Weekend Challenge 4

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Happy Friday! For this last weekend challenge of September, we are bringing things back to basics. Of course, we all know that drinking 6-8 glasses of water per day is vital for a healthy body, but how many of us actually do it? I will be the first to admit that consuming this much water on a daily basis is difficult for me. But, when I do, I feel more energized, my skin is clearer, and my tummy feels less tight.  

Water is vital for all animals on Earth. It is the only liquid that can actually decrease the fat build-up in our bodies and keeps fat off by increasing our metabolic rate over time. Drinking water can also help moisturize the cells of the skin, diminishing the signs of fine lines and wrinkles. New research is also showing that water can reduce pain from headache and reduce the risks of heart disease in men. That's right, drinking 5-8 glasses of water a day can reduce your risk of heart attack by up to 54%!

Drinking 8 glasses of water per day will also dilute and flush out toxins in our blood stream and organs. This reduction of toxins can also help reduce our risks of getting certain cancers. Scientists and doctors now believe that drinking half our weight in ounces of water per day can reduce our risk of colon and bladder cancer since (in super simple terms) the key environment for cancer production is just not there.

Since all of these side effects of consuming water are good, let's try to bring them out more this weekend. For this last weekend challenge, I challenge all of us to drink more water- 8 cups more to be precise. I also challenge us to keep this going past the weekend. How many days can you go drinking 8 cups of water a day? Let's find out!  

If you want to read more about the importance of water, this research article by The Oxford Journal is pretty interesting!  

Thrifty Girl: 5 Ways to Save Money at EPCOT's Food and Wine Festival

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There are 29 booths at the 2013 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival including the new refreshment booth and Scotland booth. With this many booths filled with incredible food, it is no wonder we can overspend before blinking. There are a few simple way to save money at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival without feeling emaciated or missing out on anything you love. Follow these five tips on How to save and you are sure to leave with a full tum and full wallet!

Plan Ahead

Like most money saving methods, planning ahead for the Food and Wine Festival is a primary way to make sure the budget stays. Planning ahead does not mean figuring out which country you will start in and having a game plan for the day- thank goodness. Instead, we are talking about knowing how much you can spend and where you want to spend it. If planned well, a couple can get a ton of food and have a great time with as little as $25!

The best way to do this is to first, decide on a budget. Once a budget for each person is put in place, go check out some of the food that will be offered along with the prices. The Disney Food Blog does a great job of listing all the foods along with prices and items that are new.  This food list is one of my biggest commodities during the festivities; there is nothing worse than picking an item that is more than you want to spend, trying it, and realizing you got it last year and hated it just as much. Spending fail. Looking at the food options ahead of time will keep you from some of the most expensive and worst tasting pitfalls.

Note: Be sure to write down the foods that you want to try and take this list to the park. It can be as simple as a list on your phone, but it will be a handy reminder of all the amazing things you want to try... And all the not-so-great ones to avoid.  

Gift Card It

EPCOT has started an amazing gift card program that can be worn around your wrist and purchased inside the park. These gift cards even come with art from this year's Food and Wine Festival! Gift cards can be purchased at almost any gift shop inside EPCOT and can have more money placed on them at almost any gift shop as well. These gift cards are great for lines when you have food from the previous booth still in your hands and feel completely embarrassed rummaging through your bag. Been there. Plus, these handy guys will keep your spending on track and make payments a breeze. Every receipt will also have the current balance left on your gift card. A bookkeepers delight.

If you and your friends/family/significant other want different food items from the park, I highly recommend getting separate gift cards for each person. This will help ensure that both are getting the same amount of food and responsible for there own spending. The hubs and I each agree on a budget, plan what we want, then go to the parks and make it happen. This is so much easier than trying to figure out how much Mary Jane spent and what we have left per person.

Time Your Meals

There is not a bad time to start your EPCOT feast, it all depends on what you want from the day. If lines are the bane of your existence, get there earlier and plan for a lunch around the World Showcase. Lines usually start picking up around 5:00 PM, so try to be finished around then.

