out your muscles will surprisingly help the soreness go away for your workout.

 

6. Make daily goals 

This is one of the most important tips of all time. Making daily goals will help you push yourself to your end results. Making big goals are always good, but it takes little steps to get to something big. Some examples of small daily goals are:

• To finish your whole workout routine and not give up
• To run for a full 30 minutes without stopping
• To go up in weight while lifting
• To drink the correct amount of water
• To eat the least sugar as possible

Making small goals are what is going to help you reach that big goal you’re dreaming about.

7. Don’t watch the time

Watching the time is going to make your workout dreadful. Enjoying your workout is very important. Like discussed in the article 8 Mental Tricks That Will Help You Push Yourself Harder During Workouts, it’s a privilege to be able to workout and we shouldn’t take advantage of that. So don’t watch the time during your workout because we all know it just makes the workout seem 10 times longer. If you’re using a machine where the time seems to be staring at you, put a towel over it too help you get into the zone.

Have fun with your workouts, don’t give up, and push yourself. Whether your goal is to be healthier, more toned, lose weight or something else, we don’t want to give up on results that can make your life happier and healthier.

 

 

Start the day with a healthy breakfast to lose weight

New year, new me – that’s everyone’s motto starting off the new year. Every year, a large percent of society sets a New Year’s resolution to start working out and putting off the pounds. For gym owners, this is the best time of the year because more people are buying gym memberships thinking that if they have the membership, they will go to the gym. This isn’t always the case. 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail because of things like not thinking small and not challenging yourself talked about in Joseph Luciani’s article “Why 80 Percent of New Year’s Resolutions Fail”.

That’s why I’m here. To help motivate people to stick to their New Year’s resolutions and lose weight. There are many factors involved in losing weight including healthy calorie controlled diets, proper water intake, and the right amount of exercise. But what do you do when you don’t know which foods to eat to speed up your metabolism and give you energy throughout the day for your workout? That’s what I’m here for.

Let me give you a little background on me. I have always been a health rat. Researching and experimenting with different diets, meal plans and detoxes. But I’ve found that the best diet is to eat natural, healthy, unprocessed foods. It’s important to eating five small meals a day, starting with breakfast. They always say, “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” which is 100% true!

Now let’s take a look at the 5 best breakfasts for weight loss

1. Light Multi-Grain English Muffin with PB and Banana 

It’s simple, it’s easy and it’s my favorite way to start the day. This is the perfect breakfast for someone in a rush to work and needs something filling and full of protein. I recommend using Teddy’s All Natural Peanut Butter, which is a lot healthier than other brands like Skippy or Jif. The peanut butter can also be replaced with almond butter or sun butter if desired.

Now that we are talking about protein, one note – PROTEIN IS GOOD. Some people think that cutting out protein will help them lose weight. Recent studies have proven that protein is not only good for you, it is essential for losing weight. Protein helps turn fat into muscle and gives you a great amount of energy for your workouts and every day activities. So it’s important to always remember to try to pack protein into every meal.

2. Egg White Omelet with Desired Vegetables 

Eggs are also a great source of protein. It is important to use egg whites and not the entire egg because the yolks of the eggs contain a lot of fat. But this fat isn’t horrible in some instances. If you are a women in particular, trying to lose weight, using egg whites will benefit your weight loss. But if you are someone trying to lose fat and gain muscle, using the egg whites and the yolks would be a better route. Egg yolks contain fats; healthy vitamin rich fats.

Another idea is to ratio the egg yolks to egg whites, 1:3. This way you are getting some of those vitamins but not too many.

3. Nonfat, No Sugar added Greek Yogurt with Walnuts and Fruit 

Greek yogurt is also a great source of protein. If I don’t eat this for breakfast, I eat this as a snack during the day usually before my workout. It’s important when buying yogurt to check the sugar content. Sometimes yogurt has a lot of added sugars which can kill the nutritional value.

 

4. No Bake Peanut Butter Energy Bites
Again, you can substitute this recipe with almond butter or sun butter. This is one of my favorite recipes. It is so fast and so easy. Not only are these a great (and delicious) breakfast but can also be had as a small snack throughout the day. You can find the recipe here: No Bake Peanut Butter Energy Balls.

 

 

 

5. Real Fruit Protein Shake

I have experimented with many many different kinds of protein shakes and this one is by far my favorite. 

• 1 frozen banana
• 1/2 cup of frozen strawberries
• 1 cup non-flavored almond milk
• Splash of apple cider
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 2 scoops of desired protein powder