Life

For those of you who read this with regularity--and I know that number is very small--you will have noticed by now that the frequency of my posts has been downright horrible in the last 6-8 weeks. Most of you know the reason why, which is that I am now working full-time while balancing 2-3 personal training clients and teaching at the Y in the mornings. The more time that passes, the more I begin to understand how everything fits together, which is what prompted me to write this post.

Exercise, eating right, drinking enough water, sleeping a sufficient amount and setting aside time for loved ones are all things that one takes for granted when things are slow, and the first things to go haywire when things get slammed. I really had no idea how much until I threw myself back into things on July 1. In thinking about it the last few days (and via adjusting to my new schedule), I've come across a few tips that I think might help those of you who are in the same predicament -- too much going on with "life" to focus on feeling good.

I'm not dumb enough to suggest major life changes or time-intensive ideas here; these are relatively quick fixes that will hopefully lead you on a path to feeling good while allowing you the time you need to keep your head down at work/with the kids/in whatever vein necessary.  They're working for me, hopefully they're helpful for you!

• Bring water everywhere. Go to Target and buy a Nalgene or some other recyclable (go earth!) water bottle. Fill it every morning, and every time you empty it. Carry it with you. Try and empty it 3-4 times a day. Water = hydration = less (bad) food intake = weight management and better overall health.
• Work out in the morning. Before you start the "I'm not a morning person" rant, commit to try it for one week. Seriously, one week  is about .0067% of your life (math inexact). Take three days, wake up 45 minutes early and do a brisk walk around your neighborhood, and build from there. You may find you hate it, in which case, you can retreat. But you know what? You may find you love the extra energy it gives you all day (and the calories you'll burn), and you can build on your start. JUST TRY IT.
• Go to bed 30 minutes earlier. If you're increasing your exercise regimen, this should be no problem. Even if you're not, invest in some chamomile tea, drink some an hour before bed, and try getting in bed 30 minutes early. It adds up to 2.5 hours of extra sleep a week. You'd be surprised the difference you feel over the course of a few weeks with the extra Z's. Plus, this really helps with the morning workout suggestion above, if you take it.
• Buy a load of healthy snack food at the store and take them to work. Carrots, (real) fruit snacks, fruit, granola bars, energy bars ... whatever you like! Just invest in it, parcel it out by day, and TAKE IT TO WORK. That's the key. Bring it all in on Monday, and stash it. Go to that before you go to the candy bowl.
• Set aside time for the life you want. If you're married, put time aside to do things with your wife. If you love golf, set aside time for that. Go watch the sunset every once in a while and play with your kids. You MUST make time for the things that matter. It's that simple. If you can combine them with exercise, do so, but not at the expense of enjoying the experience. LIVE YOUR LIFE.

Any tips you can share about Feeling Good amid the hustle and bustle? I'd love to hear them ...

Drink Water!

I think most everyone knows that drinking a lot of water is good for you, and extremely important if you exercise on a regular basis. However, if you ask 10 people, you're likely to get 10 different answers when it comes to how much to drink and why it's so important. This subject popped into my head last weekend when my dad was visiting and we were discussing ways to avoid getting sick so much (hint: drink more water).

Anyway, I figured it might be helpful to review what "most" health professionals believe about appropriate water intake. As you can imagine, there are millions of articles out there, like this one from livestrong.com or this one from fitness.com.

One thing that is pretty cool is this "water intake calculator" on about.com. 10 questions, including one about activity level, and they give you a suggested amount of water per day. For example, I am supposed to drink about 3.5 liters today (15 cups) because I worked out for 90 minutes, I weigh 225, etc. Very cool, very easy to use.

If you don't want to read any of the articles, follow my key five guidelines and you should be pretty good to go:

• Drink at least 8 cups of water per day, if you're going to err, err on the side of more not less
• If you're exercising at a normal level (not too vigorous, not too mellow), add at least one cup of water for each 15 minutes you exercise
• Drink more when it's very hot or very cold -the body needs it in both scenarios because it is working harder to either heat or cool your body. You need to especially pay attention to this if exercising in hot or cold conditions - the body is very susceptible to dehydration in these cases, which can be very dangerous
• Drink more when you're ill - your immune system is working twice as hard, which means it needs more water to help move toxins, cool fevers and thin mucus (yum yum)
• Drink one cup of water for each serving of caffeine, which is a diuretic and "steals" water from your body

If you want more info, jump online and google "proper water intake." You'll find tons of stuff.

Drink up!