Every once in a while I feel like I just need to hit the reset button on life, and particularly on my eating habits. A summer of travel tends to equal a summer of eating terribly, never working out, and generally feeling pretty crummy. Since we’ve finally been spending more than two or three nights home at a time, I’m getting back into the rhythm of cooking, eating (slightly) healthier, and finding a routine of working out occasionally (which, in my book, means going on walks or doing yoga – let’s not get crazy now.)

Early in the summer I purchased a Fitbit Flex to help me be more active and to track how many steps I get in a day. I wasn’t sure how effective it would be for me (who tends to buck routine and discipline of any kind) but I’ve been very surprised at how motivating it is! First of all, it was terribly sad to realize how inactive I really am on any given work day. I knew that sitting at a computer all day wasn’t great for me, but I wasn’t completely aware of how little I was really moving during the day. The recommended step count is 10,000 steps per day, and some days I found I was barely reaching 2,500. Yikes.

Now that my Fitbit is tracking all my steps, I find I’m much more likely to walk the long way to the kitchen, volunteer to go get the mail, and clean and put away items around the house one-at-a-time, just to get in more steps. It’s a weird mental game, but it’s totally working. I highly recommend it. When the little lights on my Fitbit go off and it buzzes like crazy to let me know I’ve hit my 10,000 steps for the day, I want to do a happy dance! It sounds silly, but it’s definitely motivating.

I also love that the Fitbit app on my phone keeps track of lots of other things too – I just use it for tracking how much sleep I get each night and how many glasses of water I drink every day. With the Fitbit band I have, I also have the option to log my weight and keep a food diary in the phone app. Other more advanced Fitbit Wristbands also track your heart rate and how many floors you’ve climbed each day.

Tracking how much water I drink has been super helpful for me. On days when I’m feeling more sluggish and tired, I often realize I haven’t had enough water for the day. It’s a simple way to be mindful of my water intake and ensure I’m drinking enough.

Sometimes though, it can get boring drinking plain water all the time. We’ve harvested a few remaining cucumbers from our garden and I’ve been using them to make this refreshing cucumber-infused water lately. It really couldn’t be more simple. Slice up a cucumber, place it in a pitcher, fill the pitcher with water, and let it sit for a few hours or overnight. Serve it with a squeeze of lemon and voila! You’ve got a refreshing infused water with numerous health benefits! I’m obviously not a doctor, so I don’t have expert advice, but I’ve heard from various places that cucumber water can aid in digestion and lemon water can help reduce inflammation. Sounds like a pretty good combo for feeling like your best self.

Refreshing Cucumber Lemon Water

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Prep Time 3 mins

Total Time 3 mins

Ingredients

  

• 2 quarts of water
• 1 cucumber sliced
• 1 lemon

Instructions

 

• Slice cucumber and place in a large pitcher. Add 4 quarts of water and let chill in the fridge for several hours, or overnight.
• Serve with a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

This post contains affiliate links but all opinions are my own.