Day 2: Hydration

By Helya Naghibi

Wata wata wata! I mean who doesn’t know that you have to drink water to be healthy? I knew that before I was into fitness or before I knew what was right and wrong. I’ll tell you a little story…

The first 10 years of my life I went back and forth between America and Iran. And my mom told me I LOVED apple juice. Appropriately enough, the first words I spoke to my grandmother were “I want apple juice!” (yes, I had already started to talk up a storm at a very young age ;)) So my grandmother, being the smart person she is, sold me on the point that Iran has really DELICIOUS water. In fact, it’s so delicious she actually called it Delicious Water. Looking back, I realize how much of a genius sales person she really was… And therefore, every time I said I wanted apple juice, she would ask me, “well, you could have that, but wouldn’t you rather have the really Delicious Water instead?” Shoot. I remember I was always in a dilemma and I would always choose water. And when I did, she would make it a big deal and give me so much praise for it.

To this day, I prefer water over everything and anything. SHE IS BRILLIANT, I tell you! So my advice here is…start em’ young! Tell your kids how amazing water is, tell them how delicious it is and make it a really really big deal when they drink it. It changes lives!

On another point, I talk about coffee in my podcast. I mention how I found a few studies on hydration and dehydration and how coffee is not considered bad for you, in my book (and based off of this particular study). The link to one of the studies is at the bottom of this page. I think coffee makes you insanely jittery (and a slave to the bathroom) if you have too much. I also think anything added to the coffee takes away from it’s natural form and then I would say you might need some water to go with it. I DEFINITELY am not saying have 4 mochas and consider it “water.” That’s ridiculous. In some studies, it’s actually been shown to improve mental activity! I would say, read between the lines here. You know that 10 cups of coffee is not good for you, but maybe 2 a day in addition to your other water intake is. It keeps you productive and adds to your daily hydration. 

Reference article: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0084154
 

To Subscribe to Fit Dirty Thirty with Helya, the 30-day Health and Wellness challenge, find us on iTunes for Apple or Stitcher Radio on Android.

For more info, visit www.TheStudioWorkout.com 

previous 

The Power of Your Mind

By Helya Naghibi

In the first episode of the podcast "Fit Dirty Thirty with Helya", I talked briefly about motivation and your mind. Here’s a little more on that…

Let’s get one thing straight: if your head’s not in it, you will fail.

I would say it’s a big harsh too. Time and time again however, I find that my mindset is what determines if I have a good day, a bad day or a mediocre day. And time and time again, my head also determines if I have one cookie or six or if I get my workout in or … eat the cookies.

It’s really unfair, I think. How can my will and my head be on such different pages? And how can I go from having such a great day to having such a crappy day with one interaction, one email or one piece of unexpected news.

There has to be more than this.

Well, I truly believe there is. And the trick is that you have to accept it’s not ALWAYS good. It’s always…what it is. We have to do what we can with what we are given and enjoy the journey. Ever wonder if those people at the top had to be at the bottom too? I say yes, they did, maybe not financially, maybe not physically. Maybe they were born rich and skinny and beautiful. But I’ll tell you what… they also had a bottom. They also have stress. We are human and comparing always brings us down because our journeys are not the same. In the end, we all have things that don’t go our way. The difference is when we get up and that… IS something you can do.

How? This is where we can just thank the mind. It’s all in your thought process, it’s all in what you want to achieve. The mind is the incubator of thoughts, feelings, ideas, perspectives and even low points that turn into highs. The mind creates opportunity, it creates drive; it creates you, from within. You have the power to change what you think about by creating distractions, setting goals, and patting yourself on the back when things get hard.

Acceptance and achievement come hand in hand in my head. Accepting and loving who you are and then setting goals to achieve a better version of you… that’s also in the mind. And actually getting there, well, I said it before and I’ll say it again: if you’re heads not in it, you will fail.

So, Let’s get our head on straight. Let’s set ourselves up for success by creating a better physical world for our self every day. We can do that by first, learning what we think is a “better physical world”. Is it in fitness? Is it in nutrition? Is it in finances? And overall, are you being a healthier person who can reap the benefits of all these amazing things you want in the long term? In other words, what are you doing for YOU to get there mentally AND physically. Both equally important.

Once we have the knowledge, we can grow by falling, by dancing, by getting up and standing. Once we stand, we can take a step closer to what we want, what we need to be happy, to be successful, to be… you. A healthy, long living, growing, successful, you. 

To Subscribe to Fit Dirty Thirty with Helya, the 30-day Health and Wellness challenge, find us on iTunes for Apple or Stitcher Radio on Android.

For more info, visit www.TheStudioWorkout.com