Exercise

Weight Loss For Women Over 40

May 19, 2021 By Paula Leave a Comment

Why is it so hard for women over 40 to lose weight?

Women typically have more body fat and less muscle than men. As we age, around age 40-50, we all lose lean muscle mass which in turn slows down our metabolism. Many of us also tend to decrease our activity thus burning fewer calories. This leads to weight gain. The gain is gradual, creeping up on us like a tiger in the night. Once we notice the extra pounds, the desire and need to lose weight begins. You start or increase your exercise. But, suddenly you realize that you no longer have the strength, flexibility, or endurance you once had. Nor does simply cutting out a snack or eliminating soda make the scale move anymore. Why is weight loss so elusive?

According to OB/GYN Stacy Weiss, M.D., at age 50, you need 200 fewer calories a day than you did when you were 20. This is assuming you are equally active at 50 as you were at 20. And after age 60, you need 400-500 calories less. Women often find that their spouses make the same changes as them and lose weight. You then wonder, aren’t we both going through these changes of muscle loss and a slowing metabolism as we age? Yes, you are. But as men age, they don’t have the same hormonal changes that women undergo. If you’re a guy, you can thank the testosterone you have — and the extra estrogen you don’t — for your weight loss edge. Women often gain weight in their abdomen during menopause due to a loss of hormones and a slower metabolism. Some women even have a name for their new potbelly — meno-pot.

In one study out of England, men and women were each put on commercial weight-loss programs such as Atkins, Slim-Fast, and Weight Watchers. Two months in, the men had lost twice as much weight as the women — and three times as much body fat. But by six months, the rate of weight loss had evened out between the genders. “Over the long-term, the playing field is more equal,” says dietician David Grotto, RDN, self-proclaimed “guyatician” and author of The Best Things You Can Eat. “It’s not a race to see who can lose weight the fastest. The important thing is that you’re both going in the same direction.”

Always consult your physician before starting any weight loss or exercise program.

A study by the National Weight Control Registry found that the study participants who had lost at least 30 pounds and had maintained that loss for one year or longer, used diet and exercise to not only lose the weight but also to maintain the weight loss. The NWCR is currently tracking over 10,000 individuals who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for long periods of time.

According to Katherine Tallmadge, RD, the author of Diet Simple one big difference between the sexes lies in food preferences, “Men love their meat, and women are attached to carbohydrates.” A study that explores gender differences in reasons for losing weight, weight loss methods, and weight loss behaviors prior to and during a weight loss maintenance trial found that men and women also exhibit different attitudes and behaviors surrounding weight and weight management. While both men (74.0%) and women (68.2%) reported wanting to improve their health as a major motivator for losing weight. Women were more likely to list losing weight to enhance their feelings of personal esteem more frequently than men. Women are also much more likely than men to use an organized weight loss program to lose weight.

Top 23 Weight Loss Tips for Women

Add a healthy breakfast, work toward losing no more than one or two pounds per week, and incorporate long-term lifestyle changes if you want to increase the chance of successful long-term weight loss. Keeping weight off requires as much effort and commitment as it took to lose the weight. You can do it on your own. Or, if you are struggling to lose weight you can join a weight loss program or seek the guidance of someone like Andrew Hanoun, a Metabolism & Weight Expert. There are as many programs and diets out as there are reasons to lose weight. Finding one that works for you can take several attempts. Don’t give up. Your health and future are depending on it!

Check out more healthy weight-related posts here on our blog.

Effective Exercises You Can Absolutely Start Now

October 20, 2019 By Paula 3 Comments

For some people, going to the gym is a good motivation to stay in shape. That is not true for all people. A gym membership may seem like a good idea, but committing to go to the gym is not always as easy as it sounds. If going to the gym is not for you, try some of these workouts to stay in shape from the comfort of your home, or anywhere.

