Physical Funness for the Motion Starved

Fit more fun into your fitness while exploring the outdoors.

Tag Archives: hydration


by 1 Comment

12 days of December (The Season of Eating – Navigation Tip #3)

Eight Santa's Running

I wrote you a little song. It’s also a workout. For 12 days you’ll add one new task to your fitness routine until you have 12 tasks. It’ll be fun. Give it your best effort and sing along if you dare!

On the first day of December my trainer said to me… drop & give me 20 burpees…

On the second day of December my trainer said to me… eat protein for breakfast, and drop & give me 20 burpees…

On the third day of December my trainer said to me… 30 minutes of cardio, eat protein for breakfast, and drop & give me 20 burpees…

On the fourth day of December my trainer said to me… run up 4 hills, 30 minutes of cardio, eat protein for breakfast, and drop & give me 20 burpees…

On the fifth day of December my trainer said to me… eat 5 colors fruits & veggies, run up 4 hills, 30 minutes of cardio, eat protein for breakfast, and drop & give me 20 burpees…

On the sixth day of December my trainer said to me… 60 bicycle crunches, eat 5 colors fruits & veggies, run up 4 hills, 30 minutes of cardio, eat protein for breakfast, and drop & give me 20 burpees…

On the seventh day of December my trainer said to me… climb seven flights of stairs, 60 bicycle crunches, eat 5 colors fruits & veggies, run up 4 hills, 30 minutes of cardio, eat protein for breakfast, and drop & give me 20 burpees…

On the eighth day of December my trainer said to me… drink 8 glasses of water, climb seven flights of stairs, 60 bicycle crunches, eat 5 colors fruits & veggies, run up 4 hills, 30 minutes of cardio, eat protein for breakfast, and drop & give me 20 burpees…

On the ninth day of December my trainer said to me… 90 walking lunges, drink 8 glasses of water, climb seven flights of stairs, 60 bicycle crunches, eat 5 colors fruits & veggies, run up 4 hills, 30 minutes of cardio, eat protein for breakfast, and drop & give me 20 burpees…

On the 10th day of December my trainer said to me… 100 bench dips, 90 walking lunges, drink 8 glasses of water, climb seven flights of stairs, 60 bicycle crunches, eat 5 colors fruits & veggies, run up 4 hills, 30 minutes of cardio, eat protein for breakfast, and drop & give me 20 burpees…

On the 11th day of December my trainer said to me… 11 minutes of stretching, 100 bench dips, 90 walking lunges, drink 8 glasses of water, climb seven flights of stairs, 60 bicycle crunches, eat 5 colors fruits & veggies, run up 4 hills, 30 minutes of cardio, eat protein for breakfast, and drop & give me 20 burpees…

On the 12th day of December my trainer said to me… use your foam roller, 11 minutes of stretching, 100 bench dips, 90 walking lunges, drink 8 glasses of water, seven flights of stairs, 60 bicycle crunches, eat 5 colors fruits & veggies, run up 4 hills, 30 minutes of cardio, eat protein for breakfast, and drop & give me 20 burpees…


by 2 Comments

Coconut Water, not just for the shipwrecked anymore

Coconut Water

A couple of years ago my coach at the time suggested I try drinking 100% coconut water to rehydrate after a hard workout. Sadly at the time his words went in one ear and out the other. Now, years later I’m finding that the cloudy liquid inside a coconut has become highly popular and is currently all the rage.

Basically, coconut water contains more potassium than most sports drinks along with a huge list of other impressive claims: it cleanses your digestive tract, fights viruses like Herpes and AIDS, raises your metabolism and I even saw some data that suggested that it promotes hair growth (soak your bald head with it).

In the end, 100% coconut water is a naturally refreshing drink full of electrolytes. Use it to rehydrate after an intense workout. I think it tastes pretty good, although my friend Jacks thinks it tastes like “toilet water.” My suggestion to her was put it in the blender with some frozen fruit and whip up a post workout smoothie. Try it with frozen banana chunks, strawberries, add some yogurt, whatever floats your boat.

