Five tips to drink water when you HATE it
It’s no secret that drinking water is a vital part of weight loss. Our bodies are up to 60% water AND one of the steps of fat loss is hydrolysis (hydro = water). So to be the most effective at losing weight, you have to drink water. But what can you do to get yourself to drink more water when you HATE it? Here are five simple and effective tips for drinking more water: 1. Start where you are One of the best gifts you can give yourself on your weight loss journey is to meet yourself where you are. If you are only drinking sugary, caffeinated drinks and the thought of drinking a glass of water cues your gag reflex, then it will be really hard for you to start drinking 64oz of water each day. If that’s you, start small. Plan to drink just one 8oz glass of water each day. You can even spread out that 8oz if it feels better to just take a sip here or there. Don’t worry about how you are not getting “enough” or you are “supposed” to be drinking more than that. Once you get really good at drinking the 8oz in a day then you can increase it slowly but surely. When you start something that is so drastically different from where you are beginning, it takes a ton of motivation and willpower to do it. You spend all your time trying to force yourself to do something that feels unnatural and often times don’t enjoy. Instead, be OK with starting smaller and remind yourself that just because you start small doesn’t mean that’s where you will finish. 2. Pair it with a reward Doesn’t it feel good to be rewarded for our efforts? Of course it does! But far too often we don’t tell ourselves “good job” or sit in the pride of knowing that we did something good for ourselves. Instead the effort goes largely unnoticed and the only “reward” we get is the mental chatter about it dies down for a bit. Rewards help to reinforce actions we want to take in the future. They are really useful when you want to create new habits. So to create a new habit of drinking water and making it more enjoyable, incorporate a reward! Now this doesn’t need to be anything that you buy. In fact, it could be simply pairing drinking water with something you like to do that is already a part of your every day routine. For instance if you love drinking soda, you could pair drinking a glass of water with the reward of having a soda. You could also allow yourself to watch an episode of your favorite TV show once you have drank all of your water for the day. Remember gold stars from school? A reward could be as simple as a pretty sticker on a chart or a check mark on your habit tracker. To make it extra impactful, remember to say to yourself “I’m so proud of myself for drinking water.” 3. Don’t prolong the misery If every sip of water is pure misery for you, then don’t sip your water throughout the day. Guzzle it. There is nothing saying that you have sip slowly and consistently throughout the day. It’s just important that you drink it. I rarely take a single sip of water. I usually take ten sips at a time just because I know that means I am taking in lots of water at once and that increases my likelihood of drinking 64oz. Another great tip to get it done quickly: get started early. After you wake up, start drinking water. Your body is actually dehydrated when you wake up because of the hours you’ve spent sleeping and using the water in your body. Put a cup in your bathroom right next to your toothbrush then immediately drink at least one full cup of water after brushing your teeth. This is called habit stacking and is a great way to remind yourself of that new habit of drinking water. Getting started early in the day with drinking water means that you finish earlier and can enjoy the rest of the day drinking the beverage of your choice. 4. Disguise it Water doesn’t have to be plain to be helpful. Juice lovers can pour a glass 3/4 full of juice and then top the rest of it off with some water. After doing that for a while, you can change the ratio to 1/2 juice and 1/2 water. Keep increasing the ratio until you get mostly water. There are really great water enhancers that can be used to flavor your water as well. Use the same method of adding the amount you enjoy and then slowly decreasing it over time so you are drinking mostly water. There are tons of spa water recipes that you can try too. Spa water incorporates fresh fruits and herbs to flavor your water and make it more fun to drink. You can also incorporate herbal teas as a way to get in more water (just be careful with what you add to it!). I personally love dessert teas from Bigelow teas that have flavors reminiscent of lemon pound cake and chocolate macaroons. 5. Think sexy thoughts about water Ruminating on how much you HATE water will never help you drink more of it. It will make you feel angry and resentful that drinking water is something you HAVE to do even though you hate it. It will feel like a chore and a burden in your life. Try to find something that you like about drinking water. Get your brain primed to see the benefits by listing as many good things as possible about drinking water. Finally, make a commitment to yourself to stop saying you hate water. It may feel true but it will never help you drink more of it. Instead find some other thoughts you can practice thinking
Nine lessons learned from losing 90 pounds