Lace-Up Your Running Shoes

To run is one of the easier ways to work out on your schedule. Running only requires a few accessories such as running shoes, headphones and prescription sunglasses for runners. Keep them with you, and the world can be your running track. Gauge your improvement by mapping out your neighborhood and watch as your times get better, or your distances increase. If running outdoors is not for you, a treadmill may be a good option. There are a variety of styles and functionalities. Even if you lack extra space, you can get one that conveniently folds up when not in use.

Roll out Your Yoga Mat

If yoga is more your speed, practice your poses from the comfort of your home. There are a variety of audio and video yoga instructions available from many different platforms. It won’t be hard to find your new favorite yoga session. Then you can grab your yoga mat to start your day or end your day or anytime you have time to stretch and center. Once you have learned your favorite poses, you can even create your own yoga routines to bring some variety into your stretches.

Gear up Your Bicycle

Biking is another way to take your exercise outdoors. Take your bicycle out to explore new streets in your home town. Load it up and take it to the lake or the mountains to ride trails. Get a leash designed to attach to your bike, and take your favorite furry friend out on your cycling adventure as well. You may even find that your bicycle is a fun and efficient way to run errands. If biking outdoors is not the ideal option, a stationary bike might be the perfect way to bring biking home.

There are a variety of other effective exercises you can do from the comfort of your home that do not require any special machines or accessories. You can create a well-balanced workout routine by combining strength exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups with cardio exercises. The main thing is to find exercises you enjoy and incorporate them into your routine in a fun and easy way.

How Long Does it Really Take to Form a Habit?

July 16, 2018 By Paula 26 Comments

Weight Watchers Get Healthy Freestyle Journey Week 24
How Long Does it Really Take to Form a Habit?

It’s MONDAY and time once again to continue our journey into health and wellness. Thank you, for joining me as I reflect on the past week and explore the new! I started my journey January 24th so I will hit the 6-month milestone soon!! With this milestone on the horizon, I wanted to see how long it would take for the changes I had been making to become a habit. How long before my new behaviors become automatic?

Also, if you’ve missed any of the posts in the recent weeks be sure to check them out. Last week, we talked about how gut bacteria influences your weight and weight loss. We’ve also learned the importance of hydration, uncovered where sugar is hiding in your food (aka sugar bombs), and looked at the benefits of shopping at farmer’s markets. In addition to learning the importance of milestones, how to stay motivated, the smart use of free foods, some tactics for dining out, surviving the holidays while dieting, the benefits of a 5% weight loss, diabetes, the importance of exercise, we’ve started an exercise routine, learned some beginner exercises, and gotten safety tips for exercising in the summer heat. Since beginning my weight loss journey in January, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Memorial Day, and the fourth of July have come and gone.

How the 21 Day Misconception Started

Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon in the 1950s. He began noticing a strange pattern among his patients and wrote about these experiences. He wrote that “These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.” In 1960, Maltz published that quote and his other thoughts on behavior change in a book called Psycho-Cybernetics. The book sold more than 30 million copies. And that’s when the problem started.

In the decades that followed, Maltz’s work influenced nearly every major “self-help” professional from Zig Ziglar to Tony Robbins. As more people cited Maltz they began to omit the part where he said “a minimum of about 21 days” and shortened it to, It takes 21 days to form a new habit. If enough people say something, then everyone starts to believe it.

It makes sense why the “21 Day” myth would spread. It’s easy to understand and the time frame is short enough to be inspiring but long enough to be believable. Who wouldn’t like the idea of changing their life in just three weeks!?

How Long it Really Takes to Build a New Habit

Phillippa Lally, a health psychology researcher at University College London and her research team’s published study in the European Journal of Social Psychology, How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world examined the habits of 96 people over a 12-week period. Each person chose one new habit for the 12 weeks and reported each day on whether or not they did the behavior and how automatic the behavior felt. While some people chose simple habits like drinking a bottle of water with lunch, others chose more difficult tasks like running for 15 minutes before dinner. At the end of the 12 weeks, the researchers analyzed the data to determine how long it took each person to go from starting a new behavior to automatically doing it.

