Monday, August 30, 2021

10 Simple Hacks to Help You Drink More Water

Water is required by each cell of your body in order to function normally and help you become the “healthiest you.” While your body will also obtain water from other fluids you drink, water is far-and-away the best choice. Water has so many benefits from increasing energy and relieving fatigue to boosting your immune system and of course, also promoting weight loss. One way that water helps with your weight loss journey is by fueling your workouts. If you’re dehydrated, your workouts will not be as effective. But water also helps you feel full and potentially eat less. Sometimes a glass of water is enough to curb what you thought was hunger.

While you probably already knew the importance of water, you still might struggle with fitting in all that extra hydration. Sometimes it’s even just a matter of getting so busy that you forget to keep up with drinking. We know you’ve heard a lot of tips before, but we did some research and have come up with 10 more water-drinking-hacks that you can add to your arsenal. Try these easy ways to drink more water:

1. Set an Alarm

If you’re like most people you probably always have your phone on you. Well now you can use that alarm for more than your early morning wake-up call. Set an alarm to go off every hour to remind you to drink up. It’s so easy to get caught up with what you’re doing and fail to drink as much as you should but this will help provide an easy reminder.

2. Band It

If you’re more of a visual person, this hack is for you. Start your day with at least eight rubber bands around your wrist. Each time you drink about a cup of water, remove one rubber band. Make sure you’ve removed them all by the end of the day and you’ll know you fit in your eight (or more) cups that day.

How Much Water Do You Really Need? How to Know

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3. Hashmark your Bottle

Another visual reminder, by using a permanent marker to add hashmarks to your water bottle, you can know exactly where you stand with water consumption for the day. Next to each hashmark write a time which corresponds with the time you plan to drink up. When the clock strikes that time, drink until you’ve hit the next hashmark.

4. Buy a Water Bottle You Love

It sounds silly but investing in a bottle that you really love just may help you drink more. There are a lot of bottles on the market. In fact, if you’re not much of a DIY type of person, they even sell water bottles that are already hashmarked (per the suggestion above). There are water bottles that allow you to easily infuse fruit and others that advertise keeping your drink cold all day long. Or you could even just buy a cup with a straw that has a favorite saying or character on it. Something as simple as a cup you love just may be the motivation you need.

How to Buy the Best Water Bottle

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5. Set a Rule

Another way to remind yourself is to set a rule based around a regular occurrence. For instance, you could decide that every time you go to the bathroom you have to drink one more cup of water. If you have another ongoing occurrence throughout the day, you can set your cup drinking to that. It just serves as an easy reminder to tie it to something you’re already regularly doing.

6. Eat Your Water

There’s no rule that says you must drink all your water. If you really struggle with water consumption try adding more water-packed foods to your day such as watermelon, cantaloupe or cucumber. This will help boost your intake even if you’re struggling with drinking it all down.

Trouble Drinking Enough Water? 10 Hydrating Foods You Need to Be Eating

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7. Switch your Brand

You’ve probably already heard the tip about adding flavor to your water to make it tastier but maybe just switching your brand could make a difference. Or maybe you prefer mineral water. If you’re currently drinking unfiltered water, invest in a filter and see if that makes it more appealing. If you make your water more enjoyable, you’ll likely drink more of it.

8. Add a Straw

Some people find that drinking from a straw is easier. It’s a simple switch but might be worth trying if it will help you drink more water. Whether you drink from a straw or not, sipping water—as opposed to gulping it down—is always much more pleasant so focus on taking it slow and you just may find you can fit more in.

Bloated Belly? Address These 7 Causes to Get Rid of It for Good

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9. Start Early

If you’re like a lot of people you might kick off your morning with a glass of juice or a cup of coffee. Why not try drinking a glass of water before anything else? One of the biggest issues with fitting in eight cups a day is that most people don’t start their water consumption until late morning as they’re typically drinking something else first. But if you make water your first drink of the day you’re setting yourself up for success. In fact, you might even find you don’t need that glass of juice now that you’re fully hydrated on healthy H20.

10. Add Ice

Again, simple but effective. Adding ice may make your water more appealing—particularly on a hot day or after a work-out. You can even take it a step further and use ice as the way to add flavor to your drink. Freeze ice cube trays full of fruits or herbs and plunk them in your drink for both a boost of flavor and a temperature cool down.

 

The post 10 Simple Hacks to Help You Drink More Water appeared first on The Leaf.



