Live Your Life with Moxie

Health Benefits of Coconut Water

Let's branch out a bit into different kinds of water ...

Don't know much about delicious and unbelievably nutritious coconut water? You can read more at:

Helium.com - Health Benefits of Coconut Water

Check In #1

Have you been paying attention to how much water you are drinking or not drinking? Are you feeling more energetic? Noticing a clearing in your skin (or perhaps some extra pimples as your skin clears out)? Beginning to see any other changes or improvements that you want to let us all know about?

Again, studies have shown that a person's minimal water requirement is half their body weight in ounces. So, for example, if you weigh 150 pounds, then you need about 75 ounces of water a day to avoid any level of dehydration. That’s a bit over 2 liters of water per day.

Give it a try. Go for that perfect amount of hydration every day and see what kind of positive effects it has on you!

Make Plain Water Tastier

While plain, fresh water is the best to hydrate your body with, many people just don't "take" to the taste easily. Try squeezing fresh lemon, lime, or orange into water for a fabulous flavor. Better yet, put aside a pitcher of water and slice fruits and/or some cucumber into the pitcher and drink from it throughout the day.

If you are out and about all day long and just don't have the time for slicing up fresh fruits to add to your water throughout the day, try carrying True Lemon Naturally Sweet with you. Lightly sweetened with Truvia™, an all-natural, zero-calorie sweetener (from Stevia), these packets are an easy to carry way to make your water more tasty.

Ultimately, it is just all about getting more vital water into your system!

You can get some True Lemon HERE.

Some Facts About Water

*From AllAboutWater.org.

_______________________

1. Roughly 70 percent of an adult’s body is made up of water.
   
2. At birth, water accounts for approximately 80 percent of an infant’s body weight.
   
3. A healthy person can drink about three gallons (48 cups) of water per day.
   
4. Drinking too much water too quickly can lead to water intoxication. Water intoxication occurs when water dilutes the sodium level in the bloodstream and causes an imbalance of water in the brain.
   
5. Water intoxication is most likely to occur during periods of intense athletic performance.
   
6. While the daily recommended amount of water is eight cups per day, not all of this water must be consumed in the liquid form. Nearly every food or drink item provides some water to the body.
   
7. Soft drinks, coffee, and tea, while made up almost entirely of water, also contain caffeine. Caffeine can act as a mild diuretic, preventing water from traveling to necessary locations in the body.
   
8. Pure water (solely hydrogen and oxygen atoms) has a neutral pH of 7, which is neither acidic nor basic.
   
9. Water dissolves more substances than any other liquid. Wherever it travels, water carries chemicals, minerals, and nutrients with it.
   
10. Somewhere between 70 and 75 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water.
    
11. Much more fresh water is stored under the ground in aquifers than on the earth’s surface.
    
12. The earth is a closed system, similar to a terrarium, meaning that it rarely loses or gains extra matter. The same water that existed on the earth millions of years ago is still present today.
    
13. The total amount of water on the earth is about 326 million cubic miles of water.
    
14. Of all the water on the earth, humans can used only about three tenths of a percent of this water. Such usable water is found in groundwater aquifers, rivers, and freshwater lakes.
    
15. The United States uses about 346,000 million gallons of fresh water every day.
    
16. The United States uses nearly 80 percent of its water for irrigation and thermoelectric power.
    
17. The average person in the United States uses anywhere from 80-100 gallons of water per day. Flushing the toilet actually takes up the largest amount of this water.
    
18. Approximately 85 percent of U.S. residents receive their water from public water facilities. The remaining 15 percent supply their own water from private wells or other sources.
    
19. By the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has lost over 1 percent of its total water amount.
    
20. The weight a person loses directly after intense physical activity is weight from water, not fat.

Dana Hill

“You need to feel good about yourself, the motivation has to come from within. You have nobody to fall back on except yourself."

—Dana Hill

Water, Water, Everywhere

When beginning any quest for better functioning of the body and better health, one has to address water.