What the heck…give it a try, I’m glad I finally did.


by 2 Comments

Random bits

Happy Friday!  I know some of you are pretty happy the week is over. I hope the weekend serves you well and you find yourself rested and recovered in time for Monday (or, is that a stupid thing to say?).

Today I’m sharing some tips from my friends.

  • Drink your water – Marathon Louie thought he was “all that” by doing a nice tempo training run and then attempting what he assumed would be an easy spin class. Unfortunately with all the training ML lost track of his hydration level. With that, the double workout proved too much for the lean, fit gent. Post “spin” Louis spun himself right onto the floor and awoke to find himself sprawled out and surrounded by some very nice EMT’s. His advise. Drink up!
  • Wash your stuff – Skinny Scott wanted me to remind everyone to wash their fruits and veggies. Even the ones that you plan to peel. It’s not just about obvious dirt, it’s about all the nasty stuff that gets on there from all the different folks handling it.  Mr. Skinny found himself with a case of “The HoneyMustards” after eating a mango that he peeled but must have picked up some fungi from the cutting board. Best way to wash your stuff is to run lots of water over it. Just to be safe, Skinny suggests washing the pre-washed lettuces that comes in a bag. Need I say more?
  • Sleepy? – Nancy The Guit wondered why she was tired all the time.  She was sleeping well at night, eating right, getting plenty of vitamins and her hormones were in check but she still felt sleepy all day.  What’s up with that, she thought so she asked her Doc and found that she was taking twice the recommend dosage of melatonin.  She’s now cut back and behold, she’s not tired anymore. Watch your dosage, take the recommended 3 mg at most and when you wake in the morning turn on a bright light to trigger your body to stop making it’s own melatonin. More is not better!
  • GP-2011 says “lube your business” – Body Glide is for beginners, too. There’s nothing like getting ass-burn, or chafed cheeks from a vigorous workout. Anywhere you sweat and have a little friction is prime real estate for chafing—arm pits, thighs, butt cheeks. GP recommends body glide, Vaseline, A&D ointment—she’s even used her kids’ diaper creams—use whatever you’ve got, but the body glide is greaseless, easy to roll on, and doesn’t smell like baby powder. Better lube your business, or you might feel the burn—and not just in your muscles.

Learn from their mistakes, I’ll see you on Monday. Next week I’ll come clean and let you have a look at my abs.  We’ll see if all those crunches from my ab challenge did me any good. Stay tuned…


by Leave a comment

Potty talk

I gotta go!

I have a slight obsession with getting the things that went in, to come out as soon as possible. No, I have never been into any of those nasty disorders that lots of women get into. With that, over the years I have become very knowledgeable and impressed with the magic of both fiber and water.

Now, I know that I talk a lot about fiber and water so today I am talking about pee.

What exactly is Pee? Essentially, pee (aka urine) is mostly water (about 95%), however, the rest of the contents can vary depending on what you’ve eaten, drank, breathed or been exposed to. The remainder usually consists of urea, uric acid, ammonia, hormones, dead blood cells, proteins, salts, minerals, and toxins. It’s the body’s trash!

Did you know that there’s something called Urine Therapy? It’s the use of urine to heal what ails you. There are people that use urine to heal Strep Throat, Diabetes, Pink Eye and the list goes on.  Yes, they drink pee.  In India some enjoy Gua Jal (Cow Water). Frankly this is where my relatively open mind slams shut. If you want more information on Urine Therapy I suggest you get your Google on.

Here are some good things to know about pee.

