Look at this picture.
You are made mostly of this substance (well OK you’re really made of of mostly atoms but…).
Every cell in your body is thirsty for it.
The discs between your vertebra are desperate for it.
Your skin, hair and nails are wrinkly, limp an brittle in its absence.
Your internal organs struggle to function if there’s too little of it.
And body fat? It’s going nowhere fast without it.
If you want to get rid of something you FIRST have to know where it goes.
EX: If you want to take out the trash because the darn thing is so full that the milk carton has popped out for the umpteenth time already, you know where to take it (I hope).
So where does fat go?
3 main places.
Air. Air. Down the loo.
But first a visual aid. Canned sterno.
Imagine this as your body fat being used as fuel. See the little flame? It’s hot. HEAT. That’s the ticket.
How does heat escape your body? In other words, how does a person radiate the fat off of herself?
Again 3 ways:
- Off of the skin
- From the breath
- Voiding
Let’s look at #1. Skin – the largest organ in your body. Fat radiates off of your skin and is lost as heat. This is why it is easier for bigger people to lose fat than smaller people. TIP: Dress cool. Stay cool. As more fat will be needed to keep you warm.
#2: Breath. Talk a lot. No, really (I’ve made that joke before) this is the least important of the 3 avenues. TIP: Deep breathing exercises are great for calming down, raising your respiratory rate hence, fat usage. It’s REALLY minimal but hey! (And you don’t need Joe Schmo’s infomercial kit for this!)
#3 Voiding. This is where the H2O come in. Ever notice that pee pee is warm? (If you have kids, you sure as heck do!) Your body needs to heat water from cool to 98.6 degrees to void it. Here is an study abstract that supports my statement: Proof
TIP: A gallon of refrigerator water requires a lot of fat to heat it up – think of the sterno can. In fact, it takes about 200 calories to heat a gallon of very cool water to void it. That’s as many calories as your 40 minute treadmill run all without the joint degradation!!
(Remember, if you’re Slow Burning 2X a week regularly, your cardio system is gettin’ what it needs.)
So there you have it. On a piece of scrap paper, draw a picture of 8, 16 ounce glasses. X out one each time you finish drinking one. Have all of them X’d out by dinner time and then stop so you don’t awaken at 3 AM to tinkle.
Distilled water is great. My favorite is Apollinaris lightly bubbly water. Smart Water is good too. Do some research as tap water might not be the best thing to drink heavily due to the chlorine and fluoride.
But ultimately just drink up!
