The Trick to Fitness Is the Trick

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light Pure Fitness.

It’s summer in Houston—let’s all get outdoors and exercise!! Don’t all of you get up at once.

If you happen to live in a city that’s hot in the summer, like oh, say, HOUSTON, then you’re nodding when I say that you may have to use tricks in the summer to stay active. While winter has that lovely hibernation quality, slowing you down into a funk of sweat pants and warm beverages and television, summer can lull you into the same spot on the couch with a tank top and a frozen drink and trashy summer TV.

As much as I do love being outdoors, to stay active in the summer, the trick is staying INSIDE. Usually this is not my house, because I tend to let dust collect on all my good-intentioned workout DVDs. My gym is five minutes away and has childcare (not yet for Lincoln, sadly), so that’s my number one go-to. If I plan just right, I can also catch up on my trashy TV like E! News. Though I’m sweating, I don’t feel like I’m breathing wet carpet, which is how it feels outside, and I am refreshed instead of like dying at the end of an hour or so.

But if I had my choice, though, I’d just do derby every day. While I'm benched due to C-section, I only skate like once or maybe twice a week, but it's time I cherish. I am pushing myself HARD right alongside other fun and diverse women. It's a workout and a social event and a little breather from being a mommy. Did I mention that we skate inside? Sawyer also gets inspired by my safety-conscious helmet-wearing.

The thing to keep in mind whenever you're working out especially in the summer is hydration. I'm honestly not sure how I did not shrivel up and die for the first 30 years of my life because I did not drink water. Period. energy drinks, sodas, diet drinks, coffee--but no water. I hated it. Please don't ask me why, since water has no taste.

Until I got pregnant with Sawyer and my midwife required it, I did NOT drink water. Then I discovered that water, too, needs a trick. In my case, that's ice. And lots of it. Now I would say that I drink something like 64 ounces a day of icy water and feel parched if I fall short of that.

Crystal Light is another great trick to get people drinking water. Studies have found that people who drink Crystal Light drink 20% more water. How about that! Even if you don't need tricks, Crystal Light Pure Fitness is fabulous for replenishing electrolytes and keeping you hydrated without tons of calories or artificial junk. Great for athletes or even just for normal people trying not to dry up in the summer heat.

What tricks do you use to stay fit or keep hydrated during the summer?? Leave a comment on this or any of the three more weekly posts sponsored by Crystal Light this month for a chance to win $100. (If you don't do math, that's FOUR total chances to win on my blog.)

You can also check out other blogger’s Crystal Light posts for more chances to win, plus a chance to win $1,000!