Our bodies are about 70% water and its importance for the proper functioning of our bodies cannot be expressed enough. Water is necessary for the digestion and absorption of food; it helps maintain proper muscle tone; it supplies oxygen and nutrients to the cells; it rids the body of wastes; and it serves as a part of our natural air conditioning system.

Additionally, since water contains no calories, helps to serve as a natural appetite suppressant, and helps the body to metabolize stored fat, water may possibly be one of the most significant factors in losing weight.

Even slight levels of dehydration in the body can lead to irritability, fatigue, nervousness, dizziness, weakness, and headaches. Further, with long-term chronic dehydration, the body cannot function at high enough levels to fight off infections and other growing diseases.

Sadly, over 75% of the population of the world is chronically dehydrated. Some believe that they fill their daily water requirement through the intake of fruit juices, coffee, tea, soda, beer, wine, and other beverages.

No. No. No. That’s just not the way it goes. Water is water is water is water. Only. Learn it, love it, and live it.

Studies have shown that a person's minimal water requirement is half their body weight in ounces. So, for example, if you weigh 150 pounds, then you need about 75 ounces of water a day to avoid any level of dehydration. That’s a bit over 2 liters of water per day.

Now then ... unfortunately the water quality in most areas of the world isn’t optimum. Adding an on-tap filter to your sink, and then filtering again through a in-fridge water pitcher is the best and cheapest way to make sure that the water your fuel your body with every day is the best it can be.

You can order filters easily online at FiltersFast.com.

For the next week or so, take an easy step toward health and drink your full requirement of water per day. Comment back and let everyone on the Moxie know how you are feeling!

We’ll continue on with water for the next few articles; how to make it more palatable/fun to drink, and what other additions you can make to your water to supercharge the positive effects for your body.

Stay tuned!

TIME REQUIREMENT: About 15 minutes to order your filters. Perhaps 30 minutes per week to filter your water and pour it into a bottle to carry with you everywhere.

COST REQUIREMENT: ~ $30 for an on tap filter system; $10 and up for a filtered pitcher for the fridge; and around $30 every few months to replace the filters. Over the long run, its cheaper than buying single bottles of water or soda ... or coffee ... or juices.

It's A Mission

We all have bad habits. We're human. And in this crazy day and age, being human can get awfully complicated.

We can't live "perfectly" ... but it is wise to make the effort to do all you can so you can experience the best that your life has to offer YOU.

YOUR life. Your choosing.

It's fabulous if you have a nutritionist and a personal trainer and a guru to follow you about your day and make the "proper" choices for you. But what of the rest of us?

What of the "us" who truly love the "Things with Icing" food group? What of the "us" that truly enjoy red meat? What of the "us" that truly enjoy beer? What of the "us" that just truly don't have the time to spend at the gym? What of the "us" who just truly don't have the funds to buy organic? What of the "us"?

Since we can't be "perfect," do we just not deserve the most healthy and vibrant life we can live, according to what and who we truly are?

There is more to life than what you've had so far ... and it DOES all start with what we put into our bodies ... not only what goes into our mouths, but into our ears and eyes and spirits as well. But, getting the 'tox out isn't just about food and drink. It's about the environment in which we live, the products that we use, who and what we surround ourselves with, and the things we focus on.

All things won't work for all people, but there are hundreds of choices and substitutions that can be made to get the 'tox out. Some take a moment, some take dedication, some are just changing small daily habits, and some take $$, but ultimately better choosing leads us to better, healthier, real lives.

... and to living your OWN life with moxie.

And isn't that what it is really all about? Living YOUR life, the healthiest way you can.

Agreed? ... 

Bueller? ...  Bueller?

