Some basics

Obviously a balanced diet and exercise routine will help you feel & look better. We know that. That's been instilled in us since health class in elementary school. Food pyramids, PE class and all of it. We know this. It isn't new information.

But there are some basics, too that you need to know if you're going to tackle any weight/fitness/health issue.

1) Hydration
You've heard that you need to drink 8 glasses of water a day. What you may not have heard is WHY. Our bodies are designed perfectly to heal and protect us...as long as we're giving it what it needs to do this. Water not only helps with maintaining good skin & hair, but it flushes toxins from our bodies. When we work our muscles, those muscles put off toxins that can ultimately damage our health. Whether you're in the gym 5 days a week or just folding a load of laundry, you're working muscles. Obviously, the more the muscles are worked, the more toxins they produce, but either way, you have to get the toxins out of your body. Plain water is the best way to do this. The more you drink, the better, but at a minimum, you should be drinking eight 8oz glasses each day. If you're awake twelve hours a day, that's only a bottle of water every three hours.

When you don't get enough water, you will feel it. Chances are your body will retain water (think PMS bloating, for instance). Your ankles may get puffy, your face may feel swollen. You'll notice it when you get up in the morning - those sheet marks on your face? They're not from sleeping too hard on wrinkled linens. They're from not being hydrated. Same with the wrinkles toes & fingers when you're in the bath too long.

How do you know you're getting enough water? Your pee should be almost clear. (Yes, I know that's graphic.)


2) Sleep
When it comes to sleep, you're going to have to follow the whole "Do as I say, not as I do" thing, I'm afraid. I am HORRIBLE about maintaining a good sleep schedule. I know what I need to do. I just don't always do it. Six to eight hours is a good amount of sleep. Ideally, you should go to bed at the same time each night and wake up the same time each morning in order to keep yourself on a schedule, urging your body to function the way it should on a schedule, as well.

Stress and illness can wreak havoc on your sleep schedule. This shouldn't come as a surprise. What might surprise you, though is learning that sitting around all day without doing anything physical can also cause sleeplessness. If you aren't exerting your body in any way, it has nowhere to spend the energy you're taking in. That energy *has* to be spent somewhere. If you're working out, that energy is spent during your work out. If you're not, though, that energy seeps out during the time when you *should* be sleeping. That's where you get that late night "second wind."

3) Eating well
Obviously eating healthy foods are going to contribute to overall better health & weight loss. But instead of seeking out "low-fat," "low cal," or "diet" foods, you should be looking at the labels and choosing natural, organic or whole foods. If you look at the label and you can't pronounce the first few ingredients, put it back. For those who don't know, the list of ingredients on a label are listed in the order from highest concentration to the lowest. Let's look at the label for "Hawaiian Punch- Fruit Juicy Red", for instance:
INGREDIENTS:
Water, high fructose corn syrup and 2% or less of each of the following: concentrated juices (pineapple, orange, passionfruit, apple), purees (apricot, papaya, guava), citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, pectin, gum acadia, glycerol ester of wood rosin, sodium hexametaphosphate, red #40, blue#1, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), ascorbic acid (vitamin C).
Water is the first ingredient. This isn't bad. High fructose corn syrup. This is a manufactured ingredient, which means it's not natural.  The third ingredients listed are a very small percentage of fruit juices. What this means is that there is more corn syrup in this juice than there is actual juice. There are also dyes & artificial flavors added, which are also, obviously, unnatural. While these ingredients are approved by the FDA, that doesn't mean they're GOOD for us. It simply means they're not going to kill us. Our bodies don't know how to process things like "sodium hexametaphosphate" and will oftentimes react negatively to them: nausea, diarrhea or constipation, headaches and more severe reactions. Why put yourself through that? Read labels.

There are more basics I'll add later, I'm sure, but this should help you get started.

"Dieting" doesn't have to be hard, just pay closer attention to what you're doing. Most of this is common sense.