DRINK MORE WATER.
I could end this blog post now, however, I do have a little more to say about drinking water and staying hydrated.
As a health professional I’ve been talking about drinking water for YEARS! As in more than 20 years. I can remember early in my career, in my first year or so out of school, I personally didn’t really drink that much water and I wasn’t particularly concerned about whether it was tap water or bottled water, because I didn’t drink it that often.
A little back story, I grew up in Grand Forks, North Dakota and the water supply was OK, but not as good as what I have here in California in the East Bay, it’s pretty good for ‘tap water.’ We also had a cabin in Minnesota (actual photo of A-Frame cabin) where we had well water, and it tasted about the same as what was in the lake. bleh. We would bring water from home, but as a kid in the midwest we drank a lot of milk so I wasn’t accustomed to drinking lots of water.
I can clearly remember the day when I became a water drinker! I lived in a suburb of Houston where there were quite a few refineries, and the water was about as good as the Lake Water of my childhood. I only drank it after I ran with some ice. There was one particular day that I got back from a run, got a glass of water and spit it out! I don’t know what was different about that day, but it was horrible. I immediately drove to the store, bought 4 gallons of bottled water and drank that instead. And suddenly I was hooked! The water tasted GOOD! It was refreshing – I felt better.
Once I started drinking water that tasted better I drank more and more, and my running improved, my skin looked better, I had great energy, the list goes on and on!
I have clients, friends, and relatives that tell me they simply don’t like the taste of water. Maybe they are drinking Lake Water – or have had icky tasting water in the past. Really, water doesn’t have much of a taste, it should be refreshing and easy to drink. That lack of taste is also a common excuse for not drinking water, especially for people with a sweet tooth.
I GUARANTEE that if you START drinking more water than you are now, you will feel better. And suddenly, you too may be hooked! To encourage you a little more I’d like to share a couple of statistics with you:
If you are dehydrated as little as 2% (mild dehydration) it can cause your metabolism to slow down by 3%!! And that same low level of dehydration can decrease your short term memory by 7-15%!! Who wants that?!
Imagine if all of sudden by staying hydrated your memory improved, and you started losing a little weight by boosting your metabolism, and your joints didn’t hurt as much. Any of this can happen with water!
Here are a few signs of mild dehydration:
- Trouble concentrating
- Fatigue
- Constipation
- Depression
- Aggravation
Start simple – drink 8 ounces of water every morning before you drink anything else!
Health & Bliss to You,
Susie