They found that on average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic. 66 days to be exact! How long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In Lally’s study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit. Thus, indicating considerable variation in how long it takes people to reach their limit of automaticity. For some, it can take a very long time.

If we want to set our expectations realistically, the truth is that it will probably take anywhere from two to eight months to ingrain a new behavior into our life — a new habit is not created 21 days.

However, even though there is no 21 day fix, there is some GOOD NEWS! The researchers also found that missing one opportunity to perform the behavior did not materially affect the habit formation process. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you mess up every now and then. Building better habits is not an all-or-nothing process.

Finding Inspiration

Learn to love the journey. There is no reason to get down on yourself if you try something for a few weeks and it doesn’t become a habit. It’s supposed to take longer than that! Embrace the long, slow path to greatness and focus on each step.

You don’t have to be perfect. Give yourself permission a mistake once or twice as it has no measurable impact on your long-term habits. Treat failure like a scientist and develop strategies for getting back on track quickly.

All of the 21 Day hype can make it really easy to think, “Oh, I’ll just do this and it’ll be done.” But habits never work that way. Understanding this from the beginning will make it easier to manage your expectations and commit to making small, incremental improvements. Rather than pressuring yourself into thinking that you have to do it all at once, embrace the process of change.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how long it takes to form a particular habit. Whether it takes 21 days or 500 days, you have to put in the work either way.

Everything from eating well to responsible spending to task completion and beyond requires habits that make such behaviors part of our daily life. — Jason Selk Forbes.com

Weight Watchers Freestyle Progam – Learn more.

? SELF LOVE ?
When you love yourself more things simply become lighter and easier.

Increasing self-esteem and self-love makes you feel more deserving of good things in life. You’ll self-sabotage less and go after what you want with more motivation and focus

How my freestyle weight loss week went:

I am still having a hard time staying hydrated so this week was spent once again drinking water and eating foods with high water content, and drinking more water. In addition to spending some time working on our blog and tending the garden, I spent several days helping my aunt with her place (The new floor is going in today.) and we did our monthly shopping trip along with two medical appointments. With so much time spent at her place and on the road, I’ve not had time to prepare meals. Several lunches and dinners have been frozen meals or sandwiches. I wish our local IGA had a healthier selection of them. With a busy week and my poor eating, I knew it it was was not going to be a good time when I stepped on the scale. This week I gained the two pounds I lost last week back. Not the end of the world but NOT something I plan on repeating this week either! Until next week… Remember to stay positive and keep looking forward.

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Make it a habit to leave a comment below or on my Facebook fan page when you stop by.

I am not a medical professional. The contents of this website are for educational purposes and are not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or another qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.

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Weight Watchers Freestyle Journey Week 23 – ? Discover How Gut Bacteria Influences Your Weight

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Discover How Gut Bacteria Influences Your Weight

July 9, 2018 By Paula 33 Comments

Weight Watchers Get Healthy Freestyle Journey Week 23
How Gut Bacteria Influences Your Weight

It’s MONDAY and time to continue our journey into health and wellness. Thank you, for joining me as I reflect on the past week and explore the new! Like me, many people have trouble losing weight. For us, it comes off slowly or not at all. We often find ourselves blaming our lack of willpower, poor genes, age, or any number of other excuses in an effort to explain and accept why. One cause that I hadn’t considered until reflecting on a recent visit to the doctor was the health of my guts. You see, he stated that there are very few supplements that he recommends his patients take. And probiotics and fish oil are two of them. So I set out to discover if there was a correlation between gut health and weight loss.

Keep reading to see how gut bacteria affects your weight and learn what foods promote healthy gut bacteria growth. Also, if you’ve missed any of the posts in the recent weeks be sure to check them out. Last week, we talked about the importance of hydration. We’ve also uncovered where sugar is hiding in your food (aka sugar bombs) and looking at the benefits of shopping at farmer’s markets, in addition to learning the importance of milestones, how to stay motivated, the smart use of free foods, some tactics for dining out, surviving the holidays while dieting, the benefits of a 5% weight loss, diabetes, the importance of exercise, starting an exercise routine, beginner exercises, and exercising in the summer heat. Since beginning my weight loss journey in January, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Memorial Day, and the fourth of July have come and gone.