I'm Addicted To You

This is where I was in October of 2006. In September of this year, I turn 40. So much has changed since this first post, I can hardly believe it myself. Bottom line though? It is all about small choices, small steps, that make life-altering changes in your health, in your outlook, and in the quality of your life. I've learned that it is not about trying to be perfect ... what is perfect anyway? ... it is not about never having sugar, or a drink, or skipping a workout.

It is about making the best choices within the life that YOU enjoy living. Making choices that let you be more, have more, do more, believe more.

Life ... with moxie.

___________

I’m a mess.

• I just turned 37.
• Despite having a crazy flat stomach for most of my life, in the past year I have developed an undeniable gut ... and what seem to be wings on the undersides of my arms. I’ll continue to think I’m finally turning into the angel my mommy always told me that I was.
• OH ... and frighteningly, everything between my waist and knees has turned into pale white orange rind. Some sort of strange, foreign landscape that reminds me of my mother’s constantly present containers of Breakstone’s Cottage Cheese that grossed me out so badly when I was a child.
• I’ve been quitting smoking since I got my first prescription for the patch in 1993 ... when I was 23. Now I am a smoker of 21 years, give or take some smoke-free moments, when I quit on my 37th birthday. At this writing, a FULL ON WEEK AGO.
• I drank ... heavily, I might add ... until I was 34 years old; when I quit completely for almost two years. Now ... yeah, well ... I’m drinking again. Glasses of wine here and there. Not as badly, but low grade consistently.
• I have been chronically depressed since I can remember.
• I have isolated myself ... physically, emotionally ...
• I have never, since I quit my ballet/toe/jazz/modern/tap/Hawaiian dance classes of my youth at 16, indulged in any regular form of exercise.
• I am bored and unimpressed by what life has had to offer me ... but I'm adult enough to know that I have wasted away most of my greatest moments and opportunities.
• I still have no idea what I want to do with my life ...
• I have a well-done everything bagel with cream cheese habit so bad, I don’t even have to speak my order out LOUD any longer in the bagel place I frequent every weekday morning. Even the part time guys who are there every other month because someone is sick knows what I eat for breakfast ... every day.
• I am addicted to the stories of other people’s lives. I can read and watch celebrity trash until my eyes bleed. I just love it. Other people’s lives seem so much more interesting than my own.
• I waste my life away on distractions. I spend most of my days just trying to finding something, anything, to distract me from the BS going on around me. I can waste away entire weekends on my couch between television and DVDs.
• I see my trangressions in my skin ... and in my body.
• I feel my trangressions in my spirit.
• I still enjoy some of my trangressions.

I have spent a lot of time thinking that everything would change if I just fueled by body and my mind and my spirit more healthfully. Instead of what I bombard it with now ... which is crap and negativity.

I have dabbled in vegetarianism. In veganism. In the Raw thang. In the Being Healthy and Making Healthy Choices Thing.

I have eaten nothing but fruit for days at a time ... until I have a box of Cheez Its, a six-pack of Miller Light and a ½ pint of Soy Dream Ice Cream for the same nights at dinner. I’ve even fasted for up to 6 full days ... and then had pizza, beer, and cigarettes the following day.

I’ve tried to learn how to meditate, but I just can’t sit still long enough. It doesn't make sense to me. Quiet in my head is boring.

Don't make me admit the rest of it. Let's all just agree that I have no idea what I’m doing and that I am Little Girl Lost. What I HAVE figured out however, is that something BIG has to change. Living my life like THIS any more ... just can't be.

I make no sense, even to my*self, right now.

Britney Spears’-worst-song-ever-help-me! i AM toxic

I know exactly in my head, the woman that I see ... the "me" that makes the most sense ... but she’s on the other side of this ... thing that I can’t quite get through.

I feel, in so many ways, that I am completely lost right now. Just spinning in that lovely way that we, as humans, can do.

Just ... BLEH. Just so unbelieveably nonplussed and BLEH. I have spent an entire lifetime looking to find that one thing to FIX ... that will change everything in my life. Cause this is not what I thought it was going to be all about.

I expected so much more from life.