The Way.

Here are a few things that I am focusing on in order to help me along the way to my goals.

• Maintain a healthy caloric intake based on my nutrional needs.
  
• Drink a lot of water.
• Increase my daily physical activities.
• Get sleep.
• Maintain a safe exercise regimen.

I am using a website called LiveStrong.com which I was pointed torwards by my best friend a few weeks ago. It's a website created by the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It has a lot of tools and features that are useful in reaching your fitness goals. The best feature of the site is a tool called 'My Plate'. It is a free tool that allows you to keep track of your caloric intake. It has a lot of cool features like graphs, calories by the hour, percentage of calorie type. Any food imaginable is in its searchable database. All you have to do is say you ate a particular food, how much, and it will do all the adding of the different nutrients and calories for you.

I have rid myself of most if not all caffeine consumption. I drink only water on a regular basis. Sometimes I'll have juice, milk, or tea with some meals. It is said that a person should drink one cup of water for every 14 pounds they weigh each day. So I keep a water bottle close to me wherever I go to keep myself properly hydrated. To tell you the truth I can feel the difference in the lack of caffeine in my system. It's a good feeling.

I am trying to do more physically active things during my day. Instead of sitting around all the time around the computer (outside of blogging of course) I am beginning to go outside more often. Going somewhere that requires me to walk around is a major plus. Just getting out of the house will usually uplift my spirits some as well as help me get fit.

The required amount of sleep for an average adult is 6.5 hours uninterrupted. However, the more uninterrupted sleep the better. I need at least 7-8 hours of sleep to feel good after waking up. Anything less than that and I feel irritable, depressed, lathargic, and just down right bad. Since I'm becoming more physically active my body needs a little more sleep to recuperate.

Exercising is now one of my favorite things to do. I love to feel like I'm doing something. Knowing that the end result will eventually come from the efforts I put into exercising gives me a high after doing a routine. Not to mention some hormones are released during exercise that give you a natural high.