How Much Water is Too Much? A Health Coach Answers!

Coach Lindsay: Hi. Welcome to another Health Coach Answers. I'm Coach Lindsay, and today I'm going to be answering your Mighty Health member's top five questions of the week. So let's go ahead and get started. Our first question is a very popular question.

How do I organize my daily routine to make time for exercise and nutrition?

Coach Lindsay: This is a very valid question because how many of us find ourselves super busy in the day with our families, our careers, appointments, maybe even caregiving. When it comes to finding time for yourself, first, I like to pose the question: why do we put ourselves last? I think that is a valid question to ask yourself, and it doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. When you have a busy day, the first thing I would say is utilizing your calendar.

Coach Lindsay: Planning is key, that's going to help you prioritize your exercise nutrition, it's going to help you find time for your week. Additionally, setting up external reminders are helpful as well. So look at your week, and you find 10 minutes here, 30 minutes there, schedule exercise or meal planning into your day. Then set a reminder, just like if you were to do that for a doctor's appointment. That way, you have that extra stimuli to help you get excited about it. post it notes are another great one, you know, it sounds silly, but posting little post it notes all over your house, like get your workout in today, or take time for yourself, take time for self care, whatever that may look like.

Coach Lindsay: Also, don't forget to set realistic goals. If you look at a particular week, and you see some time for five minutes, or 10 minutes for your health, that's great because at least that's something, and better than nothing.

Coach Lindsay: And then the last thing relates to the question I asked at the beginning is, prioritize yourself. So make yourself a non negotiable. Even when we have busy days and busy lives, we still make time to go to the dentist, right? Or we still make time to brush our teeth. And so hold yourself at that same standard. And it's going to be much easier to find that time and help you organize yourself into your day.

How do I stay motivated in my wellness journey?

Coach Lindsay: You know, motivation is not linear, just like with everything else, your motivation is going to come and go, your motivation is, you know, gonna lessen – it might even disappear for a few months. There's a saying that I love that says motivation is what gets you started, but discipline is what keeps you going. Okay? So think about that for a minute. let that kind of settle in; you don't have to focus on motivation, or I guess rely on motivation all the time. Discipline is what is going to allow us to get things done when we're not feeling excited or motivated about it.

Coach Lindsay: So part of creating that discipline is first planning for the unexpected, which kind of sounds a little silly, but you know, we never know what's going to come up that's going to derail our motivation. There are lot of things: illnesses, death in the family events, stuff like that, and they can stand in our way. So if you can have a block of strategies aside to talk with yourself if something pops up, and have a clear action plan of what you are going to do. Am I going to just focus on water intake, or am I going to focus on walking for my movement, or whatever that It looks like; find some way to still have some good habits in there when something comes up.

Coach Lindsay: Another thing is focus on your strengths when it comes to motivation, because we know that focusing on your weaknesses is negative self talk, and that us beats us down, therefore decreasing in our motivation. So when something comes up, don't look at what you can't accomplish, look at what you can. This kind of similarly fits into the first question when you have a busy week, or you have something that is standing in the way of your motivation, don't look at your week and say: "Oh, I can't do this, I can't do that." What can you do to be successful? And even if it's one thing, that's great! It's still better than nothing!

Coach Lindsay: And then I want to talk a little bit about discipline, of course. There are some things that you can do to increase your discipline. The biggest thing I would say is remembering your big why. And we talk a lot about the big why here at Mighty Health. I'm sure you have all had the question posed to you of us asking what is your big why. And something that's helped me personally actually is getting note cards and writing down every single reason why you want to change your lifestyle: why this is important to you? Your stack may be 50, or it may be two cards, but whatever that looks like for you, write that "why" down, because only by writing it down is it going to be put into our brain. You can set it somewhere that you see every day. So put it by your nightstand, or put it in your workout room, and you come up on a time where you're not feeling very motivated, pull those cards out, read through those cards, and that's going to get you excited. And it's going to help you remember why you're here and why you're doing this.

Coach Lindsay: Then the second thing is setting up a reward system. Nothing gets us more excited than rewards and prizes. And that's just kind of how we're driven. So if there's something fun to look forward to at the end, we're way more excited and way more motivated. So set that reward system up for yourself, I wouldn't do too much of food rewards, though! But an example would be: if you meet your exercise goals for four weeks in a row, go get a massage, or go get a new outfit, or go do something fun with your family; something that you can look forward to can help you just stay excited when you're not in the mood!

Coach Lindsay: Sticking to that schedule is key is just as important as creating discipline. Sticking to your schedule no matter what, and then identifying your obstacles, with clear plans to overcome them. And then making sure you're not setting unrealistic goals that are going to make you feel defeated. So bottom line here, when it comes to motivation is it's going to look different for everybody, your motivation is going to come and go differently than someone else's. But always remember to what the long term effect is. And so if you're not feeling excited for a workout, or you're not feeling excited to meal plan, remember how you feel after that workout or after your meal plan – that good feeling that it brings. You never regret a workout. Remembering that feeling can help you say okay. Because you know it's going to benefit you in the long term.

How do I stay on track on weekends?