When you lose over 90 pounds, the process will change you. You learn things about yourself, see yourself in a new light and even evolve into a better version of yourself (and not just because you lost a ton of weight). I’m going to share with you nine lessons I have learned on my journey to losing over 90 pounds in hopes that they can help you on your journey. I enjoy sweets and treats more the less I eat them On my journey, I didn’t restrict any types of foods, including sweets. In fact, at the beginning I was eating sweets multiple times a day. Eventually I began to focus on foods that really gave me sustained energy and the sweets became less of my daily routine. And you know what? Creating more space and time between the sweets really allowed me to create desire and anticipation for the treat. I savored them more and they were much more enjoyable when they were just a standard part of my day. Emotional eating comes in many forms I was aware that I was an emotional eater but as I began to check in with myself more regularly before eating, I realized I was emotionally eating ALL. THE. TIME. If I was stressed about the kids being crazy kids, let’s look for some relief in the pantry. Work task that I didn’t want to start? Hmm…. maybe I should grab a snack before I get started. Bored? Let’s eat. Tired? A quick bite might energize me. If I was having a disagreement with my husband, I’ll show him by eating the last of the cookies! Feeling proud of my kids school performance? Let’s get ice cream! Becoming aware of all the times I was eating when I wasn’t truly hungry helped me figure out the real solutions for those problems. Now I take a power nap if I’m tired or go to my room for a quick breather when they kids are being crazy. Solving for the true problem allows me to feel better while also losing weight in an enjoyable way. It was time to parent myself My high weight of 250 pounds came from a lot of emotional eating and a side of “I don’t wanna.” I didn’t want to deal with my emotions. Eating fresh fruits and veggies didn’t sound fun. 11,000 steps each day sounded hard. I didn’t want to stick to a food plan. I basically conditioned myself to be a big baby whose brain would throw a fit at the thought of what it would take to get healthier and lose weight. I wanted pleasure and I wanted it NOW. I realized that many of the things I was allowing myself to do (like eat entire boxes of cookies or sit on the couch all day) were things I would never let my kids do. I know that moving your body, getting sunshine and eating a well balanced diet is key to good mental and physical health. Somehow I had convinced myself that because I already KNOW these things that meant I could be exempt from actually doing them. Not only was living my life that way taking a toll on my body but I was increasing mom guilt as I knew I wasn’t practicing what I was preaching to my kiddos. So I started to parent myself. I would acknowledge that I was making changes and that changes are often uncomfortable. That’s OK. It wasn’t going to kill me. In fact the more I practiced this new way of living, the more I would become comfortable with it and even appreciate it. I also made an agreement with myself that just because “I didn’t wanna” didn’t make that a valid excuse for not doing something. Logically I knew these actions were all what was best for me and I could do them even if “I didn’t wanna.” The scale is just one piece of data Yep, it’s been said before and I’m saying it again. The scale is just a number. And it is only one number to consider on your weight loss journey. From the beginning of my weight loss journey, I made sure to track other measurements too. I took body weight measurements, used habit trackers and took progress pictures. These were invaluable as I had weeks were the scale didn’t move (or gasp, went up!). These other measurements helped me stay grounded as I could reflect on the efforts I was putting forth and other changes that my body was making. Other ideas for non-scale measurement are body fat measurements, changes in how much you can lift and cardio endurance. Not sure how to measure cardio endurance? Climb a flight of stairs each month and record how long it takes, how long it takes you to catch your breath and how you feel afterwards. You can also track your mood throughout the process. Every morning record your mood in a journal. Exercise has been proven to elevate your mood so when you start noticing more happy and content days, that’s progress! The only diet drama comes from my own head This lesson took me a little longer to learn. When you are 100 pounds overweight, the beginning of your weight loss journey can be very thrilling. I made very little changes to my diet (I only stopped eating when I had enough, instead of being full) and the weight seemed to fall off. Eventually more changes had to be made to keep losing weight and certainly it was falling off me anymore. Cue the drama! I realized that the weeks where the scale didn’t drop “enough,” stayed the same or went up a bit were really difficult for me. All the sudden my motivation would disappear and I would start questioning if I would ever be able to reach my goal. I knew this was a normal part of the weight loss journey but it felt terrible. So I
Weight Loss and the Holidays
