On today’s show, I’m going to take you through my nutrition journey and how I’ve learned to eat healthier over the past few years, which is invaluable to me as a freelance business owner. As freelancers, in particular, we need to focus on our health. Often, we sit at home all day behind a computer. Many of us are not getting enough exercise—we’re not even getting up enough throughout the day to stand, walk or stretch. And food temptations are just a room or two away. As freelancers, if we don’t work, we don’t make money. If you’re eating foods that make you feel sluggish, or you’re dehydrated and tired, or you’re hopped up on too much caffeine, you’re not going to do your best work. Your brain might not be as sharp that day, or you’re just tired and want a nap. As an employee, you can feel this way and either push through or just suffer through the day—but you get paid either way. Not so as a freelancer. You need to be on your game and doing your best work. This episode is not about weight, even though I do want to lose a few pounds. I’m trying really hard to focus on the health aspects in my own life, which does include not gaining any more weight. First up: water. I have finally embraced how magnificent water is. Of course, I knew this intellectually. But I never drank it. Instead, throughout my 20s, I would drink 3–6 cans of Mountain Dew every day. In my 30s, I switched to Diet Mountain Dew to get away from the calories, but now I was consuming the aspartame sweetener also. I tried to give up caffeine several times and finally succeeded in giving it up cold turkey in 2009. To do that, I started on a Thursday so I could suffer my caffeine withdrawals mostly over the weekend. However, for several years, I just replaced my Diet Mountain Dew with Sprite or Sierra Mist or root beer. I did start drinking caffeinated tea a few years ago, but I make sure not to get addicted. In fact, this year I switched to drinking mostly rooibos tea, which is delicious and doesn’t have caffeine. Then, just a couple of years ago I finally gave up Sprite and all soda in favor of water. But I needed help to do so. I’m a former newspaper reporter and a very curious person. I’m also a “questioner,” according to Gretchen Rubin’s book “The Four Tendencies.” Gretchen divides people into four categories based on how we respond to expectations and make decisions in our life. A questioner tends to meet inner expectations when we set our mind to something—like when I finally decided to quit caffeine cold turkey—but we tend to resist outer expectations if there’s no reason we can believe in. The catch is that I will meet outer societal expectations if I respect the rule, the person or the process. With that in mind, I decided to hire a nutritionist at Third Space Wellness here in Silver Spring, Maryland, a few years ago, to help me out on my journey. I worked with my nutritionist, Susie, for a couple of months. She presented me with facts about food, and she worked to help me develop new healthy habits into my life. Our first step: getting rid of Sprite. And drinking water. Susie helped me realize that to drink more water I needed to have it with me all the time. So I bought an insulated water bottle and began by drinking 8–16 oz. of water every day and worked my way up to more. Another tip from Susie: Fill up your water bottle at night and put it on your nightstand. We all start out our mornings already dehydrated, so drinking 8–16 oz. of water each morning starts us off on the right path. Susie also helped me find healthier snacks. She encouraged me to take a fun field trip to local markets new to me and scour the shelves for healthier alternatives. I headed to Mom’s Organic Market, where Susie recommended I try Hope’s spicy avocado hummus. I now eat it with Jovial organic einkorn sourdough crackers. I also eat more fruit and am trying out Medjool dates, which are a sweet, soft and chewy fruit. My dad is an avid cyclist. He has been tall and thin and in gre