Water....drink it....a LOT

Well, at least if you are exercising and trying to lose weight. This is something I've had to learn the hard way. When I first started Waist Watchers some of you may remember that I tried a boot camp. Not only did Brittney kick my ass (I was sore for 3 days), I had a nightmare of a headache for 2 days. I tried upping my water intake the next day as well as taking Goody's headache powder (yeah, it's disgusting but it works good and works fast!). I was too late. I've had this problem on more than one occasion while pushing myself to do high intensity cario workouts. Apparently I'm a slow learner.

For the Sexy by Summer contest, we have a nutritionist that we can send questions to (she's a lot more than just a nutritionist, though). I told her that I did my Go Go Dancing DVD and developed a headache about an hour after. It became progressively worse and by bedtime was a full blown sinus headache. I tried 2 Sudafed pills, Goody's, and Afrin, holding a hot, wet washcloth over my nose, and sticking my head over my steamer pot on the stove. I finally gave up and fell asleep.

Yesterday, the headache was still there but the sinus part had gone. I asked the nutritionist if she had any advice. The first thing she mentioned was dehydration. Yes, I whacked my hand on my forehead! Duh! So for the rest of the day, I made sure I was drinking plenty of water. I took it easy to, choosing to tote my iPod around boogieng while cleaning and trying to keep my calories low. I don't have time to take a day off resting anymore.

I feel much better today though I still have a lingering headache. I think I should have started with something a little lower impact than the Go Go Dancing after taking a week off. I needed to rebuild my stamina and up my water intake. Lesson learned!

If you are just beginning an excersie program remember to start off slow. If you throw yourself into a high intensity workout, you'll most likely wind up sore, exhausted, and discouraged. I started by walking every day. After a couple of weeks I would jog in short spurts, eventually jogging through entire songs (which was my goal for myself since I'm not into running long distances). After doing that routine for a couple of weeks, I started doing my old Tae Bo tape, then Core Rhythms, and now Go Go Dancing. I started taping the higher intensity workouts on FitTV this week wanting to work up to them. I'm almost back to square one but am pushing myself to get back up to the level I was at, then exceeding it!

Thank goodness for Zepherhills! I feel fortunate that our family is more of a water drinking family than soda and Kool-Aid. Carson and Maisie live off of whole milk and juice, though, but they didn't even notice when I switched to 50% less sugar. We all drink soda sometimes but not nearly as much as I did when I was younger. I was a caffine addict and would get severe headaches if I went too long without a Coke.

So drink lots of water! There are several debates on how much you should drink. I shoot for six 8 oz glasses, but am trying to exceed that to try and diminish these darn headaches!

Slacker Fattie tip- After my over-zealous Go Go Dancing workout, I switched to boogieing at least 15-20 minutes at a time, 5 times yesterday. It really does make cleaning and cooking much more fun!

Sexy Meal Plan tip- Breakfast was 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup strawberries, one packet of Truvia, and 2 egg whites seasoned with Mrs. Dash. Snack was a bite sized Snickers and 5 red jelly beans (what? They're not on my meal plan? Whoops!). Lunch was lean steak, grilled onions and a cup of brown rice (rice-blech). Snack was an apple (yay!). Dinner was a whole wheat tortilla, grilled chicken breast, grilled onions, zucchini, eggplant, broccoli, and brussel sprouts (leftover from yesterday's lunch) with 1/2 cup Cheddar (sorry, Cheller!). Before bed Carson brought me more red jelly beans....I HAD to eat them, he picked them out just for me!