  • The average person expels about 1-2 liters of urine per day and “goes” 6 times per day.
  • Only 40% of the population has the gene that allows them to smell asparagus in their pee. Apparently if you take the tips off the asparagus then your pee won’t smell. But do you really care? The tips are the best part!
  • Like it or not many common skin care products contain animal urine. Apparently it helps to moisturize and as we learned above it may have healing properties.
  • The color of your urine can help to determine how hydrated you are. Additionally color in your urine can be a sign of much larger problems. For example, red urine means that you are secreting blood and you should see a doctor immediately. Blue or green urine usually means that you ate something containing dyes. The color your urine should be is very light yellow to almost clear. You should be able to read through it.

I hope you’ve learned something. Maybe some day I’ll talk about #2. Maybe not.


by Leave a comment

She sucked the juice out of a Wet Nap!

It was a few years ago while vacationing on Kauai, Gina (aka, Billy Goat) talked Jacks and I into going for a “quick stroll” before breakfast. “There’s this really amazing waterfall just up the trail. The book says it’s a 20-minute hike, round trip. Then we can go for breakfast…” Trusting Miss Gina, Jacks and I reluctantly agreed to hold off on our AM feeding frenzy and go on the hike.

Long story short –  Four hours later, Jacks Gina and I were remarkably rescued by a short, barefoot man swinging a machete. The man was cutting his way through the lush Napali vegetation to get us back on the proper trail, he said nothing more than, “you are lost come with me.” You can imagine the thoughts going through our heads, they make TV shows about things like this. Ever seen Gone Without a Trace?  I could hear my mother’s voice reminding me not to go off with strangers (let alone ones that pack a machete). Unfortunately our choices were few. We could perish by bring hacked to bits by a Menehune, or die of dehydration.  You see none of us were smart enough to take a drop of water or crumb of food with us on our “quick stroll.” Not only were we frightened, we were severely dehydrated at this point.

Once Machete Man got us back on the trail we still had about half an hour to hike back to the car/breakfast/lunch. We were cranky and seriously dragging.  At one point I looked back to check that Jacks was still following and what I saw was my best friend sucking the juice out of a lemon scented Wet Nap.  I yelled at her to share but she refused, shouting back “this is mine…you should have brought your own…” Can you imagine? I was near death!

That said, we all know that we need to drink lots of water every day so I’m not gonna push. Think of this as a friendly reminder.

The general rule of thumb has been to drink eight, 8 ounce glasses of water daily. Especially if you’re trying to lose weight. If you’re active in sports, live in a hot climate, at high altitude or are dehydrated for one reason or another (excessive coffee or alcohol) you should drink even more.

The latest conventional wisdom holds that you should drink daily half your body weight in ounces of water. That means, if you weight 120 pounds, you should drink 60 ounces of water every day, or seven and a half cups. If you weight 180 pounds, you should drink 90 ounces of water daily, or eleven cups and another few sips for good measure.

Makes sense. The heavier you are the more water you need to hydrate and flush out those nasty waste products.

Drink up, I’m told Wet Naps don’t taste too good, even the lemon ones…


by Leave a comment

The first Monday

In case you’re wondering why I’m here, I’m attempting to provide an environment in which folks may be entertained, educated and inspired (yes, at some point I intend to get rich off this). My approach is simple and to the point. My topics are well researched, however I will not be listing a bunch of long-winded study information. It’s my hope that I will inspire my readers to look further into the issues that interest them on their own. So, you might say that I will be “teasing” you with information and ideas hoping that you will be sparked to into bettering your lives.

With that, today I offer a few bits of information that perhaps are new to you.

  • Light soy sauce contains 600 milligrams of sodium?  That’s insane! A healthy adult should consume no more than 2,300 mg in one day. Tip from my friend Skinny Scott, put your soy sauce in a spray bottle and spray it on your food.  That way the flavor stays on the surface and doesn’t get absorbed into your food like a sponge (and you don’t puff up like a blow fish and die of heart disease).
  • Cherries. Who doesn’t love cherries? Cherries have been shown to reduce inflammation and may help with arthritis pain. Drink a glass of unsweetened cherry juice or eat a few fresh or dried cherries everyday.  Unsweetened juices can be a bit tart, so if it’s too much for you I suggest cutting it with water. Try, ¾’s water, ¼ juice.  Same goes for Cranberry juice, which helps the body to eliminate excess fluid.

