Are abs made in the kitchen?

One of both women and men’s biggest insecurities is their belly fat. Almost everyone you know has probably complained to you at some point about looking “fat” while pointing to their belly. How much fat you store around the stomach depends on many factors such as genetics, your age and sex, or having diseases such as diabetes. However, most of the time, it comes down to your mental and physical health, your diet and the food you consume, and the way they affect your body.

Cortisol – the stress hormone is one of the leading causes of weight and fat gain in both men and women, but why? “Cortisol is released when you’re under stress. This sends your body into fight-or-flight mode, temporarily pausing regular bodily functions and slowing your metabolism”. Not does it only slow down your metabolism, but it also leads to craving sweet and salty food, which ultimately increases your calorie intake.

Now that we’ve mentioned some factors that might cause and influence your belly fat, lets answer your question. Are abs made in the kitchen? – well the answer is not that simple. In order to have visible abs, a sculpted stomach and a thin waistline, you must have lower body fat.

How is lower body fat percentage achieved?

A healthy body fat percentage for women is between 25-31%, and for men this range is around 18-24%%. If you are overweight and have a high fat percentage, it may be time to consider adopting a healthier lifestyle.

some tips you can follow:

Eat in a calorie deficit

If you need to lose weight when opting for better overall health. Try being in a calorie deficit until you reach a healthy weight, then maintain that weight. This does not mean that you should follow a restricting diet. You can implement the food you enjoy in your diet, you only need to stick to the calorie deficit.

Learn about Macronutrients (Macros) and count them.

Macros are nutrients including carbs, proteins and fats. Increase your protein intake, eat fiber-rich food and vegetables, and include more slow-digesting carbs in your diet.

Avoid liquid calories, including alcohol.

Liquid calories count as any other source of calories! They can add on to the calories you already consume, and produce abdominal fat, while also producing acid reflux and causing bloating.

Start resistance training and try HIIT workouts!

Research shows that HIIT can increase your metabolism and reduce both subcutaneous fat and belly fat better than other types of exercise, including moderate-intensity training and aerobic exercise. Resistance training can also help you build muscle and lose fat at the same time, while increasing your metabolism.

Maintain a sleeping schedule, and get a good nights’ sleep!

Prioritizing rest and sleep will help you with both your mental and physical health. When you don’t get enough sleep, you have less energy to get your daily movement and exercise. Meanwhile, your body releases cortisol and conserves energy (body fat) while increasing your cravings.

Does exercising play a role in this?

The simple answer is, yes, but not as big of a role as you might think. Your diet is the most important component in your fitness journey. It is responsible for 80% of your progress and the way you look; the rest of the 20% is your daily movement, exercise or training. Imagine that you spend three hours in the gym every morning, then come home and eat cereal, eat take out for dinner, have snacks like chocolates and chips all day and finish the day off with a big bowl of pasta. Do you think that will give you the results you want? The answer is no, even if the results you want are weight gain. If your body doesn’t get the macros, the nutrients it needs daily, your fitness goals cannot be achieved. Healthy weight gain or weight loss is the way, stick to the tips given above and fuel your body properly.

There are no specific exercises that will target your abdominal muscles and cause fat loss in the midsection. Spot reduction is a myth: targeting specific areas of your body, and only losing fat/weight in that particular spot is impossible. What you can do is combine your healthy nutrition and diet, together with your fitness exercising plan, be patient, consistent and stop starting over.
Abs are made in the kitchen, and no matter how hard you exercise, lift weights, or run, you can’t outwork your bad diet.

5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Began My Fitness Journey

Everyone starts somewhere. Whether it’s a new hobby or a lifestyle change, the beginnings are always tough. At first, when you start your fitness journey, it may be exciting to try new things, and see how far you can go. You will be excited to finally take those extra steps to better yourself, you’ll buy equipment and workout clothes, maybe try a protein shake; but then things start to change. You go to the gym and you start feeling lost. Everyone around you seems to know what they’re doing, except you. You may be at home and struggling to finish a fifteen-minute YouTube workout, wondering if you can find motivation to continue on this journey.

