Fitness

I have a challenge for you all this week. I want you to join me in trying to drink half of your body weight in ounces of water (at least) throughout the day, every day for the next week.

Why? Because there are so many benefits to being hydrated that it’s hard to count. Water is our life source. Without it, we fall apart.

Water Detoxes Your Body

Think about drinking water as a way to flush out your system. For your daily diet to work, you need to have proper hydration, which will help your liver function. If your liver cannot function, your body won’t break down fat, meaning it’s going to stick with you instead of being released into the bloodstream and broken up into proteins.

Water Increases Your Metabolism

That alone is enough to make me drink more. The body is made up most of water, so in order for it to function properly, it needs to be hydrated. Many of our bodily functions require water to work, including metabolizing foods.

How Much To Drink

Fitness and nutrition experts have said that drinking half your body weight in ounces of water will keep you hydrated. So, for a person who weighs 150 pounds, you’re drinking 75 ounces of water a day. That’s only about four 20-ounce water bottles a day.

It can seem like a lot, but there are tricks to making it seem way less taxing. My favorite is adding frozen fruit to the water bottle in the morning to act as ice and to flavor my water. Drop in a slice of lemon and you’ll get a splash of citrus. Super simple: try dropping two frozen strawberries and two spoonfuls of frozen blueberries in your water bottle.

I also find that having a water bottle with a straw instead of just a cap has helped me drink a lot more than I’d normally drink.

If you have any other tricks to reminding yourself to stay hydrated, let me know in the comments and let me know how you’re doing with the water challenge!

Let’s be honest, despite all the body  positivity going on out there, I’m still uncomfortable in my skin and continuously searching for a program or class that will make me feel better about myself. Running worked for me for a long time, but I need a strong running partner or else I get into a rut. And Crossfit is great, but when I can’t make a class, I really feel like I’m missing out on workouts. And I’m not comfortable going to open gym because I really don’t know what to do on my own for Crossfit. There’s no treadmills, what is a girl to do?

So that’s where Tone It Up comes in. My friend Jocelyn keeps mentioning it to me. She keeps wanting me to join the Bikini Series, which honestly, I’ve been hesitant to do since I’m already doing Crossfit. Why do two programs at a time?

And then it all made sense. If I can’t make a Crossfit class, why am I stuck to sitting at home doing nothing or spending 20 minutes contemplating if I should go to run only to skip it. So I watched one of their videos and gave it a try. So I tried the Bikini Abs (see below) workout. (As a sidenote: let’s just say I’m not a huge advocate for workout videos because I know they’re an easy way to pretend to do a workout if you don’t give it your all.)

Anyway, I did it, and was surprised at how intense it was for a mini workout. It was also over in no time. So I put on their HIITy Bitty Bikini workout (a HIIT workout). Folks, I’m feeling the burn.

I have not looked into the whole program, which I know includes a food program as well. So I’m asking you all, what do you think about the Bikini Series. Anyone out there who has done it and can give me some insight? Is it really all it’s cracked up to be, and is it something I can do while doing Crossfit?