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Just need some words of encouragement after an embarrassing first day at work because of my weight

My stats: F, 25, 130kgs. I’ve just started a 3 month placement block as a student radiographer. I freaking love this job and I was so excited to be in a new site with new machines and to really get hands on. Then came the time for me to assist with a fluoroscopy procedure (live-action xrays basically). For these procedures, as radiographers we remain in the room while the exposure is happening and we need to wear Lead gowns to protect ourselves. I tired on the first lead gown and it was too small, same with the second, and finally the third mostly fit, but it didn’t fully wrap around the bottom of me. They let me stay for the procedure but the whole changing into 3 different gowns before one even fit semi-well was crushing. And now I’m so hesitant to go in again not only because to me, it was embarrassing as hell, but I also don’t feel fully protected as the gown doesn’t wrap around my lower half properly. I just need some encouraging stories of successful weight loss, tips and tricks and some easy exercise methods I could implement to help me along my journey. Thanks fam ☺️

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Where to start?

F, 28, 257lb.

Ive been tracking everything I eat on MFP for the last two weeks (almost religiously - missed recording my evening meal on one day and can't remember what it was). My TDEE is 2300 so I put my goal on MFP for 2000 and I've consistently exceeded it by at least 300, usually more like 600.

I have no discipline. I'm eating too many snacks (chocolate, ice cream, brownies) and I know that I need to not, but I still keep doing it. I need to find a way to shove more protein in there. I can't stand being hungry.

Does anyone have any tips? I know this mess is my own fault, and my doctor has referred me to a weight loss clinic which will be helpful, but I have another medical issue that's being investigated that might be due to my weight, so I need to make a start.

My breakfasts are pretty good - the habit I've been working on the last two weeks is preparing breakfast in advance: I've been doing various overnight oats recipes with Greek yoghurt, and I'm going to switch it the highest protein content one I've seen. For lunches I usually have a chickpea salad or fajita - it really is the snacking I'm falling down on, but from what I've seen of other posts, I think I do need to try and get some more protein in too.

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Monday, 30 August 2021? Start here!

Today is your Day 1?

Welcome to r/Loseit!

So you aren’t sure of how to start? Don’t worry! “How do I get started?” is our most asked question. r/Loseit has helped our users lose over 1,000,000 recorded pounds and these are the steps that we’ve found most useful for getting started.

Why you’re overweight

Our bodies are amazing (yes, yours too!). In order to survive before supermarkets, we had to be able to store energy to get us through lean times, we store this energy as adipose fat tissue. If you put more energy into your body than it needs, it stores it, for (potential) later use. When you put in less than it needs, it uses the stored energy. The more energy you have stored, the more overweight you are. The trick is to get your body to use the stored energy, which can only be done if you give it less energy than it needs, consistently.

Before You Start

The very first step is calculating your calorie needs. You can do that HERE. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week.

Tracking

Here is where it begins to resemble work. The most efficient way to lose the weight you desire is to track your calorie intake. This has gotten much simpler over the years and today it can be done right from your smartphone or computer. r/loseit recommends an app like MyFitnessPal, Loseit! (unaffiliated), or Cronometer. Create an account and be honest with it about your current stats, activities, and goals. This is your tracker and no one else needs to see it so don’t cheat the numbers. You’ll find large user created databases that make logging and tracking your food and drinks easy with just the tap of the screen or the push of a button. We also highly recommend the use of a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Knowing how much of what you're eating is more important than what you're eating. Why? This may explain it.

Creating Your Deficit

How do you create a deficit? This is up to you. r/loseit has a few recommendations but ultimately that decision is yours. There is no perfect diet for everyone. There is a perfect diet for you and you can create it. You can eat less of exactly what you eat now. If you like pizza you can have pizza. Have 2 slices instead of 4. You can try lower calorie replacements for calorie dense foods. Some of the communities favorites are cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash in place of their more calorie rich cousins. If it appeals to you an entire dietary change like Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian.

The most important thing to remember is that this selection of foods works for you. Sustainability is the key to long term weight management success. If you hate what you’re eating you won’t stick to it.

Exercise

Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.

It has it’s own benefits though. You will burn extra calories. Exercise is shown to be beneficial to mental health and creates an endorphin rush as well. It makes people feel *awesome* and has been linked to higher rates of long term success when physical activity is included in lifestyle changes.

Crawl, Walk, Run

It can seem like one needs to make a 180 degree course correction to find success. That isn’t necessarily true. Many of our users find that creating small initial changes that build a foundation allows them to progress forward in even, sustained, increments.

Acceptance

You will struggle. We have all struggled. This is natural. There is no tip or trick to get through this though. We encourage you to recognize why you are struggling and forgive yourself for whatever reason that may be. If you overindulged at your last meal that is ok. You can resolve to make the next meal better.

Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.

Additional resources

Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.

* Lose It Compendium - Frame it out!

* FAQ - Answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions!

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Sunday, August 29, 2021

Life Change

New here! 23F SW:333 GW: 180 CW:312

Well to start I've been overweight my entire life, I can't remember the last time I fit into "straight" size clothing. I started getting serious about my weight loss at the beginning of July 2021 after my father had his leg amputated due to diabetes with a slew of other health problems. Seeing his health fail tremendously fast, it made something in my brain click. I knew I had to lose weight to keep myself healthy so I didn't go through the same thing. So if anyone has any words of encouragement for me, or any recipes or books, anything that helped you with your journey it would be greatly appreciated. Also My doctor talked about prescribing me phentermine if anyone would like share their experience with that, I'm still on the fence.

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Feeling so down on myself

I know I’m just having “a day” but I’m not feeling very positive about this weight loss journey. My stats: 45F SW 311 CW 297 I have been heavy all my life but I have never been as heavy as I am now. I wish I was back at 200 lbs when I was 21 and thought I was gross! lol. Now I’m about to turn 45 and I’m trying desperately to stay under 300. I have bounced up and down, dropping to 240 and a size 14 after my second child. I was then diagnosed with UCD and Sjögren’s syndrome and had to take a desk job. I have tried to say F*CK it! I love my body, no matter what size it is, but I just can’t do it. I feel like so much of my self worth is tied to the number on the scale. And now to make it worse, the reconstructive (not cancer thank God) breast surgery has been put on hold until I am under 40 BMI.

I know I have a million and four reasons to lose weight but I also have 40+ years of failure so I don’t know how I will succeed this time.

TYIA for listening to my pity party! 😀

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You can't outrun a bad diet, but you do need to outrun a slow metabolism. 45F, SW 306, CW 304 (3 months)

Hi everyone. I've resisted posting here so many, many times. After all, what can one person's story add to the millions of other tales of woe and success? Well, it turns out that my most recent experience is very new to me, despite decades of knowledge and effort. Maybe it can help someone else.

Backstory: At my highest, just following the birth of my first child 7 years ago, I was around 350lbs. Prior to that (about 20 years ago), my HW was 334. Between that time and now, I have gained and lost so many times - the same as so many of us. The more serious efforts involved a whole lot of protein shakes and bars and blood tests and weekly meetings. They worked, kind of, but that's not living. Over time, those 900-1200 calorie/day diets sapped my caloric setpoint to where I can eat very little and still not lose weight. Throughout most of these attempts, I didn't do much ion the way of exercise. After all, in my 20s and 30s, it wasn't necessary. I could eat very little and lose 6-10 lbs a week. Besides, I have an ongoing hip issue that creates a lot of pain. It's an excellent excuse.

Fast forward to this year. We moved into a beautiful new house surrounded with walking and biking trails and hundreds of beautiful, fit people. I told myself that I would work hard to "deserve" living here (my words, only slightly sarcastic). The neighborhood has its own swimming pools, gyms, and I've set up my own gym equipment. Unfortunately, my hip issue has gotten so bad that using these opportunities feels like climbing a mountain just to get ready. So I figured that I would just try to lose 20 lbs the old way, by focusing on food and I'd feel great in a couple of months and become superwoman.

I hired a nutritionist and a life coach to help me with habit formation and getting away from my mental blocks on the topic. I was ready to do this! Aaaaannnnnd. Nothing. I decided to move to a meal service so I could more accurately track my intake and focus on calories and macros.

I've lost 2 lbs in 3 months. I mean, it's something, but I still can't get my socks on in the morning. I'm eating 1400 calories/day, my coaches want me eating 1800 (I just can't. I'm too full at 1400 as it is), my doctor wants me doing bariatric surgery (pointless, since I'm not overeating), my insurance won't approve Wegovy until I've done another 3 months of supervised diet shakes, and my TDEE is either 2500 or 1655, depending on the calculator (clearly it's the latter value).

This gives me two choices - go back on the rapid weight loss path and feel utterly miserable and gain everything back again later or stay the course, keep learning proper behavior patterns, and try to increase my metabolic rate - even though it'll take a lot longer. I'm tired, depressed, and on the verge of tears frequently. But I have to keep trying, and now I need to face the real, physical pain and fatigue and start becoming a lot more active.

I would love to hear stories of people who overcame their body's reluctance to lose weight and how you did it. What got you in the habit? What got you past the pain?

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