Exercise & Water: Getting it in and Making It Count!

EXERCISE and WATER : GETTING IT IN and MAKING IT COUNT!

Exercise and water are an important part of any diet program. You cannot succeed without them.

If you want to lose weight you have to get rid of the fat and strengthen your muscles. This is how you'll get a healthy body.

A lot of us don't like diet or exercise though. So how can you get past that hurdle so you can reach the finish line?

Find Something You Love To Do

If you find something that you love to do, it's not going to seem like exercise. The reason why is simple: you're having so much fun doing it you don't realize you're burning calories.

Here are a few suggestions for exercises that are fun and help you burn calories:

? Belly dancing: 

Learn a new art form while expressing yourself! Belly dancing is for women of all sizes. It helps to boost your confidence and connect with other cultures. You can burn up to 400 calories an hour. That doesn't seem like a lot, but you are working muscles all over your entire body, so it counts as a full body workout.

? Moshing: 

Yes, this counts as a style of dance and exercise. You can burn up to 750 calories in an hour just jumping around to your favorite music. So turn up the volume and rock on!

? Gardening/yard work: 

It's hard work digging around in dirt and planting things. If you've got a vegetable garden or a flower bed and you work in it regularly, that counts as exercise. You can burn up to 400 calories working in your garden. If you're raking leaves or mowing the lawn, expect to burn between 350 to 400 calories an hour.

? Swimming/water aerobics: 

Being in the water renders you weightless, but you're still moving around. You can burn up to 600 calories per session. Who doesn't love splashing around in a pool?

Remember, the key is to find an activity that you enjoy that doesn't feel like you're burning calories. It can be bike riding, hiking or even just walking around the mall. The point is to get active and stay active.

Use Water Recipes

If you hate water, you may be tempted to substitute it for zero calorie drinks. Unfortunately you can't always do this. Your body needs plain water in order to flush your system of fat, toxins and other impurities. So you have to find a way to get plain water in without resorting to drinking diet soda instead.

Fortunately there are a couple of ways that you can do this without gagging or frowning every time you bring the cup to your lips.

? Add a splash of juice: 

Here's a trick that many people still use in order to get their water in. Buy some no sugar added juice. Add ¾ cup of water to ¼ cup of juice. People usually use this for cranberry flush drinks, because cranberry juice is a great way to clean out your system. But don't rely on this system to get all of your water in. Juice is high in calories and sugar, so you should use it sparingly.

? Add some fruit/veggies: 

There are plenty of recipes online for water flavored by soaking fruits and vegetables in it. One popular recipe calls for cucumber and lemon. There is even a recipe for apple cinnamon water. Experiment to find out what's right for you, or look up some more recipes online.

? Buy flavored water: 

A lot of companies are starting to sell zero calorie flavored water. This water doesn't have any sugar or sweeteners (natural or otherwise) added to it. It's just fruit flavored water. This counts as water because it's just like fruit fusion water.


A good rule of thumb for buying water is to look at the label. If it says "water beverage" it isn't water. It's just a water based drink. You should also look at the nutritional facts on the bottle. If it's got sodium in it, you should probably avoid it. Too much sodium in your diet can make you thirsty; not to mention purposefully adding sodium in water defeats the purpose of drinking water in the first place.

Please keep in mind that sparkling water with sweetener is not water. An example of this would be Sparkling Ice waters. They can be found in nearly any grocery store. Even though they are zero calorie drinks, they're not water. If you read the ingredients you'll see why they don't count as water. They can be used as a substitute for soda though.

It may be difficult to get in your water and exercise but there are ways to work around these hurdles.


You will need to keep an open mind and be ready to try new things. You never know what you may wind up discovering.