Yesterday, I wrote about how I’ve not been doing the right things to lose the weight I’m wanting to lose. Well, I ate perfectly all day yesterday and got a good run in yesterday afternoon. I went into the pool afterwards as well to let the cool water ice my legs down a bit, and I’m finding that it helps a lot (thanks to my cousin Sarah for suggesting icing my legs down!). I got to sleep before 11 pm (which is my goal), and I awoke this morning feeling energized and wide-awake. My weight was down over 3.5 lbs from yesterday!

How is that even possible? Well, there’s a lot going on, but I think it’s the perfect storm of a bunch of factors that all come into play:

• Eat right
• Exercise
• Lots of rest

This isn’t anything new. This is what you hear, see, and read about all the time. Eat right and exercise. The only thing I’ve added to that list is get lots of rest. It’s far more important than people give it credit for. I can’t stress enough that when I eat right and exercise yet don’t get enough sleep, my weight stalls. Every. Single. Time. However, when I get enough sleep, the weight comes off me with relative ease (as long as I’m still doing the “Eat right and get exercise” part).

I’m going to squeeze one last thing into this post: water. I don’t carry water with me when I run unless it’s over 100 degrees fahrenheit. I don’t prescribe to the school of thought that you must be ultra-hydrated at all times. To the contrary, I believe that I should get my body adapted to being slightly dehydrated due to my military service and the fact that I may be required to exert a lot of physical activity without the presence of a lot of water. I’ve been doing this for years and I have gotten quite adapted to it without any ill effects.

So, the point of this post is eat right, exercise, and get your rest. It works. You just have to do it right; cutting corners or taking shortcuts won’t do you any favors.