How Gut Bacteria Influences Your Weight

Did you know that your body contains trillions of bacteria? It does and the majority of these bacteria are located in your intestines. So it’s no surprise that gut bacteria plays several important roles in your health. I00

They Affect How Your Food Is Digested

Since your gut bacteria line your intestines, they come into contact with the food you eat. This may affect what nutrients you absorb and how energy is stored in your body.

Humans can’t digest fiber but certain gut bacteria can. By digesting fiber, these gut bacteria produce a number of chemicals that benefit gut health and possibly promote weight loss. A number of studies have shown that people with a high fiber diet have a lower weight and a recent study found that the ratio of two types of bacteria in your intestines may determine how much weight you lose when given a particular diet. These two bacteria are Prevotella, which digests fiber and carbohydrates, and Bacteroidetes, which people who eat more animal protein and fat have more of.

Also, gut bacteria digest certain antioxidants known as flavonoids that are found in plants. Which may help prevent weight gain. Finally, your gut bacteria can influence how dietary fats are absorbed in the intestines, which may affect how fat is stored in the body.

Your gut bacteria play an important role in inflammation.

Inflammation not only occurs when your body activates your immune system to fight infection. It can also be caused by an unhealthy diet. A diet containing too much fat, sugar or calories can lead to elevated inflammatory chemicals in the bloodstream and fat tissue, which may contribute to weight gain. Some species of bacteria produce chemicals like lipopolysaccharide (LPS) which cause inflammation when they pass into the bloodstream. In fact a National Center for Biotechnology Information publication, Metabolic endotoxemia initiates obesity and insulin resistance, states that when mice are given LPS, they gain as much weight and have similar increases in blood sugar and insulin as mice fed a high-fat diet. Therefore, certain gut bacteria that produce LPS and cause inflammation may contribute to weight gain and even insulin resistance.

However, Bifidobacteria and Akkermansia are beneficial species of bacteria that help prevent inflammatory chemicals from passing from the gut into the bloodstream. Increasing these species of intestinal bacteria may reduce inflammation and prevent weight gain. They can be grown outside the body and then taken by mouth as medicine. Bifidobacteria belong to a group of bacteria called lactic acid bacteria. You can get these Lactic acid bacteria by eating fermented foods like live-cultured yogurt and cheese. In addition to taking a probiotic, Akkermansia can also be increased by consuming polyphenol-rich foods, such as pomegranate, grape polyphenols like grape seed extract, and cranberries.

Chemicals That Help You Feel Full

Your body produces hormones that affect your appetite, including leptin, ghrelin, peptide YY (PYY). Some studies have shown that different bacteria in the gut can affect how much of these hormones are produced and whether you feel hungry or full.

Short-chain fatty acids are chemicals that are produced when certain species of gut bacteria break down fiber. One of these is known as propionate. In one study it was found that taking propionate for 24 weeks significantly increased levels of the hormones PYY and GLP-1, both of which influence hunger. Other studies have shown that prebiotics supplements, which contain compounds that are fermented by gut bacteria, can have a similar effect on appetite.

Additionally, a study by the Louvain Drug Research Institute found that people who took 16 grams of prebiotics per day for two weeks had higher levels of hydrogen in their breath. This increase indicates gut bacterial fermentation, resulting in less hunger and higher levels of the hormones GLP-1 and PYY, which make you feel full.

