Monthly Archives: December 2014

How to restart workout routine after winter holiday season

December 30, 2014Motivation to stay fitafter weight loss, healthy life mindset, motivationChristina Marky

Keeping up with a healthy diet and workout routine is impossible during the winter holiday season. The winter holiday season revolves around delicious food and stuffing it into your face. Devoting free time to be with family, visiting relatives or preparing for gatherings interrupts the usual workout routine schedule. If you are anything like me, not getting to workout regularly and eating healthy will drive you crazy. Yet it is really hard to get back on track once the winter holiday season is over. How could anyone expect you to not stuff the delicious leftover Christmas cookies into your face and go to the gym instead of curling up with a good book and hot cocoa?

Follow these 3 steps to help you restart your workout routine after the winter holiday season:

1. Weigh yourself

Poor eating choices during winter holiday season just happen. Every day of the winter holiday. Sweets, soft drinks, dessert, that one more plate of juicy steak. The pounds will just stack up on you secretly.

Look no further for motivation: weight yourself! During Christmas, I’ve put on 5 lbs / 2.5 kg in 2 days! Oh the horror!

I bet you’ll be running to the gym the moment you see those numbers on the scale moving up up up! It pissed me off so much that I’ve gained that much in such little time that I’ve immediately hit that Zumba Fitness class that evening and sweated like a donut at a police station!

2. Don’t think, just act!

Make the first small step: make it something easy. Don’t over think it, just do it. If it is that easy, you will not be able to say no in your head. Fill the water bottle. Put your dry fit t-shirt on under a sweater. Put on your winter coat, hat and boots! Go out the door. Head for the gym. Easy!

Once you make the firs step, you will feel more motivated to continue. Make it with small steps, one step at a time! You’ll get back on track in no time! Bye-bye winter holiday season pounds!

3. Track your calorie intake

Tracking calorie intake stops during the winter holiday season because it’s impossible to track all the delicious home made food prepared by family. Or you don’t want to track because you already feel bad for eating it and knowing it’s not a healthy choice. You don’t want to make yourself feel even worse about it when adding it to MyFitnessPal’s calorie counter. However, when you come to the point of regretting you poor meal choices after the winter holiday season, you will need to start to log your food again. Plus, if you eat the calories to maintain your weight, you won’t get fatter. Or just do what I did, and start eating at a caloric deficit, and lose those excess 5 lbs / 2.5 kg in 2 days.

If you haven’t already figured out how much calories you need to eat in order to maintain your weight, you can do it by heading to a Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) calculator here. It will help you figure out how much calories you need to eat to reach your goal weight.

Need even more support to get back on track with your fitness routine after the winter holiday season? Click here to get free access to more useful tips>>>

How to start a 30 day water challenge: the rules

December 16, 201430 day water challenge, Motivation to stay fit#noexcusewaterchallenge, healthy life mindset, Maria Kang, motivation, no excuse, water challengeChristina Marky

3 rules of the 30 day water challenge

Ready to start Your 30 day water challenge? Not sure how to get started? First thing first: let’s see what are the rules of the 30 day water challenge!

Rules of the 30 day water challenge seem simple: You should drink 1 gallon/3.7 liters of water a day for 30 days, no sweetened beverages nor alcohol are allowed for this period.

How to start the 30 day water challenge?

If you are serious about starting the 30 day water challenge, there certainly are more questions that will arise. Now let’s break down these simple steps of the 30 day water challenge one by one, and answer the big question:

1. Create a water drinking plan

If you are not much of a water drinker, then making yourself to drink 1 gallon/3.7 liters of water a day for 30 days will be tricky at the start. You will need to monitor your water intake, but eventually you will get used to drinking that amount of water. I suggest starting the 30 day water challenge by creating a water drinking plan for yourself to drink that 1 gallon/3.7 liter water a day. You can even have a weekday and weekend water drinking plan if your daily routine differs during the week. The trick is to create a water drinking plan for yourself that fits your lifestyle. The point of a water drinking plan is to plan the water drinking in advance – so you will be more likely to stick to it and meet your daily goal of water intake.

Creating a water drinking plan helps you develop a habit of regularly drinking water throughout the day. It is important if you are not used to drinking water.

Don’t drink all the water in once! In fact, you mustn’t drink more than 0.21 gallons/0.8 liter of water in an hour, because water poisoning is a real threat. You can prevent water poisoning if you distribute your water intake throughout the day.

Just be mindful of your water intake frequency: having a water drinking plan is a great way of achieving this.