During this period of uncertainty and doubt, the best thing you can do for yourself is educating yourself, yes, you read that right! Watch videos, listen to podcasts, read articles, blogs, books, anything that will provide you with the information you need. Lack of knowledge and information about your new lifestyle choices, may lead you to quit without even really starting. Nobody starts working out and immediately knows how to hold proper form, or knows a number of exercises that target each muscle group. Everything you aspire to become, is learned through trial and error, which brings us to the first point:

1. Everyone was a beginner at some point

Education about fitness is crucial, in every form or way that you want to consume it, but it’s not the only thing you need at the beginning of your journey. Even with all the information provided on the internet, some people still might need a little push. Asking for help from enthusiasts or professionals is totally okay! Most of the people in the fitness world, will be glad to lend you a hand, motivate you or educate you. Don’t let your insecurities hold you back. Being shy, insecure or anxious is normal, even in the world of fitness. As you continue showing up to the gym, your Yoga or Pilates class, these insecurities will slowly fade away. You will eventually realize that nobody is staring at you, and everybody is invested in their progress, this we can promise.

2. Restricting food and dieting won’t help you lose weight.

There are thousands of diets out there, most of women have tried a number of them, but do they actually work? Usually, diets give you only short-term results, which can backfire if you’re not careful. The National Eating Disorders Association reports that 35% of “normal dieters” progress to pathological dieting and that 20-25% of those individuals develop eating disorders. If you want to lose weight in a healthy matter, and maintain that weight, you need a lifestyle change, not a diet. Remember that food is fuel; you need fuel for your brain, heart and muscles to function properly. Read our blog post on the classic debate whether abs are made in the kitchen and read our tips for advice on fat loss.

3. Stick to a workout program or routine

We recommend sticking to a routine for the best results. Even in the first month, when you’ve just started, its important to have some routine to practice. Presumably, you wont be able to write one for yourself as you are starting your journey, but there are always routines that you can download, or watch on the internet. These ready-made routines will help you learn as you exercise. Sticking to a routine for weeks or a few months will teach you about proper form, and most importantly discipline. Your confidence will only increase when you notice that you get better and stronger each week. Don’t be afraid to try routines, and even challenges if you’re feeling extra motivated! Extra tip for the ladies – don’t be afraid to add weight to your workouts! They will not make you look bulky or less feminine, just look at our coach Sof!

4. Feeling sore isn’t always a good thing

Muscle soreness is normal, for the most part. At the beginning, when you first start exercising, or when trying a new routine, your muscles may be more sore than usual, but be aware. Being sore all the time, accompanied by fatigue, might be a sign that you are overdoing it! Prioritize rest for muscle repair and your health in general. Overexercising might spike your cortisol, disbalance your hormones and lead to serious injuries. Consider stretching before and after exercising in order to avoid muscle soreness and injuries.

5. Motivation is learned

This is the most important point that we saved for last. No one you know is driven by any kind of motivation. The key to reaching your fitness goals is consistency, effort and discipline. All of these factors combine together and drive your motivation. Each one of these things need to be learned and practiced every day, in order for you to get what you want. So, even on your bad days, show up and do your routine. You can cut the routine short, or do it slower, anything that will help you complete it. Once you finish your exercise for the day you will feel so much better, your energy will skyrocket, your brain will be awake, and your sense of accomplishment will be fulfilled. Never give up the chance to become a better version of yourself!

Don’t forget to check out FitSof’s Push Start beginner program, where we implement tips like these, along with the 4-week exercise routines, and a guide on nutrition!

