WEEKS 1 and 2 goals: FLUID, MOVEMENT and weigh in daily
“For me this decision was three fold: diagnosed pre-diabetic, predisposed to kidney stones, and empty calories.”
When I sat down and really looked at all the overlapping priorities in dealing with my health along with the various setbacks due to injury, and the desire for long-term athleticism, it became clear that I needed to start with building, or re-building a good foundation.
HYDRATION
Sleep and hydration, things that we think ‘just happen’, are the perfect fundamentals to start with. Recognizing that our mental health is tied to our sleep, or lack thereof, and that was a more complex issue for me to deal with, I decided to start with hydration to get some momentum going while I sorted out the best way to deal with my anxiety, depression and sleep deprivation.
Minimizing or even eliminating energy drinks and soda are a great first step in cleaning up your nutrition. For me this decision was three fold: diagnosed pre-diabetic, predisposed to kidney stones, and empty calories. On its own thats more than enough motivation to eliminate sodas, let alone the impact the sugar was having on my insulin response and heading towards diabetes.
Energy drinks seem to have taken place in society as though they were a necessary part of everyday life… required to ‘get after it’ or to be successful or just look like youre a go-getter. Truth is, at one point I was drinking so many energy drinks and caffeine that I was passing kidney stones twice a year. A couple of times having to go under general anesthesia to remove 9mm stones.. and at another time, passing a 9mm stone ‘au natural’.
Theres no better motivation to stay hydrated than passing a 9mm jagged rock through your urethra, or having a stent inserted ‘up there’ while everything heals from surgery. Then having it yanked out by a 20-something nurse and pissing yourself laying on a table in the Doctor’s office in a puddle of embarrassment. If this is making your sphincter tighten.. good. Go grab some water and read on. Really.. its okay.. Ill wait until you get back.
Ok - so studies have statistically shown (Office Space anyone?) that one of the most beneficial things you can do for your health is ensuring you are well hydrated. It will protect you from muscle fatigue, headaches, brain fog, hypertension, kidney stones, and dementia. As well as the aforementioned embarrassment in a Doctor’s office.
Studies show that even mild dehydration, such as the loss of 1–3% of body weight, can impair many aspects of brain function.
Many members of this same research team conducted a similar study in young men. They found that fluid loss of 1.6% was detrimental to working memory and increased feelings of anxiety and fatigue
Weight loss: A 2013 study in 50 young women with overweight demonstrated that drinking an additional 16.9 ounces (500 mL) of water 3 times per day before meals for 8 weeks led to significant reductions in body weight and body fat compared with their pre-study measurements
It shouldn’t come as any suprise that over-indulgence in sodas in American society is an issue. According to a study done by the CDC, the average American drinks one 12-ounce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) per day which accounts for approximately 145 calories. If you look at the exercise equivalent to burn those extra calories off (assuming a 220 pound male) that would be 25 minutes walking at a 3 mile an hour pace. You may be thinking, “25 minutes a day? Thats not too bad.” But then take that over the period of a week, and assuming it’s only one soda per day, you’d need to walk a little over 3 hours at 3 miles per hour to burn that all that off.
Forget that. I’ve got way better things I could do with my time than burn off sodas that I drank. As an example: you could instead drink water, walk 25 minutes a day, and by the end of the week you’d have burned an extra 1,015 calories. Let’s not even get into talking about the 16 ounce Starbucks Mocha Frappacino at 350 calories, or the other extra calories from a Friday or Saturday night out.
But let’s be honest, there are times when a soda just tastes gooood. In-n-Out with a Root Beer? Popcorn and a soda at the movies? Hell yes please. So, in those cases we have some alternatives we’ve gone to and major props to my wife for doing all the leg-work in so many ways for our nutrition.
Our stocked fridge, thanks to my wife.
Sparkling water
An easy substitute but takes some getting used to if youre coming from sugary-sweet things like Pepsi and Coca-Cola. We recently purchased a Soda-Stream and now save money, and reduced our carbon footprint by making our own sparkling water and soda at home.
DIET SODA
Diet Soda: While the rest of the world can argue back and forth on if the additives in diet soda will make you grow a third eyeball or not, we invoke this only on very rare occasions. Like once a couple of months or so. So do your research and come to your own conclusions about it but there are some good studies that show the positive impact on weight loss with diet drinks vs growing antennae out your head.
