Drink up!

There's no better time than summer to be glugging down more water...with all the heat, a more active lifestyle, and all the sweatin' that summer gives. It seems that people don't understand how vital water is to our health. Most of us are really dehydrated, whether we know it or not.

We should all be drinking one half of our body weight in ounces of water PER DAY! For me, at my height, that's about 80 ounces of water, which is about 10 glasses of water. Two more than the average 8 glasses. And if you're more active, you should be adding more water to that.

And contrary to what everyone seems to think...tea and coffee DON'T count. They actually act as diuretics. Herbal tea is an exception you can count as water.

So why do we need so much water? What's so great about being hydrated? Here are some of the reasons (some which were new to me)...

• it acts as a solvent (reduces everything) and a transporter


• purifies your body, carrying out waste


• increases energy at a cellular level


• transports metabolites of the brain along neurons


• creates adhesiveness to the cell structures


• proteins and enzymes function more efficiently in a solution that is more dilute


• keeps your skin more healthy

And here are some things that can be prevented by drinking more water...that can actually be partly caused or helped by dehydration...

• hypertension


• dyspepsia


• arthritis


• headaches (add lemon in your water for even more benefit)


• stress and depression


• cholesterol problems


• diabetes


• asthma and allergies


• colitis


• low back pain

My Dad was reading all these great things about water and since then, he's been drinking a lot more. Trying to get his 100 ounces (around 12 glasses) of H2o all in before the day is out. He says he feels a lot better and he's not as tired.

It might be hard to get used to and you might be running to the bathroom all of the time, but soon you're body will get more used to it. I rarely go anywhere without my water bottle...it's almost my comfort drink. I like to add lemon and stevia often, or even just a squirt of some juice from the fridge. There's lots of ways to drink water if you don't like the taste...maybe try sun tea or iced green tea. You got no excuses, so drink up!

Food so far for today:

Breakfast~ Green smoothie (kale, banana, blue manna flakes, ect)

Morning snack~ 1/2 grapefruit

Lunch (so far)~ some watermelon (another great source of hydration)