Making dietary changes isn’t easy, but here at FoodFight we believe healthier eating habits are within reach. That’s why we’re starting FoodFight’s Challenge of the Month. Every month we’ll introduce a new challenge to help make a healthier you.
We’ll offer guidelines and tips; provide a lesson plan to engage your students in the challenge and follow up with polls, Q&As, and reminders on Facebook and Twitter to help you maintain these new healthy choices.
Let’s kick it off with an easy one:
December Challenge: Drink More Water
Doctors recommend drinking at least eight glasses of water a day. Staying hydrated throughout the day increases your energy levels, helps control your hunger and keeps your body functioning at optimal levels. Here are ways to help increase your daily water consumption:
Carry a water bottle
Having water on you at all times is the easiest reminder to stay hydrated. By keeping a bottle on your desk, you can take sips of water here and thereup to a lot of additional water intake and keep your energy levels steady.
Drink a glass before each meal
Not only is water the healthiest drink of choice with a meal, but drinking a glass before a meal can help you feel fuller and prevent overeating.
Keep a glass next to your bed
You may want to avoid drinking water right before going to sleep, but keeping a full glass next to your bed is an easy reminder to get hydrating as soon as you wake up. Drink a glass upon rising to kickstart your day and get a glass out of the way all before brushing your teeth!
Replace sugary drinks with water
Drinking soda, “fruit” juices, and sports drinks loaded with sugar not only leads to weight gain, but can cause sugar crashes that leave you tired and lethargic in the middle of the day. Replacing even one sugar-sweetened drink a day can help stabilize your energy level and mood.
Lesson Plan: Bring the Challenge to the Classroom
A great way to keep up the challenge is to get your students involved, too. Use the Liquid Calories: Pouring On The Pounds lesson from our FoodFight In The Classroom curriculum to help your kids to ditch their sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in favor of hydrating with nature’s number one energy drink: water! Here are additional slides to use to illustrate the benefits of water and the effects of sugar-sweetened beverages.
Happy Challenging!
