DISCOVER YOUR ZEN
Group Coaching Call – Week 4
Be sure to call in today for our group coaching call. Bring any questions you may have! (If you can’t make the call a replay and transcript will be available and posted here tomorrow.)
CALL REPLAY:
CALL TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the Coaching Call for Week 4 of the Discover Your Zen Program.
As always, before we start, I need to offer this short disclaimer.
DISCLAIMER: I am a physician, but I’m limited in the ability to perform a full exam & work-up on this call. So the information provided here is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice and is not intended to replace a complete
This week, We’ve been covering the topic of creating habit. So for this call, I wanted to touch on a specific habit that is important to include in any healthy lifestyle approach. That habit is Drinking Enough Water Every Day!
How much water do you drink each day? Do you know? Water is essential for life. So it should certainly be an important part of your fitness lifestyle. Your body is approximately 60% water and it uses up some of your water supply each day. That water has to be replaced. The cellular functions of your body basically can’t function without water.
Your body needs to continually take on water (and a lot of it) to function properly. This affects not just your physical health, but your mental health as well.
Do you ever experience the following symptoms?
- Unnaturally dry skin
- Few tears when you cry
- Fever
- Muscle cramps
- You are tired all the time
- Bags under your eyes
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Rapid breathing or heartbeat
- Dry, sticky mouth
- You are thirsty all the time
Those are some common signs of mild to severe dehydration in teens and adults. Dangerous cholesterol levels, liver and joint damage, weak muscles, kidney stones and constipation are just a few of the health conditions dehydration can cause.
Problems can arise quickly when you don’t supply your body with the water it needs to function properly. Any lost liquids in your body should be replaced immediately. This means drinking a lot of water while you exercise, or any time you exert yourself physically.
What Causes Dehydration?
Some causes of dehydration make a lot of sense, like intense physical activity. You sweat out a lot of the water in your body, and if you do not replace that liquid, you can become dehydrated. Here are a few more reasons your body may not be properly hydrated.
- Diabetes
- Diarrhea
- Vomiting
- Alcohol poisoning
- Food-borne illnesses
- Frequent urination
- Side effects of medicine
- You don’t drink enough water
When you have diarrhea, your body does not properly absorb water from the foods you eat. This is the most common cause of dehydration. Blood pressure medications and antihistamines can also create a lack of hydration in some people.
How to Stay Properly Hydrated
You may drink plenty of water each and every day, and still find yourself with several of the dehydration symptoms mentioned above. This could be a case of adrenal fatigue. If you drink plenty of water throughout the day and are still thirsty, with cravings for salt and sugar, you may want to have an adrenal checkup.
However, most of the time, you simply need to drink plenty of water. Dehydration can be is a life-threatening condition. Most of the time you can combat this potential health problem simply by drinking water frequently throughout the day.
This means carrying bottled water with you as you move through your daily routine. Sports drinks, energy drinks and sodas do not count. Water is so important to normal bodily functions. From head to toe, inside and out, and even mentally, your body benefits from a healthy supply of water.
So how much should you be drinking? If you like to look at numbers, I recommend anywhere from one-half to one ounce of water for every pound of your body weight. So if you weigh 130 pounds, then you should drink anywhere from 65 to 130 ounces of water (that’s about a half-gallon to a gallon) per day. The actual amount required is variable and can be affected by many factors which I’ve already discussed… increased physical activity, heat and humidity, and illness associated with fever, diarrhea, or vomiting. A general rule of thumb I like to give patients is to drink water up to the point that your urine becomes colorless. So if you “pee clear,” then you’re drinking enough water.
5 Simple Tricks to Help You Drink More Water Every Day
Practice the following 5 simple tricks to help you drink more water on a daily basis, and your health will see a positive boost.
1 – Make a goal and stick to it – Human beings are great goal setters and achievers. If you just think about drinking more water in the back of your mind, you may be successful, or you may not. However, if you write down a specific goal for daily water consumption you program the habit-forming part of your brain to increase your water intake.
