Drink More, Lose Fat and Build Muscle

Hi Victoria,
I have been on a body-shaping plan for six weeks now and I have hit a plateau. Someone said I might need to be drinking more water now, since it has been warmer than usual.  What do you think, could that really help me lose more fat and gain muscle too.
- Jack R.


Hi Jack,
This is such a timely question.  Recently I had someone overheat in a workout due to dehydration.  So thank you for your question, this is the perfect time to address water and it's importance to our bodies.

When I fist started dieting, I was a mess. I would do everything I could think of to lose weight but I never drank enough water so I wasn't losing weight as quickly as I thought I should. I worked out like a mad woman and I even cut back on calories and got so light headed I could hardly drive.  In my craziness, I received great revelation! I was starving my body and dehydrating so bad, that it was holding on for dear life.  I like to think of it as lack conditioning. When you hold on to the things you don't have enough of, you shut down the flow, progress and abundance. 

Once I got over my fear of weighing too much and increased my water intake to four solid quarts, I started to lose immediately and my muscles began to get tighter and less dimply.  In other words, when I stopped moving in fear and started ingesting more water, my body felt free to eliminate the excess fluid and my weight went down.

One week I even lost five pounds by increasing my water intake along with my plan. I was doing an hour of cardio, following my perfect low-glycemic diet, monitoring simple carbohydrates, getting 8 hours of sleep at night and not eating meals after 7:00 PM. I would go to bed at 11:00 PM and get up at 7:00 AM.

If you are not drinking enough water, your body can become deficiently hydrated, known as dehydration, and can manifest in a variety of ways that wreak havoc on your health and your beautiful body.

Ongoing dehydration may cause actual disease as the body struggles to maintain itself without sufficient fluid intake. Dehydration can also lead to stored excess body fat, cellulite formation, flabby muscles, poor muscle tone, muscle loss, decreased digestion and organ function, bloating, PMS and water retention. Now that should be enough right there to make you run in the bathroom and jump in the shower and stand under the spout for five minutes!

Not drinking enough water can also leads to increased toxicity, joint and muscle soreness, slow recovery time after exercise, injury or surgery. Water works to keep muscles and skin tight and youthful (hallelujah). If you are not losing weight as fast as you would like to and want a quick start to losing weight and healing your body, drink up. 

Live It Up!

Water is not just a weight loss inducer, and muscle enhancer; it is essential to for life and necessary for life itself. Water is a fundamental factor in our health. It is fundamental to our total existence. It is so easily overlooked each day because there is such an abundance of it. We wash our clothes in it, we brush our teeth with it, we watch it flow into the sink and wind it's way down the drain while we are washing dishes. After a warm relaxing bath, gallons of this natural healing agent drain away only to be repeated tomorrow.

Every single cell in your body requires water. Our human survival is dependent on water. It is been classified by scientists as second only to oxygen as necessary for sustaining life. On average, the quantity of water in an adult body could fill 12 one-gallon containers. That means as an average adult your body is somewhere between 55 to 75% water. Up to 2/3 of your body weight is water, 40 to 50 quarts. Your body is made up of water, other mass such as bone & tissue and matter. Jack and the rest of you magnificent beings, you basically are water. Water is life.

Therefore, you need to consume approximately 2/12 Qts of water daily to be healthy and metabolically cleansed. Since such a large percentage of our bodies are water, it stands to reason why our health and our bodily functions depend on it. Every process in your body uses water as a catalyst. We can exist without food for up to 2 weeks or more, but we can only survive for a few days without water.

I teach all of my high performance clients that I believe it is the single most important nutrient to take in every day. It is calorie free, it's fat ?free and it helps you feel full. Many of us mistake thirst for hunger. When you are sitting around and thoughtlessly jump up to grab a snack, have a glass of water first. Wait five minutes to see if the hunger goes away. In the meantime, keep busy, don't focus on a snack, focus on the healing effects of the water you just offered your metabolism.

STOP!

Stop buying sodas and expensive coffee drinks for you and your children. They can actually prevent you from losing weight if you drink them instead of water.  Coffee contains caffeine and too much of it can dehydrate you, especially if you live in a warm climate. 

Stop drinking wine before dinner. It stimulates your appetite and can send you into a low blood sugar state, which can make you irritable, or it can drive you to eat more than you ordinarily would.

Stop ordering sodas at fast food restaurants just because they are cheap or they come with the meal. There is no such thing as free food. There is a price you will be paying later either in poor health, weight gain or low blood sugar anxiety.  So stop teaching your children to drink sugary drinks with their meal, it's running their health.

How Much?

When you are working out and leading an active lifestyle, you need a minimum of 8, 8 ounce glasses a day every single day, seven days per week, 4 weeks per month, 12 months out of the year! Get it?? Your body deserves the best fuel at all times. It is your gift to life in our human form. Let's honor it and care for it with wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

The more you exercise beyond sixty minutes per day, the more water you need. Spread out your water intake throughout the entire day, especially on hot days and the day before you are going to participate in a heavy-duty workout.  When you begin your fluid for life commitment, you will be visiting the rest room more frequently. That's Perfect! You are supposed to go more frequently, this facilitates your body's flushing, detoxing and cleansing process. Every time you go, you get rid of extra toxic weight and unhealthy substances that your body does not need. How cool is that? 

Be patient, it takes about two weeks for your bladder to adjust to the new intake.

Drinking Tips (Water Glass art)
Tips on water intake help you lose more weight quicker:

• Drink clean bottled or filtered water
  
• Drink a minimum of 64 ounces per day (2 quarts)
  
• Drink an additional 8 ounces per day for every 25 pounds over your ideal healthy weight 
  

Keep a water bottle or your designated water-drinking cup in visible sight in all areas of your life. Keep one in the kitchen, one at your desk or workspace, one in your car and one in your gym bag. If they are out of sight, they are out of mind.

Personally, I have three distinct water bottles and cups that I use. Right now I have a beautiful 16-ounce crystal blue thermal glass that I have sitting by my computer. I drink one per hour. Each day I write for three hours. If I write longer, I drink more. I also have an elegant crystal pitcher of water with shaped cubes in it that I keep on another table that I use to fill up my thermal glass with. I track the number of ounces I drink per day in my food journal.

I also keep an extra water bottle in my workout bag or make sure I keep enough money on me so that I can buy a bottle at the gym. I have two, one-quart water bottles in the trunk of my car most times next to my emergency kit. I don't want to mess up my diet and my health due to a lack of preparation. I am sure you can think of at least ten more ways to make your water consumption more practical and easily accessible for yourself and your family, especially your children. Get them their own special water cup, bottle or glass. Get one for their lunch box. No one can turn down something that is perceived as special.

Begin today teaching them the value of drinking water and help them get excited about it. Make fluid for life a priority for you and your entire family.

Water is Life!

Drink it up starting today! That's all for now, I have to go to the little girl's room and lose some weight.

God Bless and make it the Best Week Ever!



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