2. Swap sweetened coffee, tea, soda, juices with pure water (or their unsweetened equivalent)

If you strictly follow the rules of the 30 day water challenge, then you shouldn’t drink sweetened soda/coffee/tea/juices nor alcohol at all. Swapping your sweetened drinks with pure water is great step towards a healthy lifestyle!

If you are finding this to be really strict, then start the 30 day water challenge by taking your coffee/tea without sugar, honey or artificial sweeteners. Swap soda and juices with water! Limit your alcohol intake to drinking 1 glass of vine or other alcohol 1-2 times per week as a treat.
[table caption=”Am I allowed to drink this during the 30 day water challenge?” width=”500″ colwidth=”20|100|50″ colalign=”left|left|center”]
Drink type,Allowed,Not allowed
Coffee,Yes if unsweetened,Sweetened coffee NOT allowed
Tea,Yes if unsweetened,Sweetened tea NOT allowed
Soda,Yes if soda water,Sweetened sodas NOT allowed
Juices,NOT allowed,NOT allowed
Milk,Yes if unsweetened,Sweetened milk NOT allowed
[/table]

3. Does water in my coffee/tea/soda/juice/soup count as water?

Drinks such as unsweetened coffee and unsweetened tea also count in into your water intake during the 30 day water challenge. You can also count the water in soups as well.

We agreed that you are going to drink water instead of juices and soda during the 30 day water challenge, so it is clear that water counts as water.

Soda is allowed only if it is soda water (sparkling water), a natural potable mineral water with high concentration of sodium bicarbonate, typically carbonated. Keep in mind, that flavored carbonated water contains sweeteners, so it is not allowed as a drink during the 30 day water challenge. You should stay away from any kind of soda beverages.

However, if you choose to treat yourself with that 1 glass of vine or other type of alcohol, don’t count them in your daily water intake.

If you’ve read this far, it means that you are ready to start your 30 day water challenge! If you have any reservations about drinking 1 gallon/3.7 liter water a day for 30 days, consult your doctor.

Need proof of the benefits of drinking more water? See my results of the 30 day water challenge>>>

Starting a 30 day water challenge? 4 alarming issues you need to address

December 9, 201430 day water challenge, Body image problems, Motivation to stay fit#noexcusewaterchallenge, body image problems, fit body, Maria Kang, motivation, water challengeChristina Marky

A lot of you asked about the 30 day water challenge I’ve completed, so here you will find answers from how much water should you drink during the water challenge to how often should you drink, as well as advice to 4 alarming issues you will come across during those 30 days.

If you are reading this, then it means that you are ready to start your 30 day water challenge and you need no more proof of the benefits of drinking more water. However, if you are still not convinced of the benefits, head over here to read about the results you could have after completing the 30 day water challenge>>>

The rules of the 30 day water challenge are simple: you drink 1 gallon/3.7 liters of water for 30 days. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But there are questions that will emerge after you start the 30 day water challenge – so let’s address them one by one:

1. How much water should I drink during the 30 day water challenge?

The starting rule is to daily drink 1 gallon/3.7 liters of water for 30 days. If you are anything like me, you have busy and hectic workweek and eventful weekends, and at some point you will just forget to drink enough water.

So start the 30 day water challenge by creating a water drinking plan for yourself to drink that 1 gallon/3.7 liter water a day.

My weekday water drinking plan was that on weekdays I drank 2×50 oz/2×1.5 l during my office hours from 9 till 5, and then drank my my 26 oz/0.75 l workout bottle during my afternoon workout. The truth is that this water drinking plan worked perfectly on weekdays, however on weekends I needed another plan to meet my water goal of 1 gallon/3.7 liters.
The weekend water drinking plan that worked for me was to drink a glass of water before and after every meal. On Saturday mornings I drank a glass of water right after I woke up, then 1 more glass after my morning routine of washing face, teeth, and dressing up for the day, and 1 more glass of water during/after breakfast. With 4 meals a day, I still had to fill my 26 oz/0.75 l workout bottle twice a day and carry it around with me to come close to my goal of 1 gallon/3.7 liters.
I recommend drinking just water, but at first it might feel too overwhelming and boring. This is when you can spice things up! If you are tired of drinking just pure water, try infusing water with various fruits and herbs! Your taste buds will thank you, and it still counts as drinking water! What I’ve found useful, is this water bottle that you can drag around with you all day and have different fruit flavored water every day!