Top 10 Probiotic Foods to Add to Your Diet

Live Cultured Yogurt. Look for brands made from goat’s milk which are particularly high in probiotics like thermophillus, bifudus, and bulgaricus. They can also be infused with extra forms of probiotics like lactobacillus or acidophilus.
Kefir. This fermented dairy product is similar to yogurt and is a combination of goat’s milk and fermented kefir grains.
Dark Chocolate. While chocolate itself doesn’t contain probiotics, it has been found to be a very effective carrier for probiotics. Yes, one more reason to eat chocolate!!!
Microalgae. While not a probiotic itself, microalgae can act as a prebiotic. This means that it feeds and nourishes the probiotics already in your gut.
Pickles. Most vegetables can be pickled and they are packed with prime probiotics.
Cultured Vegetables: Sauerkraut and Kimchi. Made from fermented cabbage, and sometimes other vegetables, sauerkraut is extremely rich in healthy live cultures. If you can handle the spice of an extremely spicy and sour fermented cabbage, kimchi is one of the best probiotic foods you can add to your diet.
Miso. Made from fermented rye, beans, rice or barley, miso is full of lactobacilli and bifidus bacteria. Add a tablespoon of miso to hot water for a quick, probiotic-rich soup.
Tempeh. Tempeh is a fermented, probiotic-rich grain made from soybeans. It is a great substitute for meat or tofu.
Raw Cheese. Goat’s milk, sheep’s milk, and A2 cow’s soft cheeses are particularly high in probiotics. Make sure that you buy raw and unpasteurized cheeses to receive any probiotics.
Kombucha Tea. This fermented tea contains high amounts of healthy gut bacteria. For centuries, this probiotic drink has been used to help increase energy and enhance well-being.

On the other hand, eating some foods in excess may harm your gut bacteria. These are:

Sugary foods. A diet high in sugar can stimulate the growth of certain unhealthy bacteria in the gut.
Artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharin reduce beneficial bacteria in the intestines and may contribute to high blood sugar.
Unhealthy fats. While eating healthy fats such as omega-3s helps support beneficial bacteria in the intestines, eating too many saturated fats may contribute to the growth of disease-causing bacteria.
Fried and Processed Foods. Like sugar, they break down into components that feed the less hospitable bacteria in your gut
Gluten. Even if you’re not gluten-sensitive, eating gluten can have significant, long-term effects on your gut bacteria. Gluten is a type of protein that’s found in many grains, including wheat, rye, and barley.
Red Meat. While having the occasional steak isn’t likely to throw your whole system off, eating a diet that’s meat-heavy can be tough on your body. Research has shown that eating a lot of red meat affects your gut bacteria fast. Also, chances are that it’s got some antibiotics in it since 80% of antibiotics used in the U.S. are given to livestock!

Don’t worry that if you can’t avoid all of these things all the time. You’re not doomed to poor gut health. Do what you can to live a gut-healthy life by eating from the top ten list and giving your microbiome the support it needs to thrive by taking an effective probiotic to repopulate your beneficial gut bacteria. While we are just beginning to understand the role of gut bacteria in obesity and the science hasn’t led to treatments that will make it easier to lose weight, I believe that day is coming.

If our gut has more bad bacteria, it can be harder to lose weight.

When we eat food, our gut breaks it down into small pieces. Only the smallest pieces get absorbed into our blood. The rest is eliminated as waste material. In other words, not all of the calories in the food we eat get into our body and increase our weight. Some bacteria are better able to chop food into those smallest pieces that get digested, add calories to our body and thereby tend to increase our weight.

? SELF LOVE ?
Nothing can stop you from achieving your goal if you have the right mental attitude.

Believe in yourself, listen to your gut, and do what you love. -Dylan Lauren

How my freestyle weight loss week went:

This week was spent drinking water and eating foods with high water content, and drinking more water. In addition to spending some time working on our blog and tending the garden, I spent several days helping my aunt with her place. Marcus got into the pickles I made last Monday. He couldn’t wait the two weeks they needed to “mature.” Even with all the physical work at my aunt’s place, I continued to do my new exercise routine. With a busy week before I knew it it was time to step on the scale once again. This week even with all that water I drank, I lost two pounds. Hopefully, with continued hydration, I’ll keep seeing negative numbers. Until next week… Remember to stay positive and keep looking forward.