If you prefer late eating rather than early, that is fine too. The key is to plan to eat when you would normally eat. By seeing these little mini meals as your lunch, dinner, or both, you will save a massive amount compared to those who eat around the world, then go out for a Disney meal afterwards. Personally, I enjoy getting to the park around 2:00 PM, starting my World buffet, and taking some breaks between. By doing this we are able to get enough food to count as lunch and dinner, but are not simply eating the entire day away. 

Share

Let's go back to kindergarten and remember the rules of sharing with friends. When it comes to the Food and Wine Festival, sharing is the best way to try it all and stay in budget. If you and your tasting buddy are wanting to try the same thing, take this moment to save a few and share it instead. The hubs and I alternate paying for what we share to make sure that everything stays fair.

Yes, this does take some group planning or at least a little talking before each booth, but it can be totally worth it for your wallet. If the food is bad, you just saved a few on something everyone hates. If the food is too good to share another bite, you have only lost some time in line. Not the worst outcome in the history of the universe.  

Savour

Finally, enjoy your time at EPCOT's Food and Wine Festival. This event only happens once per year, so take the time to enjoy it. We have done this festival in two hours and in an entire day. The moments I remember most and the times that were the most fun were those that we slowed down to enjoy. There is a ton of delicious food here and it can be hard to not run from booth to booth like Tommy Boy on speed, but taking things slow is guaranteed to make the whole day better. Savouring each booth will make each mini meal a little more tasty and stop that not-so-great feeling of eating too much too fast. When we slow down to enjoy the festival rather than the food alone, we tend to leave with a few bucks remaining on our wrist cards and our bellies quite satisfied. Now that is what I call and Food and Wine Festival win!

3 Great YouTube Cardio Workouts

Things have been moving pretty fast this week and the gym has not been happening as much as it should be. These busy times when the extra few minutes make all the difference to my day are the times when YouTube and it's workouts become my bread and butter. There is no reason that a workout need be 90-minutes long, in fact, most fitness advisers recommend only working out between 15-45 minutes per day. The key is to put everything you have into those minutes. This high intensity form of working out will burn more calories, more fat, and tone muscles faster than low intensity workouts that are twice as long.

Jillian Michaels' workouts (of course) is a great example of a high intensity , short, workout plan. Most of her online videos are under 30-minutes long but will do a great deal more than one would expect of a 30-minute workout. This vintage Jillian Michaels Kickboxing Workout is a great example of a high intensity workout that is under 30-minutes long. The entire workout will take about 25-minutes and should leave a puddle of sweat on the floor around us. I would recommend trying this workout if you enjoy kickboxing, need something different to get excited about working out again, or want to be sore tomorrow.

Gwyneth Paltrow is currently on a media tour for her new movie where she struts her stuff in some revealzies lingerie. This is all important to say because she gives all credit of her amazing 40+ bod to her trainer, Tracy Anderson. Tracy Anderson is a trainer located in New York and California who works the bodies of most the Hollywood A-list. That is what I call a glowing resume.  Her main and most well known workout video is Tracey Anderson's Metamorphosis. It is an intense workout that will give you results. Although the movements in Metamorphosis are not too difficult, Tracey moves through things fast enough that keeping up can be a challenge. If you have done Zumba before, you should be fine in the keeping-up department. If not, give it a time or two before you judge. 

This last YouTube cardio workout is by none other than Tony Horton, the creator of some of the most intense workouts I know including P90X and Insanity. This workout is about 35-minutes long and was a live workout video he did this last year. If you wish to get straight to the workout, jump forward to about the 2:30 minute mark and begin! This is an intense workout that I highly recommend doing if you want a good cardio workout and some massive muscle building!

This Month's Reading: Health and Fitness

During October I will be reading quite a few books and at least one of them will be dealing in the health and fitness category. Although the name, and even the marketing, is a little odd, the book, The Virgin Diet looks to be quite common sense answers to feeling healthier, loosing weight, and eating better. The author, JJ Virgin talks about ways that we may be sabotaging our health and diet plans through food intolerance. It is a pretty logical thought and one I am quite happy to explore! If you would like to read this book along with me, I will be starting my reading on October first.

If you are a read-a-holic like this one,  here are a few more books that you may enjoy in this week between now and October. The 4-Hour Chef- how to become a cook, nay chef, in as little as 4-hours by Tim Ferris. It's All Good-  easy and delicious recipes by Hollywood's golden child, Gwyneth Paltrow.