Coach Lindsay: And I love this question, especially this time of year, but really, it rings true any time of year that weekends are hard. They just are and that's okay, especially as we get into like Fourth of July weekend, and barbecues and just holidays in general weekend's gonna be tougher sticking to your goals. And I think the biggest thing to remember here is make a plan that fits your needs. And I say that because it's okay for your goals or your routine to change on the weekends as long as you have a plan still in place. And so whether that is you know, sticking to the same eating times as you do during the week, or maybe on the weekends, you choose not to really focus on exercise, but you focus on nutrition or vice versa. You can just find a few things to focus on for the weekends, even if you're not perfect, but just be okay with that plan and stick to that plan. Practice makes perfect, right? Trial and error is going to be your best friend: maybe you find that you're more successful by focusing on exercise on the weekends, but maybe not so much on nutrition, and that's okay. But remember that the weekends don't have to be all or nothing. This goes both ways, you don't have to stay 100% on track on the weekends, but you also don't want to get in that mindset of "oh, the weekends are my cheat days." So having that balance is key. And also remembering worst case that if you do fall off track completely on a weekend, it's two days out of a seven day week. So regroup, get back on track on Monday, make a plan for getting back on track so that you can be successful into the next week and not let that carry into your week. But yeah, weekends are tough. And that's okay, but just trying to find your balance and what works for you by finding just one or two things to focus on that can keep you consistent.

What role does water intake play on weight loss? And how much water do we need per day?

Coach Lindsay: I feel like water Intake is one of those things that is often overlooked, like when we think of a wellness journey, we think of exercise and nutrition, we don't really think a whole lot about water intake. And so to kind of address that first part of the question of what is the role in weight loss. So water is a really great appetite suppressor. So it's going to help fill you up and help you recognize the difference between true versus fake hunger. So I know there's been many of you who have felt like the need to snack, or you're hungry in between meals; taking a big chunk of water really helps. And sometimes your body is signaling that it's hungry, but really what it really needs is that water. So that's one benefit. Number two is it really helps to circulate bad nutrients out of your body, and move the good nutrients through your body. And if you're not drinking enough water, your body is not urinating, you're not having the same bowel movements, and so you're not getting rid of that waste as frequently as you should be. And then keeping a normal body temperature is important as well, lubricating and cushioning your joints, which is obviously super important as we age, and protecting the sensitive tissues. And all of those things are going to make exercise a little bit easier. And then also boost your metabolism. I'm sure many of you have heard that drinking a cold glass of water first thing in the morning helps your metabolism and it really does. Um, just getting that water intake first thing in the morning on an empty stomach can be really beneficial. So those are the many, many benefits. There's also many more to water. So how much should you be drinking? What what is the recommended amount? We've heard different things, we've heard half my body weight, we've heard 64 ounces, we've heard a gallon.

Coach Lindsay: It really depends on a lot of things, one of which is your perspiration, so how much you're sweating during your workouts. If you're sweating a lot and your workouts, you need to replenish that liquid. If you're on certain medications that require less or more water, that's something to take in to consideration. But in general, a good rule of thumb is 64 ounces, that's plenty, it's half a gallon, that's going to keep you plenty hydrated. Another recommendation is so this: and the number that I'm about to tell you is total water, so not just water, but water that you get from foods, beverages like coffee, and sodas and stuff like that. So for men 125 ounces of fluids a day and for women 91 ounces. So like I said, That's not just water, though, that is water from everything that you're consuming in your day. So typically 20% of your daily fluid intake will come from your foods, so that other 80% should come from water itself. So that's the recommendation. That's the role that it plays in the body. Again, water intake is going to vary person to person, depending on your overall health status, depending on your rate of perspiration as you're working out. But as in general, as long as you're getting about that 64 ounces a day, you're going to be just fine.

What is recommended amount of cardio and strength training for those over 50?

Coach Lindsay: The CDC recommends 150 minutes of moderately intense exercise per week. And that's really for everybody. There's not really a differentiated amount for those over 50 versus below, it's just 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise across the board. Now, moderate intensity is going to look different for everybody depending on your age. But for the typical 50 year old individual, 108 to 129 beats per minute is going to be your moderate zone. So that's kind of where you want to be with your 150 minutes a week.

Coach Lindsay: I'm also going to talk a little bit about flexibility. You want to get moderate to high amounts of aerobic activity three to five days per week for about 20 to 60 minutes. Now again, that's kind of a long a big range and that's because everybody has different fitness levels, limitations, stuff like that. But as long as you're working your aerobic activity most days of the week, that's what's recommended. We obviously know that for heart health a bunch of different reasons for aerobic activity.

Coach Lindsay: And then for strength training, it's kind of similar. So we want to get that moderate intensity strength training two to three days per week. And that's especially important for those over 50, for making sure you're maintaining your bones, strengthening your joints, and keep that that muscle that we tend to lose after 50 healthy. So strength training is really important. And typically, if you just alternate cardio and strength throughout the week, you're going to be meeting that recommendation.

Coach Lindsay: Something that we don't talk about enough is flexibility, balance, and range of motion exercises. Obviously, those are super important as we age. So making sure you're getting those in most days of the week. And that doesn't have to necessarily be a separate workout, you're gonna get flexibility as well as balance benefits from your aerobic and your strength training workouts as well. So just making sure you're incorporating some of that in a good healthy balance.

Coach Lindsay: Remember, what's beneficial for you is what's realistic. So if you can only get two to three days a week of exercise, and you can maintain that consistency, you're doing enough. So start slow, making sure you don't have you don't have to start at that 150 minutes. But that's kind of the end goal. But yeah, I mean, I think it's as long as you're getting a good combination of the two, and you're, just moving your body, that is going to benefit you a whole lot, especially after the age of 50.

Coach Lindsay: All right, guys. Well, if we didn't get to your question, pop it in the question box for our next Health Coach Answers next week, and I'll be sure to add it to the queue. But thank you guys so much for joining. You guys have amazing questions every week and I hope to see you guys next week.