Upping My Water Intake

As part of my goal to keep getting healthier, I decided to make it a point to drink more water.  Being dehydrated can cause a lot of physical problems, like headaches.  I know this, but it's not always top of my mind.  I had looked at Fly Lady's water bottle which looked really good because it had a straw.  It's supposed to be something you're more likely to use.  I would have bought Fly Lady's but not having a credit card on hand made it impossible to order.  So, when I found this cup on Amazon, on sale, even, I jumped at the chance to buy it.  I've been saving up my gift cards until I had enough to redeem, so I ordered my water bottle and a couple of other things.

My kids have already tried to use my bottle, but I've nipped that in the bud the first day when I found food particles in the straw (ew!).  I'll have to keep an eye for other colours to go on sale so that I can buy the kids their own bottles in their own colours so we can keep them straight.

It's a great bottle.  The straw pops up and folds down easily.  It's got a double bottle design, so it keeps the water cold and it doesn't get condensation on the bottle.  That's a nice thing because I get sick of having water rings on my desk.  I keep it filled up on my desk while I'm working.  It also travels well because it doesn't leak. I just toss it in my bag and away I go.

Only a couple of downsides to this one: the straw whistles when you drink sometimes, usually when you're drinking less water and it's not dishwasher safe.  Neither are big problems, but just little annoyances. All in all, I'm happy with my purchase.

Anyway, here is the bottle I bought:



I also like the purple and red bottles, but this one had the best price, so it's the one I bought. So the pluses of drinking more water? I'm feel like I'm sloshing around a bit. I am definitely running to the facilities more often. I figure it means my system is being flushed for sure. I'm not as hungry either. Sometimes I think that I mix up my body's signals and eat when I really need to drink some water. My jeans are fitting now too. Not sure if the water has something to do with it, but it's the only thing I've been doing consistently that is different.

I Either Have Too Much on My Plate or I've Bitten off More than I Can Chew

I had the absolute best of intentions, but I've taken on way more than I can deliver on this month.  I signed up for the Vegan Body Building Challenge on top of everything else I'm doing to get healthier.  It wasn't meant to be.  I started out getting some exercise in a few days on the first week and suddenly realized that it was too much.  Starting from nothing and working out 5 days a week was too much for me to do.  I'm not upset about the fact that I can't do it, but I'm a little frustrated that I didn't recognize beforehand that I can't do it all.

I'm still trying to get more exercise than I was before (considering that it was next to nothing, this hasn't been hard to do).  I'm drinking more water and I'm still researching about getting off of my medication.  It's a lot, and I've come to terms with the fact that I have to pace myself.  Making such a drastic change to my medication is going to take a lot of work and a lot of energy, but I really think it's going to have a huge positive impact on my health and my state of mind.  I need to give myself time to work through this change before taking on too many more changes.  If I try to do everything at once, I will fail, and I'll fail big time.

So, I'm going to work on small changes, a little at a time.  Slow and steady wins the race and all that.


On a positive note, I put on my jeans this weekend and was able to do them up.  I wore them all day and they were not cutting off my circulation!  This is huge for me because the last time I tried to wear them, I couldn't get them done up!  Small changes are having a positive impact.

Walgreens Prescription Savings Club

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

A special post for my American readers!  Have you joined Walgreens Prescription Savings Club yet?  You really should!  A family membership is only $10 a year for everyone in your immediate family.  Just for clarification that would include a spouse, any dependents that are 22 years old or less and even your pets!  Yes, I said your pets!  How many other pharmacies offer discounts on medications for your pets?

For individuals, the price is only $5 a year with all the same benefits as the family membership.

This price is a special promotion that runs until January 31, 2012 for new and renewing memberships.  Don’t miss out!

The Walgreens Prescription Savings Club is risk free --if you don't save more than the cost of your membership fee over the course of your year-long membership, they'll refund the difference.  Not a bad deal!

You'll receive savings on all your generic medications and more than 8,000 brand-name medications as well.  You also get discounts on flu shots, pet prescriptions and diabetic supplies.  Remember you can even earn bonuses when you purchase Walgreens brand products and photo finishing services.  

Be sure to keep up with all Walgreens' news and information by following Walgreens on Twitter or liking Walgreens on Facebook so that you're in the know!

Getting Fitter: Vegan Body Builder Challenge

I don't normally make new year's resolutions because they are usually made to be broken, but this year, I kind of did. I signed up for the Vegan BodyBuilder Challenge. Crazy, right? I'm not going to start trying to bodybuild or anything just yet. First, I've got to lose some weight. 

Anyway, the challenge is to update your training journal five times a week for the entire month. I started my journal updates today. We got our oldest daughter Just Dance 1 & 2 for Christmas for the Wii. She uses them at school for part of their Daily Physical Activity and she loves them, so we thought we'd get them for home. She's been kicking my butt so far. My ulterior motive was to use it myself. I started tonight with Just Dance 2 because it was in the Wii. I set up a profile for myself under "Just Sweat". I was going to do the Mild version, but it was just one song, so I went with the Tough Routine. It was not easy, but I did all three songs. It certainly got my heart rate up! My top score was on "It's Raining Men"

It was fun to do this without the kids underfoot and falling over laughing at me. I have a way to go, but it feels good to have gotten some exercise in. Hopefully keeping up with this challenge will provide me with the motivation I need to keep exercising.