Your Best Friend

Last post we talked about your absolute worst enemy in your weight loss journey. Now I'm going to give you good news and tell you about your best friend; your stalwart ally in the fight against rolls. He's made of hydrogen and oxygen, your body is 75 percent made of him, he covers a whopping 72 percent of our planet, and best of all he is completely free! That's right, your friend and mine, water.

Water is so important to pretty much every being that lives on this planet and it goes double for people attempting to lose weight. Good ol' H20 is responsible for so many of the functions of our body from increasing brain activity to helping to hydrate your joints. Water is the largest part of our blood, helps proteins function efficiently, regulates your body temperature, assists your liver in breaking down toxins and, yes, even helps you to lose weight.

If hydration is your best friend then dehydration is in the League of Fatty Villains, along with that bad dude (or dudette) we discussed in the last post. Because so much of our body relies on water, not getting enough can have disastrous effects and can slow down your weight loss dramatically. How? Calm down sparky I'm about to tell you.

Our kidneys are great tools that were made for us. One of their most essential functions is removing waste from the body. In order to do that they use water and when your not drinking enough it has to get on the wire to it's buddy, the liver. When it's doing that it can't function effectively at one of it's greatest tasks to us: breaking down waste to aid in weight loss. Without the life giving liquid you'll feel worse, look worse and your body will function worse. It's important for EVERYONE to get enough water, but it's absolutely crucial for those attempting to lose weight.

Which leads to some normal concerns that I myself was faced with and people have asked me about in the past.

Won't drinking more water cause me to retain it more?

Nope. In fact the opposite is true. When your dehydrated your brain tells your body to hang onto every drop thinking that we are going through a drought. On the reverse side when you increase your water intake the body realizes that we have an ample supply of water. At first this will amply increase your trips to the restroom, but hang on because it will level out once your body reaches a standard level of hydration, instead of this crazy roller-coaster we keep it on most of the time.

But...but....water tastes gross!

Indeed, I felt this way myself not too long ago. Water from the tap especially, due to extra minerals, can taste bland or even have an odd aftertaste. In order to fight that I greatly recommend either buying bottles of water or buying a filtration system of some kind. They have some that you can fill with water and store in your fridge but I vastly prefer the ones you screw onto your faucet. If you do go with buying water bottles, please take care to recycle once your done with them or create a super team of water bottles and filter and refill them over and over again. Finding out that water is too bland for you? There are numerous ways you can flavor them up now. Buying Mio or Crystal Light packages to pour in your water will make it a little more palatable.

So that's it huh? I'm doomed to drink bland and boring water forever if I don't want to look like the Staypuff Marshmallow Man?

No, that's not what I'm saying at all. Weight loss is truly all about moderation. In order to give your taste buds a little drop kick at times go ahead and treat yourself. The company that I work for, Coca-Cola, has a variety of low or no calorie beverages that you can enjoy without the added calories. Personally my favorite is the dragonfruit flavored Vitamin Water. The stuff tastes great and has added vitamins to aid your body in it's honorable fight against the pounds.

Ok, ok. I'm on board now. So how much should I drink? Eight, 8 ounce glasses right?

Wrong. The 64 ounce rule is simply outdated and there is no evidence or studies to suggest that it ever was in style. As of right now the National Research Council recommends 91 ounces for the average women and 125 ounces for the average man. Well if your like me your not reading this because your average. With increased body mass you also need to increase your water intake. A good rule of thumb is to half your body weight to get your number, taking care not to dip below the average number.

Of course increasing your activity increases the amount of fluids your body loses so you should also increase your water intake. ALWAYS take water with you to the gym or out on your walks. You'll thank me later. Also never wait until your thirsty to drink water, by then you're already dehydrated.

In closing avoid dehydration like the super villain he is and pound those water bottles like your life depends on it. It kinda does.