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Weight Watchers Freestyle Journey Week 22 – The Importance of Hydration When Dieting

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Hydration While Dieting. Understand how important it is to stay well hydrated and how much water it takes to stay that way.

July 2, 2018 By Paula 13 Comments

Weight Watchers Get Healthy Freestyle Journey Week 22
The Importance of Hydration When Dieting

Yes, it’s MONDAY already and time to continue our journey into health and wellness. It’s also time once again to reflect on the past week! Hydration was a big issue this week. So this week I dive into the subject of staying hydrated. Learn how important it is to stay well hydrated and how much water it takes to stay that way.

If you’ve missed any of the posts in the recent weeks be sure to check them out. In addition to uncovering where sugar is hiding in your food (aka sugar bombs) and looking at the benefits of shopping at farmer’s markets, we’ve also covered the importance of milestones, how to stay motivated, the smart use of free foods, some tactics for dining out, surviving the holidays while dieting, the benefits of a 5% weight loss, diabetes, the importance of exercise, starting an exercise routine, beginner exercises, and exercising in the summer heat. Since beginning my weight loss journey in January, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Memorial Day, and now the fourth of July have come and gone.

Hydration for Weight Loss

You would think that after everything I’ve written and learned about being healthy that I would know how important it is to stay hydrated. However, like many people, I didn’t understand how important it was to stay well hydrated and how much water it took to stay that way. That became evident when after several days of severe pain, I went to the clinic to get it checked out. Even with drinking 64 ounces of water daily plus all the water I get from the cornucopia of fruits and vegetables that I eat, I was severely dehydrated.

Why Water Is So Important

Almost two-thirds of the human body is made up of water. It regulates our temperature, cushions and protects our vital organs, aids digestion, transport nutrients to working muscles and organs, helps dispel waste and can help prevent us from over-eating.

Sometimes We Can Mistake Mild Dehydration For Hunger.

When we don’t drink enough fluids, our body gives us signals which resemble hunger pains. When this happens, many of us start eating unnecessary calories because we have misunderstood what our body is trying to tell us. Drink water whenever you are feeling thirsty or hungry.

A lack of water consumption can be detrimental to your body. If your hydration levels drop by only 2 percent, you may experience fuzzy thoughts, lack of concentration and difficulty focusing visually. It has also been linked to increased risk of cancer, premature aging, irritability, anxiety and numerous other ailments. There also has been a correlation made between chronic dehydration and obesity.

While a diet rich in fiber is essential for weight loss, fiber cannot do it alone. Water consumption is the other team member to a healthy gastrointestinal tract. Drinking a lot of water keeps the food flowing through your digestive tract and prevents constipation and bloating.

According to Revive Your Life, a study conducted at the University of Washington found that drinking one 8-ounce glass of water eliminated midnight hunger pangs in 98 percent of the subjects. Thereby decreasing caloric intake from midnight snacks.

One of the most important ways your level of hydration affects your caloric burn is in relation to your ability to perform physical activity. When you start to become dehydrated your muscle tissue starts to lose water and it makes it harder for that muscle to contract effectively, reducing your strength and endurance.

While water is world’s most effective, least expensive, and virtually side-effect free weight loss supplement, there are other ways to stay hydrated.

Water is best, but fruit and vegetables can be great sources of hydration. These water-rich foods tend to be lower in calories. While fat-rich foods, which have less water, are generally higher in calories. Fruits and vegetables not only have a high water content, but they also contain key vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. Celery, for example, is 95% water and has only 6 calories per stalk. It is also a source of folate and vitamins A, C, and K.

Clear soups and broths can also help you feel full for very few calories, thus contributing to weight loss. Skim milk and low-fat, no-added-sugar yogurts and puddings also help hydration and nutrition without excessive calories. Drink your water and eat it, too.

Are you drinking enough water each day?