5 Tips for Eating Out When on a Diet

Each and every one of us likes to treat ourselves to a nice meal in a restaurant sometimes. Some people that don’t enjoy cooking, prefer eating out over home cooked meals. But how often do you question the quality of the food you’re eating outside of your home, and how it affects your health? According to USDA, what they call FAFH (food away from home) increases daily caloric intake and reduces diet quality. Breakfast and lunch away from home increase calories from saturated fat and SoFAAS (saturated and solid fat, alcohol, and added sugar) on average more among dieters than among nondieters. So, how do we approach this “bad” habit of eating out?

If you are a person that is trying to get their nutrition in check, it would be better for you to plan and cook your meals at home. These same rules apply for people that are in a calorie deficit/surplus, but some days, we all want to take a break from cooking. Events such as birthday dinners, celebrations, and anniversaries also make it difficult for us to avoid eating out:  they are associated with consuming some alcohol and fast food. This leads us to the question whether its possible to maintain our healthy diet and nutrition, without avoiding a nice meal out on some special days.

We are here to tell you the good news! It is possible to eat out without ruining your diet, or calorie deficit, with slight adjustments and planning beforehand.
Here are our 5 tips to follow while eating out on a diet:

1. Check the menu beforehand

Before heading out to a restaurant, do a little research on it. Check out the reviews, look at pictures and find the menu on their website or any social media profile. This way, you can see the prices, the food options you have and check out the ingredients to meet your macros. This also helps with the indecisiveness and overwhelming feeling that you get when you are rushed to choose a meal quickly when you’re already at the restaurant.

2. Do not starve prior to eating out

Getting excited and preparing to eat at your favorite restaurant, shouldn’t include skipping meals. If you’re planning to have a nice meal with your partner for lunch, don’t skip your breakfast, it’s as simple as that. Eating a big meal on an empty stomach will only result in a blood sugar spike, that will end up making you even hungrier. This will undoubtedly make you crave more food than you can handle, and you will end up overeating.

3. Go for grilled & steamed food, instead of extra fried, processed food.

Food such as meat and vegetables when grilled and steamed, keeps its nutrients and health benefits, when compared to the same food when fried or boiled. Grilled meats have a reduced fat content and lower calorie content which can lower bad cholesterol levels.
Additionally, recognize that some breakfast food, such as cereal and granola, is extremely processed. Be careful when eating in brunch spots that claim to be healthy, but add sugar and use processed ingredients that increase your calorie intake. Your acai bowl can have more calories than bacon and fried eggs! Don’t be fooled by food that is advertised as healthy, and always check the ingredients in it.

4. Ditch the appetizers

Along with hospitality, one of the main reasons you are served bread, or bread sticks before ordering a meal, is to make you hungrier! Simple carbohydrates trigger insulin production and spike your blood sugar, leading to cravings for more food. The cycle continues as previously mentioned in this blog, because you end up overordering and overeating. To avoid this, simply avoid appetizers and skip straight to dinner! Or if you have company, share the appetizer to consume less calories.

5. Limit your alcohol intake

Liquid calories are sneaky, and mostly forgotten while counting calories in dieting. Unfortunately, liquid calories count too, and alcohol has many of them! If you love your wine and want to relax on a night out, you don’t have to avoid alcohol entirely. Our pro tip is to set a limit on your alcohol intake, by choosing a number of drinks you’ll have for the night. You should also consider opting for some lower calorie options when choosing to drink alcohol. Vodka soda, white wine, and hard seltzer are some of the best low calorie alcoholic drinks!

Bonus tips:

1. Share your food!

 In some countries such as the USA, dinner portions are quite big. If you feel full, don’t force yourself to finish the meal. Instead, share it with somebody or ask the staff to pack your food and take it home with you.

2. Avoid soda.

Along with a lot of calories, soda contains huge amounts of added sugar! These types of drinks dehydrate you, make you feel bloated and increase your calorie intake. Instead, try drinking unsweetened ice tea, or just water.

