water
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Drink a glass of water when you’re hungry and then see if you’re still hungry. Sometimes it's easy to confuse hunger for thirst - staying properly hydrated can be a big help when you’re trying to lose weight. |
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Weigh yourself for three to four days in a row. If you lose half a kilo in a day, it means you came up short on liquids the day before. |
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Sweetened drinks like fizzy drinks, fruit juice, juice-milk blends and very milky coffee drinks provide lots of extra energy. Unlike eating whole food, drinking liquid kilojoules doesn't make us feel as full. So even though we've had the kilojoules, we often don't eat less. The result can be a lot of added energy in our days. Water is the way to go. |
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If you develop a craving for sweets even though you ate just an hour ago, imagine sitting down to a healthy meal that you like. "If you're truly hungry, this meal will sound good, and you should eat," says Wellmann. "If that doesn't sound good, your brain is playing tricks on you." Chances are, your craving stems from boredom, bad eating habits or the need for a break from work rather than hunger. |
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Fact: This nugget has been passed off as common knowledge in South Africa for decades, but if you dig a little deeper you will see that this is an opinion based on faith rather than fact. Until recently, no one knew for sure what the standard of South Africa's drinking water was. In fact, when the government rolled out its Drinking Water Quality Regulation Programme in 2004, less than 50 percent of South Africa's water service authorities even bothered to monitor the quality of the stuff they pumped out to the population. |
Fact: In 2001, a masters student at the University of Idaho wrote a thesis stating that polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic water bottles release dangerous levels of a carcinogenic chemical called diethylhexyl adipate, or DEHA, into their contents with reuse and over time. The media picked up on the thesis, sparking a chain of emails warning about the hazards of reusing plastic drinking bottles. |
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Fact: You're actually more likely to become dehydrated when you spend an extended period of time in the pool or the ocean, Armstrong says. "Part of the reason is psychological. When you come out of the pool, the last thing you want to look at is a glass of water," he says. But physiology also comes into play. "Thirst is controlled by the volume of blood at the centre of the body," says Armstrong. So when the brain senses a lack of blood at your core, you reach for your glass. |
Fact: The water you drink before or during a meal won't keep you from overeating and it won't flush out food faster from the body, says nutritionist Dr Barbara Rolls, author of The Volumetrics Eating Plan. |
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Fact: The idea that the body is unable to judge if it is dehydrating, especially during exercise, is outdated. "The current thinking is that you should 'drink to thirst' (drink only when you need to], especially during exercise if you aren’t very fit or are just starting out on a programme," says exercise physiologist Dr Lisa Micklesfield. |
Fact: No one's sure where the rule came from, says Dr Heinz Valtin, author of two studies on the origin of the theory that the human body works best on eight 250ml glasses of water a day. The truth is, your daily requirement depends on your diet, size and unique body chemistry. |
 Look around you. Chances are, there's a water bottle within five metres of where you're sitting. How did it get there? A drop of physiological need mixed with an ocean of marketing savvy, that's how. |
 Drink at least 6–8 glasses of water daily. Water is essential to hydrate, as well as to help cleanse and detoxify the body. One of the first symptoms of dehydration (lack of fluid in the body) is fatigue. Regular water intake is therefore essential to help maintain optimal energy levels. Dehydration often triggers cravings for sweets and starchy foods. Make sure you drink water regularly throughout the day, especially at times when you crave those forbidden sweets and treats. |
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