OLLIPOP/PREBIOTIC SODAS
Ollipop/pre-biotic sodas: Our favorite option by far. Not only are these super low calorie, they taste great AND they are pre-biotic. You may have heard the term before but if you aren’t familiar pre-biotics are those healthy little organisms that live in your gut that break down the food you eat, and its also becoming evident that these bacteria play a major role in your eating habits and cravings. That ‘gut feeling’ is truly a thing.
KOMBUCHA
The great thing about pre and pro-biotics is all the good stuff it does for your gut health. And as more and more research is being done, its becoming clear your ENS, or enteric nervous system, affectionately referred to as your second brain and is in constant contact with your brain and influences how and what we eat.
TIPS
Heres some takeaways that Ive learned that will hopefully provide you with some success as well:
GET A GOOD WATER BOTTLE
Come to find out, this can be a very personal, and sports specific decision. One that involves portability, easy maintenance and use. Short story is: make sure you can take it everywhere and its not a pain in the butt to clean. Please check out a longer article I wrote about it here.
WATER TRACKING APP
Our memories are fallible, and in the interest of building good habits and reinforcing them I strongly suggest using a water tracking app, or some other reliable method of logging your water intake each day. I cant count the number of times that I went through my day thinking that Id gotten enough water in only to add it up and be short by 30-50%.
I try to keep my digital overhead as low as possible but in rare cases, such as this, I like the ability to track my water intake using an app. It also has the added benefit of connecting with other fitness apps as well.
I use Water Minder but there are plenty of them out there. Just find one that allows you to enter in height, weight and activity level.
MOVEMENT
My Mom died of an aortic aneurysm and my Father from a stroke and he suffered from high-blood pressure his whole life. So when I was diagnosed with high-blood pressure at my annual physical a couple of years ago, it wasnt a huge surprise but also a realization that before I go back to any real cardio-intensive training, I needed to get it under control. So building up a foundation of good cardio and lower my blood pressure was a top priority.
A dream of mine is to one day hike the John Muir Trail with my son. However, A 3.5 mile round trip hike in the Eastern Sierras had me ready to just lay down and die right there on the trail. Since my accident my ankle has never been right, but I have certainly been better. So I focused just on one step at a time and ultimately made it back. It was demoralizing but a wake up call for where I truly was in my physical fitness.
I decided in the interest of building this foundation that I needed to start basic and slow. And just keep my mind focused on moving. Nothing fancy, no HIIT programs, no black belt tests, or triathlons to train for.. just get moving more. For most people without serious fitness goals, this may be enough. 45-60 minutes of walking a day. But I was going to start more basic than that. Just looking for ways to move a little more each day.
So I decided to stop looking for the closest parking spot, standing while working when possible, and when not, taking consistent breaks to walk around or stretch. And something seriously cool happened:
My son said to us “For the next year, I want to take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator.” It wasnt a huge life-affirming moment on New Year’s Day, just a simple, matter-of-fact decision. True to his word, he has been doing it. Even when we went to Universal Studios and went to Nintendo World.. and those are some STAIRS. The kid is an inspiration.
So going forward we’re looking for opportunities where we can take the stairs, finding activities that take us outside a little more, anything that we can do to avoid being so sedentary. That might just be a walk around the neighborhood after dinner, or my wife and I walking to have a morning coffee together.
DAILY WEIGH-INS
Torture or de-sensitization.. you decide. Weighing in each day helps cope with the inevitable changes in your scale weight each day and focus on the long term of year-over-year weight loss and not what you think can happen in a month. The day to day changes can sometimes be in excess of a pound simply based on water intake, carbohydrates and sodium.
My goal for these first two weeks isnt to make drastic changes in what I eat, just be a little more aware and see where it takes me.
THE TL;DR
•ELIMINATE/RESTRICT SUGAR-SWEETENED BEVERAGES
•Get a good water bottle and keep it with you
•CALCULATE YOUR TARGET WATER INTAKE
•GET A WATER TRACKING APP
•HYDRATE CONSISTENTLY THROUGHOUT THE DAY
•STOP TRYING TO FIND THE CLOSEST PARKING SPOT
•GO FOR A WALK AFTER MEALS
•don’t overthink it - just move
•BE CONSISTENT in all things
•celebrate every win no matter how small
** disclaimer: These are my own experiences and opinions so please consult your Doctor and/or a certified fitness professional before undertaking any exercise or nutrition program.