About a year and a half ago I went from working from home back to a full-time office job. It was a tough transition for both myself and my beastie. Going from choosing my own schedule and work times, with 2-hour mid-day hikes with Roxie to sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day was tough. I found myself snacking more and exercising less.

My healthy eating habits at home turned into convenience snacking on things like cookies, sugary granola bars and instant oatmeal packets for breakfast. My 2-hour mountain hikes with Roxie turned into quick hour-long fairly flat walks around Thetis Lake at the end of my day. It was a challenging transition and I found myself leaving my healthy habits behind me in exchange for making time for the commute into the office. I started to feel lazy and cooking easy nutrition-poor meals to save time. I felt gross.

So my 2016 New Year’s resolution was to eat clean and healthy, cut down on the wine, and get fit. I joined a 12-week Lifestyle Challenge at my local gym to kickstart these new healthy habits. I was looking forward to the program, but was also a bit anxious about the hard work it was going to take to find my healthy self again. But once I got started, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get back into it!

Not having had any concept of the caloric value of anything, the program taught me about what was good and what was bad about my food choices. It taught me about high-value calories and empty calories. With a calorie limit of 1200 calories at the time, I just didn’t see the value of eating a 330 calorie bagel, only to be hungry again in a half hour, so I started choosing better, more valuable food options. But once I had grasped the concept of caloric value, I was not a fan of the calorie counting, which was a requirement of this lifestyle challenge. The app was a great teaching tool, but eventually entering every little thing I ate and drank into an iPhone app was tedious and annoying.

What I LOVE about the Beachbody program is that there is NO CALORIE COUNTING! Yay!! Instead of counting calories, Beachbody uses color-coded portioning containers. Each food group has its own color and depending on your fitness goals and daily caloric target, you are assigned a certain number of each container that you should eat everyday to reach your goals. Easy!

• Red: protein
• Green: vegetables
• Purple: fruit
• Yellow: carbs
• Blue: healthy fats
• Orange: nuts, seeds, oils & dressings

At first this freaked me out, because when I looked at the containers it didn’t look like it was going to be enough food and felt like I was going to be hungry all the time. But once I got started with my first 21-Day Challenge, I found it difficult to eat all of my assigned containers in a day! Now THIS is a system I can get on board with! No counting. No reading the packages for portion size. No wasting time entering food into an iPhone app! Just good plain healthy portioned food! YES!

The program also provides an eating plan with lists of healthy food choices in each color coded food group, which has made meal planning and shopping for ingredients so much easier than my usual, “I’ll just go to the grocery store and see what I find” method.

This meal plan combined with 30 minutes of exercise a day, plus Shakeology has made a huge difference for the better in my health, fitness and overall daily life. Our next 21-Day Challenge begins on July 25th. Message me if you’re curious to learn more or to join the group. Your future self will thank you for it!

Let’s face it, water is tasteless and can sometimes be a boring choice when choosing a beverage, but it’s a necessity of life for all of us. I’m going to bet that most of us (me included) could drink more water in our daily lives, and with so many other drink options, it’s tough to choose water over something a little more flavourful.

Our bodies are composed of 60% water, which means that when we are dehydrated, our entire bodies are affected. So let’s talk a bit about WHY it’s important to drink water everyday.