3. Ask for sauces and dressings on the side.

When ordering salads, or anything that includes sauces and dressings, ask the staff to bring them separately. Sauces and dressings can contain a lot of calories, which can add up to the ones of your meal. If you ask for them on the side, you can control how much of them you consume, or if you want to add them to the meal at all.

Consider these five tips when eating out so you avoid those sneaky extra calories.
But firstly, remember to enjoy your meal and spend some quality time with your loved ones! One extra meal wont ruin your whole diet, because your fitness journey isn’t linear.

Why you should try volume eating for weight loss

Losing weight is a difficult road to take upon. You may have tried everything already, and still haven’t lost a pound. You have tried meal replacements, smoothies, salads, increased protein intake, calculating macros and calories, and you still feel hungry, there’s still no progress. Well, let us introduce you to a simple concept that you might have not tried yet. It will save you from cravings, and looking at half-empty plates, your new holy grail – volume eating.

What is volume eating?

Volume eating is a concept, strategy, or method of eating that allows for large consumption of food while minimizing calorie intake. Given that, gram per gram, different macronutrients provide a different number of calories, volume eating allows you to prioritize high-volume foods to help increase satiety and fullness without increasing calorie intake.

High volume foods are foods that are usually high in micronutrients such as fat and protein. These specific macronutrients have more volume, and usually have a higher fiber and water content, which will keep you fuller for longer. The most prime example of high volume foods are leafy greens, and vegetables. But don’t worry, those are not the only ones. Fruits such as berries, watermelon, and some good protein sources such as eggs, fish and oats are also on the list of high volume foods!

How does volume eating aid your weight loss?

Now that we went through the basics of this concept, lets explain how it can help you lose weight. Volume eating doesn’t just contain enough protein and volume to keep you full, but can also help you if you’re in a calorie deficit and trying to hit your MACROS, because they are also lower in calories! If eating more small meals during the day isn’t your thing, with volume eating, you’ll be able to eat big meals, be satisfied and even possibly avoid snacking. Incorporating high-volume food will increase the volume of food you consume, but not the calories!

Recommendations and tips

The best high-volume food to keep you satisfied and full

• •  Fat free cottage cheese

Cottage cheese is high in protein, and low in calories. Not to mention that it’s also super creamy and goes along with anything you have in your fridge. You can make savory and sweet combinations, such as cottage cheese and eggs, or cottage cheese with fruit and protein powder, to make it even more nutritious.

• • Canned tuna or salmon

Canned fish can be your go to! It’s easily accessible, and very easy to add in meals and upgrade them. They are an excellent source of vitamins, fat and protein and should always be on your grocery list.

• • Green saladsLeafy greens and mixed salads are big on volume and big on nutrients! They can be easily upgraded with protein and fat sources, and also with low volume foods to keep you satisfied for longer.

Bonus for those with a sweet tooth

• • Sugar free jello
    
    Jello is a perfect dessert for people with insulin resistance or people who are trying to watch their sugar intake. It has a lot of volume, and taste enough to keep your sugar cravings at bay.

• • Protein ice cream
    
    Protein ice cream is the perfect dessert to experiment with. If the store-bought ones are out of your reach, you can easily make it at home. Use your favorite protein powder, sugar free pudding and your choice of milk to make your own! You can experiment with different tastes, it will satisfy your cravings and keep you full.For more information and tips on nutrition and weight loss, check out our other blogs from the same category: Are Abs Made in the Kitchen? and 5 Tips for Eating Out When on a Diet.

Summer is approaching. Everyone is working on their goals, and elevating their fitness game. “Strong girl summer” is becoming a thing, and everyone is working on building muscle. If looking toned and tan this summer is a part of your goals, let us help you achieve them, here is what you need to know.

How do muscles grow?

Muscle size increases when a person continually challenges the muscles to deal with higher levels of resistance or weight. This process is known as muscle hypertrophy.

Muscle hypertrophy occurs when the fibers of the muscles sustain damage or injury. The body repairs damaged fibers by fusing them, which increases the mass and size of the muscles.

