Fit Friday | Don't allow your thirst cravings to make you fat.

I'm home throughout the day and often move around the house from one room to another.  The kitchen is the center point of the home and I find myself frequently crossing through the kitchen to grab a handful of snacks, on the way back to the office.  It's been like that for a while now.  I'll work for a while, then suddenly, I have a snack attack and rush to the kitchen for a handful of nuts or chips, or whatever's handy.

As you would imagine, I'm not pleased with this newfound habit.  So I asked myself, "what else can I do besides constantly running into the kitchen for a snack?"  In an instant, the answer came to me "drink water!"  Ok, I thought, I'll try that.  Actually, before filling my water bottle, I reached into the fridge for some coconut water.  Within moments, the coconut water was consumed and instantly, I felt a level of satisfaction that I could never experience by devouring a serving of chips and salsa.

I then proceed to fix a cup of fruit infused bamboo-chai tea and refilled my water bottle.   Throughout the day, I feasted on healthy liquids each time I took a work break.  My body felt great!  Energy levels were high and suddenly, I even found the motivation to conduct an impromptu declutter session using the Marie Kondo method from her book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  It was like I had been awakened.  What I'm really excited about was how my hunger cravings were pretty much gone.  I could walk through the kitchen without feeling the need to reach for something.  And by dinner time, I was able to enjoy a smaller meal with complete satisfaction.

Without realizing I fell into the trap of mistaking thirst for hunger. I'd heard of the theory of thirst disguised as hunger before but dismissed it because, to me, these were two different sensations.  But, if I'm honest with myself, my body was producing natural cravings and I my first action was to appease it with food.

  Today, I awoke full of energy which I used to fit in a brief workout first thing. If I continue to feel as good as I did yesterday, I hope to get a lot more decluttering in.    Don't get me wrong, I'm not replacing food with water, but I completely underestimated how often my body required additional water intake.  Now I'm keeping the office is stocked with coconut water, fruit (bamboo) tea, water and lemon water. My advice for you is this, whenever you feel cravings setting in,  address it first with liquid.  Not only could you experience amazing benefits but you could save yourself a couple of unnecessary pounds in the process.