11 Benefits of Drinking More Water

1. Water helps you maintain healthy skin.
   Drinking enough water helps flush out the toxins that clog your pores, reducing skin inflammation and the chance of developing pimples.
2. Promotes healthy digestion.
   We need water for our digestion system to function properly. Waste and toxins get flushed out through our sweat and urine, if we don’t drink enough water, there is nowhere for the toxins to go and they collect in our bodies.
3. Improves your mood.
   Have you ever noticed that when you’re dehydrated that you are a bit grumpy or moody? Drink more water and you’ll be much more pleasant to yourself and to others.
4. Boosts your immune system.
   People who drink a lot of water are less likely to get sick. Water helps fend off the flu, cancer and other health problems like heart attacks.
5. Hydrates us after workouts/exercise.
   Hydration during exercise is so important to avoid cramping and other injuries. I make sure I’m adequately hydrated before diving into my Beachbody workouts, I drink a bit during and a whole lot afterwards to replenish my body. Make sure you do the same!
6. Pumps up your metabolism & lose weight.
   Staying properly hydrated boosts your body’s ability to burn fats. Studies have shown that drinking more water can increase the metabolic rates of healthy men and women by up to 30%.
7. Decreases the chance of headaches.
   Drinking more water is an easy and natural way to avoid or get rid of headaches. Our brains are made mostly of water, so a common symptom of dehydration is headaches and migraines. Drink your agua to avoid that annoying head pain!
8. Boosts productivity.
   Drinking enough H2O helps you focus, concentrate and helps you stay fresh and alert. Have you noticed that you feel tired when you’re dehydrated?
9. Helps you lose weight / helps keep you satisfied.
   If you feel hungry or a craving, reach for a glass of water and chug it down! If you feel full, you will be less likely to reach for that easy snack, treat or junk food.
10. Drinking water saves you MONEY!
    Unless you want some fancy bottled spring water or something with bubbles, in most cases, water is FREE! Save a few bucks by choosing water over that Starbucks fix, sugary beverage or wobbly pop.
11. And well, if you don’t drink water, you’ll die. It’s true!
    We can only live a few days without water and can live far longer without food. The vast majority of people should be prioritizing water consumption a lot more than we currently do.

How much water do we need?

But how much do we need to drink per day? Well, the answer to this question is different for everyone. The classic “8 glasses of water per day” rule is a good rule of thumb if you’re already struggling to get enough H2O into your body everyday, but everybody’s daily water requirement is different. A 140lb woman is not going to need as much water as a 225lb man – that makes sense, right?

The way Beachbody calculates the amount of water we need to drink is to take your weight and divide it by 2; that’s how many ounces of water you should drink each day.

So for example, if you are that 140lb woman I mentioned above, you take 140 /2 = 70. So you should drink minimum 70 ounces (8.75 cups) of water everyday. If you are that 225lb man I was talking about, you would take 225 / 2 = 112.5. So you would need to drink at least 113 ounces (14 cups) of water everyday to properly hydrate your body. (There are 8 ounces in a cup.)

10 Tips to Make Drinking Water More Fun

So now why water is so important and how much water we should be drinking each day, let’s talk a bit about how to make sure we are drinking enough water.

1. Make it a morning habit to drink  a glass of water as soon as you wake up in the morning. I keep a glass of water beside the bed and I down it before my toes even touch the floor.
2. Buy a SodaStream and make your own carbonated water – this is the BEST thing I have ever done! I LOVE my SodaStream and drink 2 litres of water from it everyday.
3. 
   Add fresh fruit or herbs to your water to give it some flavour and colour. I add these right to my SodaStream bottle to make it easy.
   Suggestions: Lemon / Lime, Strawberries, Cucumber, Watermelon, Basil, Ginger, Mint, etc.
4. Always keep a glass of water on your desk at work and take a gulp every time you look at it.
5. Drink a cup of water every time you get back from the bathroom.
6. Buy yourself a cool new water bottle and take it with you every time you get in the car and finish it before you reach your destination.
7. Eat your water! Eat water-rich foods like watermelon and cucumbers.
8. Create a challenge and compete with a friend or co-worker: Who can drink the most water today?
9. Use a water tracking app with reminders. Try the Daily Water Free – Water Reminder and Counter app.
10. No one expects you to completely give up your other beverages, but make a commitment to drink a glass of water for every other bevy you drink (make it 2 glasses for every boozy drink).

I’ve always known that water was vital to a healthy lifestyle, but since I’ve joined Beachbody and started coaching, it has become top of mind again and I’ve found that I have been making more of an effort to get more H2o into my body. If you’re interested in learning more about Beachbody or if you would like to join the next challenge group, please comment below or shoot me a message.

What are some of your favourite ways to drink more water? Leave a comment below.

And in the meantime, DRINK UP! 🙂