Don’t forget to move today.  If you’re stuck at your desk, make an effort to get up every hour and walk around. Circle your ankles and wrists 10 times each way, do 3 side bends each direction and gently stretch your neck, front, back and side-to-side. Do this every hour if you can.  Remember, every time you move you’re burning calories and helping your body function.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more and soon illustrations and photo’s to help illustrate all sorts of things. Also, feel free to comment on my posts.  Your comments won’t show up on the blog unless I approve them so say what you like.

Enjoy your first Monday of the year.


by Leave a comment

It’s the Sunday before the big Monday

If you’re like most of us you’ll be starting your New Years diet & exercise program tomorrow. The said beginning of the New You. It happens at the beginning of every year and lots of Mondays throughout each year. We chow down on Sunday and start big on Monday. I’ve been there. I’ve tried every diet, exercise and over the counter aid known to man. I’ve lost thousands of pounds since my first diet at age 10 and gained most of those pounds back. In all my years, I’ve gone from looking great, to looking like a massive farm animal and back to looking great again, over and over. Same thing happens to most of us (even those folks on The Biggest Looser). What’s become clear to me is that you must find a solution to your fitness needs that you can live with every day, forever. It needs to be fun, reasonable and adaptable.

Here’s what I suggest. Start with a washing out of your insides. Use the terms detox or cleanse if you prefer. Sure, there are lots of things you can do and kits you can buy to help eliminate the havoc wreaked upon your body during the holidays. Some of those products even promise to cleanse your system of things that have been stuck in there for years. Remember those crayons you ate as a kid? They may still be in there. I’ve tried some of these products, they’re fun but they’re a bit of a commitment.

Why not start with these simple detox ideas…

First – drink water, drink lots of water. Water helps ease your digestion and clear your system of all the fat, alcohol and sponge like carbs you’ve been sucking down. For better taste, place lemon, cucumber, orange or grapefruit slices in a pitcher of water and keep it chilled. Also pour yourself some freshly squeezed grapefruit juice instead of that martini. Grapefruit juice is said to help detoxify your liver. Whatever…just drink up!

Second – Fiber, eat lots of it. Every meal. Same as with the water, fiber helps smooth the flow of digestion and scrub out all that stuff you don’t want in there anymore. Get my meaning…? It makes you feel fuller too which helps with that post holiday diet you’re working on. Great sources of fiber are: beans, lentils, Okra, pears, whole-wheat products. Remember you need 30 grams a day.

Third – Get your sweat on! Go outside, go to the gym, clean your house. Do whatever it takes but make it something you actually like. I’m going on a guided hike (in the rain) along the coast in search of shipwreck remains today. Sounds fun right? Here’s your plan…Warm up for 5-10 minutes, then start doing some serious moving. Make sure you’re sweating. Sweat for at least 20 minutes, cool down 5-10 minutes with some stretching and drink some of that yummy water.

Forth – Repeat daily. Try it for a week and see how you feel. Can’t hurt. Just one week and then we can reevaluate.

More on this tomorrow, recipe ideas too…


by Leave a comment

When life hands you a lemon

Make a facial – Take the juice of half a lemon, add 2 aspirin and wait for them to dissolve. Wipe the concoction over your clean face and let sit for 15 minutes. Rinse with a mixture of 1 tbsp baking soda and 1/2 cup water. moisturizer as usual.  You’ll look polished and marvelous.  No lie!

While you have the knife out, slice up the other half of the lemon and place it in a pitcher of water.  Place the pitcher in the frig and drink from it all day. Makes the water taste yummy. Try to drink the whole pitcher in one day. Hydrate!