2. How much water should I drink all in one during the 30 day water challenge?

Water cure — “Let’s cure him of those pesky electrolytes!”

Don’t drink 1 gallon/3.7 liters of water all at once, because water poisoning is a real thing. It happens when you wash out the electrolytes that your body needs. In fact, this was used as a way of torture in the Medieval century.

To avoid water poisoning, just don’t drink more than 0.21 gallons/0.8 liter of water in an hour. If you have healthy kidneys, they filter 0.21 – 0.26 gallons/0.8-1 liter of water per hour. See this list of risk factors for water poisoning. If you have your reservations about drinking 1 gallon/3.7 liter water a day for 30 days, consult with your doctor.

Don’t worry too much, because if you are anything like me, then usually you don’t drink enough water. So at the beginning of your 30 day water challenge, your main problem will be to get used to remind yourself to drink water – the risk of water poisoning won’t be on the table until later on. Only when you develop the habit to drink plenty water, and get used to visiting the toilet more frequently, you might face the problem of drinking excess amount of water in a short period of time.

Don’t let the thought of water poisoning discourage you in starting your 30 day water challenge, because drinking lots of water has many benefits. But just like all the other issues in your life, you must be mindful of your water intake frequency. You easily can prevent water poisoning if you distribute your water intake throughout the day.

So the next question that pops into your head should be:

3. How often should I drink during the 30 day water challenge?

Distribute your water intake throughout the day: drink water in the morning, before and after meals, during workout, during work and running errands.

During my 30 day water challenge, I was drinking 2×50 oz/2×1.5 l during my office hours, and a 26 oz/0.75 l workout bottle during my afternoon workout on weekdays. On weekends I usually failed to meet the 1 gallon/3.7 liters goal; tried hard coming close to it by drinking a glass of water right after I woke up, then 1 glass after my morning routine, and 1 more glass of water during/after breakfast, and drinking 1 glass of water before and after my other 3 meals.

Your goal is to get close to your daily water intake of 1 gallons/3.7 liters, but don’t overstress if you fail. There are days when you won’t make your goal, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t experience the benefits of your 30 day water challenge.

4. Does soda/coffee/tea/juices count as drinking water during the 30 day water challenge?

If you want to strictly follow the rules of the 30 day water challenge, then you shouldn’t drink sweetened soda/coffee/tea/juices nor alcohol at all. In fact, you could stop to drink sweetened drinks even after the 30 day water challenge is over! Changing your drinks from soda/juices to pure water is your best bet towards a healthy lifestyle. So during the 30 days, start by taking your coffee/tea without sugar, honey or artificial sweeteners. Swap soda and juices with water! Limit your alcohol intake.

During my 30 day water challenge, I drank one coffee in the morning without sugar and just a little bit of milk. Stopped drinking sweetened beverages a long time ago, and drank water instead, so that wasn’t a problem. However, I like to drink a glass of vine few times a week with my dinner – so I limited this to one glass per week. It was a special treat to drink a glass of vine for my romantic weekend dinners.

To sum it up: consider the water in unsweetened coffee or tea, but don’t count the once-a-week alcohol if you are choosing to have that fun drink.

Ready to start you 30 day water challenge? Way to go! If you have any questions about the 30 day water challenge before you start it or during it, feel free to ask it in the comments section below.

What people who successfully lost weight are hiding from You: 5 alarming things about Your new fit body

December 2, 2014Body image problems, Emotional issues after weight lossaccepting body, body image distortion, Body Image during and after weight loss, body image problems, downside of being fitChristina Marky

It seems like that while being fat, somehow you forgot about things like a belly button, hip bones, collar bones, ribcage being a part of your body. They just disappear altogether in the sea of fat. While I was fat, I had no visible ribcage, belly button, hip bones or collar bones.

As you know, weight loss affects your whole body: there is no such thing as losing fat only from your hip bones or around your belly button. You just can’t spot reduce. So when losing fat, it will also mean that your ribcage, collar bones and hip bones will start to show. You’ll notice them in the mirror and your hip bones and belly button will alarm you. You’ll be able to touch and feel your collar bones and see your belly button, and when you do so, you will be freaked out about this fact.

The 5 most alarming things about your body after weight loss will be the following:

1. Belly button changes from sad face to weird hole

My whole fat life, my belly button looked kinda sad. When I started to lose weight, I was looking forward to the day when I will have a flat tummy and a happy belly button. Well, that’s not how this whole scenario played out.

