News

Add- Water

Remove- Condiments

This week we will be focusing on intaking more water into our daily routine and removing condiments or switching out favorite condiments with potentially new favorites.

Water- I am sure you have all heard the rule of thumb to “drink half of your body weight in ounces”, which is a great concept to keep in mind. If you drink water daily, but know that you could use more water, one helpful suggestion is to find your favorite water bottle that you own (or go buy a new one, sometimes that helps...) and determine how many times you’ll need to drink the full bottle each day. Once you figure that out, do what you need in order to intake the prescribed amount.

Water helps maximize physical performance as dehydration can have a noticeable effect on your performance if you lose a small amount of your body’s water content. Water also provides a natural cleanse, making it important to intake in order to flush out toxins. Hydration can have a large effect on energy levels and brain function, showing the importance to make water a priority throughout your day. Below are some tips to lead you towards creating a healthy habit of intaking water.

A couple of tips:

• Put reminders on your phone to have some accountability and something reminding you to focus on your water intake. Sometimes all we need is to have a subtle reminder that pops up.
• Figure out how many ounces you need to drink each hour or two and mark it on your water bottle. That way you have a physical representation of how much water you need to intake to accomplish drinking half of your body weight.
• Drink a glass of water when you first wake up. You can often good a good amount of water in your body first thing in the morning, and most of the time don’t realize how thirsty you are.
• Find an accountability buddy! Let each other know what your water intake goals are and keep each other accountable!

If you do not regularly intake any water, start with small steps. Drink one big glass with each meal for a couple of weeks, and start taking bigger steps towards half of your body weight in ounces. Don’t try to accomplish a hefty goal if you don’t yet have a habit to even consume one glass. We all have to start somewhere, so ask a coach where the best place to start for your water consumption will be, every athlete will be in different spots with different goals.

Condiments- Who doesn’t love a little (or a lot) of BBQ sauce doused on their chicken, or dipping their potatoes in ketchup? Or our good friend, salad dressings. Nothing like a bowl full of fresh spinach, carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes, and a half cup of ranch dressing to top it off. We all have our one or two condiments we cannot live without, but this week we will be either removing or finding new favorites we can substitute out. The reason why we are focusing on removing/substituting condiments this week is because there can be many hidden ingredients in the common condiments that we use, especially added sugars. It can be easy to disregard the amount we use or neglect to think about the nutritional value of the condiments we put on our food, but the added sugars and hidden ingredients don’t take long to add up considering the small serving sizes of whatever condiment you use most. Finding a more wholesome condiment that has fewer and more high-quality ingredients is a great place to start. Below are some great options for what we think are the most commonly used condiments.

A couple of tips:

• Ketchup:
  • Tessemae’s Ketchup (found at Walmart and Natural Grocers)
  • Sir Kensington’s Classic Ketchup (Found at Safeway, Fred Meyer, and Walmart)
• Dressing:
  • Tessemae’s Dressing (found at Safeway, Fred Meyer, Natural Grocers, and Walmart)
  • Primal Kitchen (found at Safeway, Albertsons, and Natural Grocers)
  • Greek Yogurt Dressings (Bolthouse or OPA) (found at Safeway, Fred Meyer, Walmart, and Rosauers)
• BBQ Sauce:
  • G Hughes BBQ Sauce (found at Safeway, Fred Meyer, Rosauers, and Walmart)
  • Stubbs BBQ Sauce (found at Safeway, Fred Meyer, and Walmart)
  • Tessemae’s BBQ Sauce (found at Fred Meyer, Walmart, and Natural Grocers)
• Mayonnaise:
  • Primal Kitchen Mayonnaise (found at Safeway, Fred Meyer, and Natural Grocers)
  • Sit Kinsington’s Mayonnaise (found at Safeway, Fred Meyer, and Natural Grocers
  • Just Mayo (Safeway and Fred Meyer)

*Look for brands that make their mayonnaise with avocado or olive oil! Remember- the less ingredients the better.

• Salsa is another food hack that is delicious on mostly anything. If you want to remove specific condiments completely salsa is a great salad dressing, meat topping, and veggie dipper. Try it out!

If you want to add in an extra challenge, measure out the amount of condiments you put on your food. This will help you understand how many servings you are actually consuming for each condiment. 1-2 tbsp. is the serving size for most condiments and adding in portion control (which we will talk about in more detail in a couple of weeks) is a healthy habit to get used to!

We hope that these tips help you through this week as you work to intake more water and remove/substitute condiments. Remember, Duratus coaches are here to help! Don’t hesitate to ask any questions or seek guidance.

Amy Yeoman from Fuel to Thrive is great reference to utilize during the Build the Base series. She is more than happy to answer questions or give feedback to members and can work one on one if more in depth guidance is wanted. She will also be providing a recipe that will go along with what we are focusing on that week. Make sure you utilize her knowledge and skill base, she is happy to be part of Build the Base series!

Lastly, find an accountability partner/group for the next 6 weeks. Start a group text and keep each other motivated as we all create healthy habits together.