You can quickly check for dehydration at home with the tent test. Here’s how to do it. Pinch the skin over the back of the hand, on the abdomen, or over the front of the chest under the collarbone between two fingers so that it is tented up. Hold for a few seconds and release. This will show skin turgor. Skin turgor is the skin’s elasticity. It is the ability of skin to change shape and return to normal. Skin with normal turgor snaps rapidly back to its normal position. Mild dehydration will cause the skin to be slightly slow in its return to normal. Lack of skin turgor occurs with moderate to severe fluid loss.

Each day we exhale about two cups of water as water vapor. Normal daily perspiration causes about two cups of water to be lost. The intestines and kidneys utilize about six cups of water each day for normal functioning. That totals ten cups. When you add exercise to that, you increase the minimum amount of water you need just for daily functions. And for weight loss benefits, tack on a couple more cups to that total.

The amount of water you need to drink will depend on several factors, including your age, gender, activity level, weight, climate, and more. Most experts agree that drinking eight glasses of water, or 64 fluid ounces, is a sufficient amount for the average person to be properly hydrated.

However, here’s a good general guideline when it comes to recommended daily water intake for both health and weight loss benefits. To calculate how much water you should drink a day multiple your weight by 2/3 (or 67%) to determine how much water to drink daily. For example, if you weigh 175 pounds you would multiply 175 by .67 and learn you should be drinking about 117 ounces of water every day.

Since you are expelling additional water when you sweat, you should add 12 ounces of water to your daily total for every 30 minutes that you work out. This number also does not include additional water loss from sweating from being in a climate. Ask your healthcare provider or nutritionist for your body’s exact needs.

Drinking water during weight loss provides hydration without unwanted calories.

You burn roughly one calorie for every fluid ounce of water you drink, but this only true if the water is extremely cold. For example, if you drink a liter of ice cold water that is an extra 32 calories burned without doing any extra physical activity!

? SELF LOVE ?
Be there for others, but never leave yourself behind. ~Dodinsky

All we have of freedom, all we use or know —
This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.
~Rudyard Kipling, The Old Issue, 1899

How my freestyle weight loss week went:

This week was a week of pain for me. Normally I’m driving other people to appointments and rarely have them for myself. However, this week I was in constant pain and every time I had the urge to urinate I was in extreme pain. To make matters worse on Tuesday we got stuck in traffic traveling less than a half mile in over an hour trying to get to Marcus’ appointment. The pain of holding it for so long had me thinking of climbing in the backseat and peeing in a bottle. After all, we weren’t moving. The problem was taller vehicles were all around us. So I held it and held it. Until we got to where I could pull in to a fast food restaurant. Not getting any better I went to the clinic Thursday morning. They checked for a UTI and did a few tests to rule out my appendix. When they did the tent test my skin just hung there. I was severely dehydrated! With orders to drink 128 ounces of water every day, I was on my way to do blood work. They only need two small tubes yet, I was so dehydrated that I left there with three new holes in me and they only got one and a tiny bit in the second.

After this the rest of week was spent drinking water, eating high water foods like watermelon and cucumbers, and drinking more water. I spent some time working on our blog and tending the garden. With temperatures in the 90s and heat indexes over 100, we are all losing more water than we are taking in. I picked some of my pickling cucumbers and will be making pickles today. I continue to do my new exercise routine. Even though I didn’t feel well most of the week, I pushed myself to do some and felt better for it. I’m not sure where the week went but before I knew it it was time to step on the scale once again. With all that water I drank this week and getting rehydrated, I gained a half pound. Hopefully, with continued hydration, I’ll be seeing better numbers in the weeks ahead. Until next week… Remember to stay positive and keep looking forward.

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This year, the Fourth falls on a Hump Day. Deciding when to celebrate can be a bit tricky.
Will you celebrate the weekend before and then again on Wednesday, on Wednesday then back to work until the weekend after for more celebrating, on the 4th only, or do you go for it and celebrate all 10 days?
Whatever you decided, I hope you have a safe holiday and stayed hydrated.