Oh, the holidays. So many of us think about this time of the year with all the decadent meals and parties and figure we are better off throwing in the towel and restarting on January 1st. But does it have to be that way? Here’s the reality of November and December: Thanksgiving is 1 meal. Christmas Eve / Christmas Day is 4 meals. New Year’s Eve is 1 meal. Holiday parties between 2-5 meals. Total Holiday meals = 8-11 meals If you start counting from November 20th through the end of the year, there are 42 days. Multiply each of those days by 3 meals and you have 126 meals. Subtract those 8-11 indulgent, celebratory meals and that’s 115 meals to make regular food choices that fuel your body well. That’s 115 meals that can move you forward towards your weight loss goal. Here are five tips for weight loss during the holidays: 1 – Set your mindset and intention for the rest of the year. On January 1st when you look back at the holiday season, how do you want to feel? This is a great place to start is deciding how you want to show up during this time. Maybe you want to feel proud, loved, amazed, joyful or grateful. I teach my clients that our thoughts are what create our feelings which affect the actions we take in life. So start with a thought to carry throughout the holiday season as your mantra. Proud – I’m capable of balancing health, self care and holiday festivities. Loved – I’m surrounded by so many people that I love and that love me however food is not love. Amazed – I am continuing to rock weight loss even during the holiday season! Joyful – I love finding the joyful, non-food moments during this holiday season and cherishing them. Grateful – No matter what the year offered, I am blessed to be here surrounded by love. 2 – Plan for and create desire around your indulgences. This time of the year is well known for decadent foods, endless sweets and merry making by the glass full. So many of us think that these tasty foods are foods that we can only eat once a year….but is that really true? This thought isn’t very dangerous unless you are using it as another excuse to give permission to gorge yourself on it. If you are finding this is the case, simply remind yourself that you are a grown adult that can afford to buy or make whatever you want, whenever you want it. That same thought can be used to create more desire and excitement to savor certain foods. Be mindful that Christmas holds such a place of excitement in our hearts because it only comes once a year. If we had Christmas every day, people would get really tired of the parties, wrapping presents and decking the halls quickly. Instead of eating the sugar cookies morning, noon and night, practice being intentional and waiting a bit to indulge in them. Maybe you have a special date with yourself in the afternoon with a hot cup of coffee and a cookie. Make it special. Make it count. Make it something to really look forward to and savor that moment. Likewise be particular about which indulgence you want to enjoy and when. Not every party needs to mean eating decadent appetizers, desserts and drinking alcohol. Be selective. Christmas Eve with your parents will be the time you enjoy those amazing meatballs but abstain from alcohol. The office work party will be your time to eat your coworkers famous English toffee. The Moms Club Christmas party is when you will toast the night with a glass of wine with your girls. Another great option is to choose certain times when you want to enjoy these items. Maybe you want to only have drinks at one event on weekends only. You could also limit sweets to Tuesday nights with the kids. Then the rest of the time you focus on regular eating to keep your body feeling at its best. 3 – Create a Party Protocol Holiday parties can be a huge hurdle when you are trying to lose weight. Most of the time you don’t know what will be served (except that it will for sure not be calorie free food) and many times the entire group activity is eating, drinking and chatting with each other. So many of us go in hoping we’ll make OK food choices only to leave the party regretting that we didn’t wear stretchy pants. My grandfather had a saying “Put your hopes in one hand, spit in the other and see which one fills up first.” And it’s true! Hoping you make good food choices isn’t helpful. Your brain needs more clear instructions on what to do. So make a party protocol! Here are some ideas that you could incorporate into your own party protocol: Start with a plate of fruits and veggies first. Wait one hour after you arrive before getting an alcoholic or non-water drink. Go around and talk to everyone at the party first before making a plate to eat. Leave empty space on your plate between all foods. Limit yourself to one plate, including any sweets. Alternate between water and alcohol/non-water beverage. Don’t try everything. Ask around what everyone is enjoying and take the top three raved about foods. Try everything. Serve yourself one bite of everything. Only go back for more of your favorite item. Every plate is half fruits or veggies. Don’t let your brain try to tell you that you’re being restrictive. Our brains LOVE to throw a fit when it feels like it’s not getting what it wants. Be ready to talk back to your brain and tell it “I’m choosing to enjoy the party this way. No one is making me do this. I made this plan and I want to see what happens when I follow through.” 4 –