DECEMBER - WATER

In December our new goal for the month is all about Water.

Goal: Start your day with an 8oz glass of water.
Every meal drink water only. Use other drinks (milk, juice, soda etc.) as a between meal snack.
EXCEPTION: when making all raw juices (or real food smoothies) as your meal. Drink water with your raw juice - and treat juice as the meal.

Example: For breakfast instead of milk with your eggs and fruit. Drink water. Then later in the morning if you still want some milk, have a glass by itself.

Why should I worry about drinking water with my meals? And what is so special about starting my day with water?

First off, starting your day off right is the best way to ensure a productive day. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND drinking a glass of lemon water within 30 minutes of waking up. Lemons are naturally detoxing and will give you a "clear head" approach to your day. Here's a great post on 5 reasons to pop some lemon into your morning glass....but I digress. Lemon or not, Water is the best Drug to start your day off right!

When we eat, we typically drink more liquids than we do during the other parts of our day. If we replace that liquid with cool clean water, we up our daily intake without having to carefully plot out our water intake. So how much water do we need in a day? "The Institute of Medicine determined that an adequate intake (AI) for men is roughly 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day. The AI for women is 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day." according to the Mayo Clinic , anything we can do to continue to increase our daily water intake is a real bonus. (LINK has some great info- check it out)

Aside from making my skin glow and my headaches go away - there are some MAJOR benefits to your overall health and SERIOUS weight loss effects as well:

Let's talk about your metabolism -there are different kinds but I'm referring to the "get rid of excess fat" kind of metabolism. This is actually something that our sweet little liver does for us when it converts stored fat into energy.
Of course, the liver has other functions, but this is one of its main jobs. Unfortunately, another one of the liver's daily jobs is to pick up the slack for the kidneys, which need plenty of water to work properly. If the kidneys are water-deprived, the liver has to do their job along with its own, lowering its total productivity. It then can't metabolize fat as quickly or efficiently as it could when the kidneys were pulling their own weight. If you allow this to happen, not only are you being unfair to your liver, but you're also setting yourself up to store fat, unnecessary fat.

Another reason why your body might be storing excess fat is toxins. When your body encounters toxins that it can't metabolize or excrete as waste, it coats them - in fat. That's right fat, to protect your body from the toxins while they are "stored" until you can get rid of them. Well my friends, that means a cleanse is necessary, and what is the best way to cleanse your body? - water. We've really come full circle haven't we? ;)wink

And yeah, it's great for your skin, but did you know it also improves muscle tone? Oh yeah, you can lift weights till the cows come home, but if your muscles are suffering from a drought you won't get the tightening your looking for; AND since muscle require water for elasticity to contract more easily, your workouts are less effective.

Plus - (remember that great skin comment) hydrated skin remains more plump, elastic and less saggy. So as we lose our tummy's, thighs, and tushes all that loose skin has a better chance of being restored, tightened and smooth!

So my friends - I have discovered although I don't always like the hassle of chugging down half my body weight in ounces; I'm working harder to do it - because I'm learning it has just as much affect on my health as exercise and I feel so much better doing it :)