Now that you know the basics, it’s time to dig deeper. A lot of factors impact your muscle growth, some you might know of, but if you don’t, now is the time you learn! We will start with one of the most important ones:

How your biological sex, and age influence your muscle growth

You may have already heard that it’s harder for women to gain muscle, and that they do so much slower than men, and that is true. Unfortunately, testosterone is key to building muscle and burning fat, a hormone that men have more of. However, there are some good news. According to a study, in the long run, despite the physiological and hormonal differences between sexes, women demonstrated the same relative strength gains compared to men.  Just because women gain muscle slowly, it doesn’t mean that we can’t gain it at all, or gain less than men!

Age is also a big factor when it comes to muscle building and muscle growth. As we age, so do our bodies, experiencing sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is the involuntary loss of muscle mass, strength, and function. Muscle mass decreases approximately 3–8% per decade after the age of 30 and this rate of decline is even higher after the age of 60. But this shouldn’t discourage you: leading a healthy lifestyle and daily exercise has many benefits which can help you age gracefully.

There are many other factors that may influence and affect your muscle gain and growth. However, we decided to highlight what we think are the most helpful ones, which will lead the way to achieving your fitness goals:

3 Important Factors for Muscle Building

Lift heavier

Using the same weights constantly, and not increasing the weight will get you nowhere. The only way to muscle growth is muscle hypertrophy, and for this, we recommend progressive overload! 
Progressive overload is a way of training that involves challenging your body, and slowly increasing the intensity of your training, in our case that would be increasing the weight of the equipment you are using. There is no need to rush, take this slowly, find what you are comfortable with and grow slowly but surely!

Give your muscles some rest

Rest is key in order to prevent muscle fatigue and injuries, but also essential for muscle growth. Exercising and lifting weight “tears” your muscle tissue, but when you rest, your cells repair those tears and help your tissue grow. It’s also important to note that working the same muscle groups every day is putting too much stress on them, it won’t help them grow! Make a plan, organize your trainings, and make sure to have rest days in order to achieve the best results possible.

Fuel properly

Eating well and eating enough food is the key for muscle growth. A restrictive diet, or a calorie deficit may impact your growth badly, if you aren’t eating enough protein. If your goal is muscle and mass growth, you should try a calorie surplus instead. Beware of not fueling your body properly if you train daily. Intense daily training and exercise, can actually have the opposite effect and you can lose muscle tissue, if you aren’t eating enough protein. If you struggle with counting your macros and protein intake, use an online protein calculator, or a calorie counting app to your advantage!

Make sure to read more of our blogs on related themes such as physical health and nutrition, for more tips and advice for your fitness journey!

Most women and men start their fitness journey with one goal in mind – weight loss. The food we eat nowadays is highly processed, unhealthy and bad for us. Not everyone can afford fresh, organic and food better in quality. Most people settle for what they can get their hands on, and what their budget allows. Furthermore, This leads to people making the wrong choices for their health, while obesity is a growing factor in our society. It’s no wonder that we get obsessed with losing weight, nowadays, it can be such a difficult thing to do. Even food that is marketed “healthy” and “diet” friendly, is processed and full of sugar, and the scale keeps going up, so what do we do?

Undoubtedly, its important to set realistic goals in order to take care of our mental health and promote healthy weight loss. Measuring your weight every day, and counting calories of every bite you eat, will not help you. Your goals should be measured in healthy ways that will motivate and help you push forward to be the healthiest version of yourself. Here are 3 reasons why you shouldn’t measure your goals on the scale:

1. Being skinny doesn’t always equal being healthy.

Excessively dieting and over exercising can lead to many issues such as malnutrition, weakened immunity system and heart problems. Your pursuit of the “perfect body” can lead you on the wrong path, being underweight can be as bad as being overweight!