What people who successfully lost weight are hiding from you: 5 alarming things about your new fit body — That weird hole in the middle of your body.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

After your weight loss, your belly button changes as well. It becomes this weird hole, with a little leftover fat (or without fat) with saggy skin over the belly button.

Having a fat belly my whole life and not being able to see the end of my belly button, being able to see further down that hole freaks the hell out of me. I catch myself staring at my belly button wondering if it should look like that. What if I lose all the excess fat, how will my belly button look then? Will I be left with lots of loose skin around my belly button that I will even be able to pinch? The belly button is not gross or anything like that, it’s just weird having a different one than I am used to having for so long.

I went to the extreme and asked one of the fit girls at the gym if I could see her belly button so that I could compare mine to hers. She was totally cool with it, so we compared belly buttons. I got to examine her belly button, and after that I examined lots of other girl’s belly buttons. Weirdo, I know. And I can say that my belly button looks similar to their belly buttons – it’s not completely the same, as it can’t be – but it looks acceptable.

However, looking at belly buttons of strangers wasn’t enough to quiet my mind. I have accepted that the shape of my belly button is considered normal, yet it still feels weird having this kind of a belly button instead of a sad fat belly button I always had.

2. Your whole ribcage starts to freak you out

Fat loss is systematic in your body – if you are female, first you loose fat in the top half of your body. It means that your ribcage will at some point become exposed. Your ribcage becomes smaller when you lose weight because you lose subcutaneous fat, the layer of fat directly below the skin.

Let me tell you: you are not used to being able to feel your bones like this, so like all the other psychological issues, you will need to face this one too, and it will take some time for you to accept that it is ok to be able to feel your ribs when you touch your ribcage.

3. Hip bones become more visible

Don’t get me wrong: there’s a difference between the shape of hip bones being visible beneath that outer layer of skin, hip bones being really defined, and hip bones jutting out. My hip bones became visible beneath the layer of the skin with all that fat gone, yet in my head it feels like my hip bones are standing out too much. I know it is the way I was made, so I can really do nothing about my hip bones being visible.

Visible bones on my body seemed so far fetched awhile ago. And now I am surprised every time by my hip bones when I roll over in my bed, and I feel like a skeleton.

While being fat, I was never focused specifically on my hip bone area. The problem I started having when the fat disappeared from my tummy area and my hip bones became visible was that I was very frequently bumping into things. Doors and chairs were enemies of mine, and it was always me leaving the battle with bruises, especially around my hip bones.

Luckily, with accepting my new fit body, the blue bruises disappeared, and my defined hip bones stopped bothering me.

4. Collar bones

Collar bones are the least of my worries. I often find myself running my fingers over my collar bones. I thought that finally having girly collar bones when I become fit is going to be a huge issue, but turns out it is not that much entertainment. Weird thing that while you are fat, you want collar bones. You will do anything to get collar bones. Even apply makeup to achieve the affect of having real collar bones:

When you are fit, you just have collar bones, and they are not a big deal anymore. So wishing for collar bones means that you need to start losing weight!

5. That lump on Your chest isn’t a sign of You dying

I was worried about a lump I’ve felt on my chest, so I went to see my doctor. She asked me to show where the lump is, and when my doctor felt it, turned to me, smiled and said that I am now feeling my sternum! I was relieved and embarrassed at the same time: I have never felt my sternum as a grownup, and completely forgot about it.

Here is a detailed picture of a sternum in case you also forgot that it even exists in your body:

"Sternum animation3" by Anatomography - en:Anatomography (setting page of this image). Licensed under CC-BY-SA-2.1-jp via Wikimedia Commons. — “Sternum animation3” by Anatomography – en:Anatomography (setting page of this image). Licensed under CC-BY-SA-2.1-jp via Wikimedia Commons.

One thing you need to remember is that it is completely acceptable for you to feel freaked out about seeing your collar bones, hip bones, ribs and rib cage as well as weird parts of your belly button. It will take but you will soon accept these body parts as being a part of you.

You won’t bump your hip bones into chairs, you won’t be asking strangers to show their belly buttons so that you can compare yours to theirs, and you won’t lie in your bed at night stressed out about that lump in your chest that will turn out to be your sternum that you never touched before in your life.

Here are some useful quick tips on how to speed up the process of accepting your new fit body after your weight loss! Click here>>>

Need help getting over your fears and frustrations after losing weight? Try the awesome tips given in this book>>>

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From Fat to Fit Girl

coping with changes after weight loss