2 – Plan for it – Keep gallons or liters of fresh water on hand at all times. Store some in your refrigerator for a cool and refreshing zero calorie treat that also helps fight hunger pangs. Keep bottled water at your job, in your vehicle, at home and in your backpack when you are on the go. The more water available, the more likely you are to drink this healthy beverage rather than an unhealthy, sugar-filled and processed alternative.
3 – Buy a really nice water bottle – Don’t just head to your local $1 store for this purchase. Find a good-looking, functional, BPA-free water bottle you really like. If you are proud to display your new healthy habit, you are much more likely to stick to it.
4 – Use an app – It seems there is an application for just about anything. This includes apps like Daily Water, iDrated, Waterlogged and Eight Glasses a Day. They make it easy to track your water consumption on a daily basis, and range from free to just $.99 per download.
5 – Add healthy natural flavor – Why not pop some blueberries, cucumbers, strawberries, limes or orange slices into your water? When you are done drinking, you enjoy a healthy fruit or vegetable.
Today, I want you to sit down and calculate how much water you should be drinking based on your weight. Get yourself a reusable water bottle and figure out how many times you need drink and refill that bottle to get the right amount of water for you. So, let’s have a drink right now…To your health!
TODAY’S ACTION STEPS:
1) You should be exercising according to your planned routine. (You can use the exercise program I provided, if it works for you.) If you’re not ready to go FULL OUT with the exercise plan yet…that’s OK. If you’ve been trying out my suggestion of creating a habit, then you may want to add on another step if you haven’t done so yet. Read through the Day 2 module if you’re not sure how to create this “habit chain.”
So…every time you wake up, or finish washing your dishes after dinner, or whatever that regular activity is that you choose as the one to trigger your workouts…put on your workout shoes. (That’s the first link in the chain.)
Then do the next step you’ve been practicing. If your chosen workout is taking a walk after dinner each night, maybe you are heading to the front door and grabbing a jacket. If you want to do a home workout from the exercise plan I’m giving you, then maybe you’re putting on some workout clothes – a top and a bottom. (That’s the second link in the chain.)
NOW, do the next step. (That’s the third link in the chain.) If you plan to go for a walk, just step outside your front door and stand on your porch…and celebrate! If you’ll be doing a home workout, then grab your mobile phone (to access the Fitness App) and stand in your home exercise area…then celebrate! Whatever that next step is just do that. Every day. Every time you put on your workout shoes…AFTER every time you do that trigger activity (washing dishes, waking up in the morning, etc). Remember to celebrate every time you get to the end of this “habit chain.”
If you need a little more time to reinforce those first 2 links in the “habit chain” (e.g. putting on your workout shoes, then putting on some workout clothes), that’s fine. Just keep doing that and don’t worry about adding on right now.
2) Remember that you are repeating last week’s meal plan this week.
3) Mark your calendars for the next group coaching call tomorrow, November 16th, at 8:15pm ET.
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4) If you have any questions about anything…let me know in the Facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/discoveryourzen/
Previous ACTION STEPS:
(Not a complete list, but some important highlights.)
1) Log in to the Fitness App on your COMPUTER – https://doctorvenus.com/app-login/ – and go to the FORMS tab. If you haven’t completed the Client Agreement form and the PAR-Q form from Day 1’s ACTION STEPS, do that today and sign them. Be sure to click SAVE when you’re done. (You can not receive the meal plan and workout plan when they are released until we have those completed forms on file.)
2) If you haven’t done so yet, send an email to team@DoctorVenus.com and state whether you want a vegetarian or non-vegetarian meal plan. It will be sent to your Fitness App by the next day.
3) If you haven’t done so yet, send an email to team@DoctorVenus.com and let me know whether you want an exercise plan for weight loss (focused on burning calories) or for building/maintaining your mass. So you just need to indicate whether you want a BURN or BUILD program. It will be sent to your Fitness App by the next day.
4) Download the Set Your Goals Checklist and complete it. CLICK HERE to download.
5) Download the Program Planner that you can start using, if you wish. CLICK HERE to download.
6) Download the Kitchen Clean Out handout and use it to guide the clean out of your kitchen BEFORE you start your meal plan. CLICK HERE to download.