2.  Your body changes as you age.

Your body goes through a lot of change during your lifetime, this counts for both men and women. The biggest changes happen during your teenage years when growing into your adolescent body, and after the age of 40. You can’t expect to have the same weight at 18, 28 and 38. It’s normal for your body to grow and go through change, so you have to accept the change and work with it!

3. Your goals might change with time.

Goals change along with your fitness journey. Firstly, you might start exercising and eating healthier in order to lose weight and be as thin as possible, but then you change your perspective. You notice how you start feeling better and stronger, and wish to look more like you feel, so you end up wanting to gain more muscle! Consequently, this change will affect the number on your scale, but there is no need to panic. Gaining weight isn’t always a bad thing, and it might be a sign of you achieving your goals, but your mindset about it is what matters the most. What’s important is that you feel and look better, stronger and healthier, do not let the number on the scale mislead you.

You may have trouble accepting your weight and your body, especially if you let how much you weigh bother you, so, here’s how to measure your goals instead:

1. You look better

One of the first things you notice after a few months of exercise, is the way you look. You slowly notice your “beginner gains”, meaning that you gain some muscle, lose some fat and your body is starting to look more toned. During these few months, you’ll probably lose some weight. In the next few months, you’ll notice that the scale is going up again. Now you wonder, “why do I look better, but the scale is going up?” the answer is that your body is replacing fat with muscle, and that’s good news! This is the first reason why you should probably ignore the scale, and trust yourself instead.

2. You can find clothes that fit you.

Picking clothes that fit well can be a nightmare. Not everyone enjoys shopping, especially if it reminds them of their insecurities. Overweight and underweight people can struggle with their confidence and buying clothes for themselves. No matter if your goal was to lose or gain weight, when you start achieving it and building confidence in your looks, shopping gets easier. You can finally find fashionable pieces that make you feel and look good, and that’s a good reason to motivate you to keep going. However, extrinsic motivation may not be enough , so your best bet is to focus on your how you’re feeling inward.

3. Finally, Its most important that – You feel better

The most rewarding thing about practicing any form of fitness or exercise, are the countless benefits! Not only will you look better, but you will feel better, in every way. Your mental health will have significant improvements: you’ll get more dopamine and serotonin, making you happier, feeling more energized and getting better sleep. You’ll have more strength and endurance, energy and willpower to live your life, and that is the ultimate goal!

Fitness Then and Now: 5 Positive Developments

Fitness has developed and modernized through the years, but different forms of physical exercise have been around forever. We’ve went from only stretching to Hula Hoops and weird fitness devices in the 50’s and 60’s, to Jazzercise, Aerobics and Bodybuilding in the 70’s and 80’s. Also, we slowly made a shift of our exercise environment from working out in groups and outdoors, to homely, individual workouts.

However, we have also progressed with our understanding of nutrition. It was a slow, but much needed progress from the restrictive diets in the 20th century, but also the toxic diet culture from the 90’s and 2000’s. The toxic dieting and diet culture as a whole, made people battle with their body image, confidence and societal beauty standards. Unfortunately, this lead to a lot of unhappy people and development of a lot of eating disorders. But, times have changed and so have we, we have learned from our mistakes and now we know better. Let’s look throughout some positive changes that Fitness world has gone through.

The Fitness Mindset has changed

Along with the body positivity movement, came along inclusion, and acceptance of each body type, but also a desire for change and improvement. People started attacking the toxic diet culture and ignoring society’s beauty standards, by trying to be healthier and happier. The mindset “nothing taste as good as skinny feels”, low calorie diets, and ignoring whole food groups is no longer a thing in the 2020’s. A new generation of women and men are focusing on balanced nutrition, aiming for stronger bodies, healthy habits and watching out for their mental health.

More women in certain Fitness fields.

