Weekly Tip: Drink More!

...water, that is.  I was talking about this with my friends over dinner last night, which inspired me to use it as my weekly tip.  It's one of the most important factors for weight loss, and for your overall health: drinking enough water.  Many of us aren't actually getting as much water as we need, so it's important to keep this in mind at all times, but especially when you're trying to lose weight.

Staying hydrated is important for your health and fitness for gazillions of reasons, but here are just a few:

• Usually when you first start to lose weight, you lose water weight, so you need to drink enough water to avoid dehydration during this initial stage.
• Also good to note, dehydration slows down the fat-burning process, therefore the more hydrated you are, the faster your body can trim fat!
• Burning calories creates toxins, kind of like a car letting out exhaust, and water helps your body flush out those toxins.
• Drinking water before meals can make you feel full faster, and thus more satisfied with less food.  Many of the times we think we're hungry, we're actually dehydrated.

I know a lot of people aren't big water drinkers like me (I drink at least 8 12 oz. glasses per day), so here are some tips for drinking more water:

• Add lemon!  This is for the person with a sweet tooth who usually opts for sugary drinks like pop or juice.  Try squeezing some lemon into your water to make it a little more palatable without adding tons of extra sugar.
• Drink a glass of water first thing when you wake up in the morning.  This will rehydrate your body after hours of sleep with no water.
•  Drink an entire glass of water before each meal.  This will help you feel full faster, and if you're eating 4-5 small meals a day, this guarantees that you'll drink at least 4-5 glasses of water.
• ALWAYS drink water during a workout.  ALWAYS.  

This is just one example of an article about drinking enough water.

Doesn't that just look so refreshing?!