In the past, women were mostly included in sports and fitness practices that were considered more “feminine”. Sports like gymnastics, forms of exercise such as Aerobics, Pilates, and dancing-influenced exercise such as Jazzercise and Zumba. Bodybuilding is something that women rarely did in the 20th century, because they were discouraged from it. Nowadays, more and more women participate in strength training, weightlifting and bodybuilding, with it becoming trendy amongst teenagers and young women on social media. Women are now certain that weightlifting won’t make them look masculine, and the positive impact it can have on their health, so, it’s no wonder that most women spend their time in the gym now.

 Variety

Nowadays, there is something for everyone! People can enjoy a variety of physical exercises, training and movement. Pilates is growing in popularity again, strength training and weightlifting at the gym are at an all time high, and yoga is still highly popular, but those are not the only options anymore. HIIT, Hot Yoga, Water Aerobics, Circuit Training, Cardio Fusion, and Barre are only a small percent of what the fitness world offers now. You are able to explore, find the most enjoyable way to move your body and thrive!

Growing knowledge and understanding

As we already mentioned, the progress of Fitness has been undeniable, and we are continuing to learn and improve. There are more ways to move your body and exercise, but we have also invented new exercises and movements. You can see varieties of the same exercise, targeting the exact muscles you need it to, and with internet connection its accessible to anyone! Information is flooding on social media, and you can see fitness tips on ways to train and to improve, basically anywhere. You can also find online research articles, and fact-check everything if you want to!

 Equipment

Lastly, there are all sorts of equipment you can use, according to what type of fitness you practice and what your needs are. There are many types of mats, weights, activewear for any type of home workouts if you enjoy Pilates, Yoga or Aerobics. There are also affordable options to invest in a home gym, and get equipment such as a treadmill, a barbell, a smart bike and similar things you can find at the gym. Again, there is something for everyone.

We hope that these five developments in Fitness helped you see the positive side of the Fitness world!
There are a lot of improvements and progress to be made, but let’s focus and cherish what we have achieved so far.

One of the first things we learn in biology class is that the human body is consisted of mostly water. Even with knowing this, we still question the importance of water, whether we should drink more of it or not. Water is vital to our health, and plays a key role in the way our body functions. This means that water intake is something we should take seriously, so we can give our body what it needs to function properly.

Here are some of the key factors of why water intake is important:

It aids digestion

Water helps break down the food you eat, allowing its nutrients to be absorbed by your body. After you drink, both your small and large intestines absorb water, which moves into your bloodstream and is also used to break down nutrients.

It regulates body temperature

Water helps regulate your body temperature by distributing heat, and cooling the body through respiration. It helps by moving it to the vital organs and preventing it from extremities when it is needed to maintain heat. When your body temperature is heightened, water regulates this by exiting your body through the form of sweat.

It aids in cognitive function

Because the brain has more water mass than the body, we should prioritize water intake for the health of our brain and cognitive function. Water maintains the fluid levels in your brain,  maintains neurogenic (creation of new neurons), and flushes out metabolic waste. It also maintains proper blood and oxygen circulation in your brain.

It prevents dehydration

Dehydration is a condition in which you lose more body fluid (water) than you intake. Some symptoms of dehydration are fatigue, dizziness, headaches, chills, constipation, dark colored urine and loss of appetite. If you experience any of these symptoms, especially on the daily, its time to start hydration seriously.

It helps your skin and body

The skin is the largest organ in your body. Water hydrates your body and skin, balances your pH levels, it promotes elasticity, prevents the skin from sagging or dehydrating, and forming wrinkles. By flushing out toxins, water also prevents the creation of acne and pimples, especially hormonal acne. If you hydrate properly, water can also help you with weight loss and cellulite If you drink water before and during meals, it can help you feel fuller and satisfied with your meal, which can make you crave less food.

Here are some tips to follow and stay hydrated:

• • Drink a glass of warm water with lemon as soon as you wake up

  • Keep a water bottle next to you at all times, and refill it during the day.

  • Prioritize water over any other drinks

  • Have a glass of water with every meal

  • Find healthy substitutes for water if you don’t like the taste of it, such as tea.