Then it’s already too late.
With the warmer weather now here it’s easy to forget that you need to drink more fluids to keep hydrated than you would do in the colder weather.
How many of you reading this drink plain, uncarbonated water during the day? Or do you drink tea, coffee, cola? Well if you want to have a clear glowing skin, a well hydrated body and lots of energy then you need to drink water.
Without water you die, and pretty quickly too. We’re talking days not weeks.
Now here’s the bit of ‘over information’ that you probably won’t enjoy reading. When you empty your bladder is your urine almost clear, pale yellow, darker yellow or downright rusty coloured? The lighter the colour of your urine, the better hydrated you are. The darker the urine the more strain you are putting on your kidneys, because they are working extra hard to get rid of highly concentrated impurities in your body due to lack of water to flush them out.
Another good test is to pinch the skin on the back of your hand. If it goes back to normal very quickly then your hydration is okay/not bad. But if it takes a little time to go back, or doesn’t actually go back to how it was, then you are dehydrated.
A prune is a dehydrated plum, a raisin is a dehydrated grape. Need I say more?
You should be aiming for 1.5-2 litres of plain water a day, on top of the other drinks like tea, coffee, cola, alcohol etc. In fact, you’ll probably find that your consumption of tea and coffee will reduce, which is no bad thing anyway, as tea and coffee actually dehydrate you, amongst their other less desirable effects.
It doesn’t have to be the expensive fancy stuff in bottles, because some of those have been found to have unacceptable levels of bacteria in them. Just good old plain tap water will do the trick. (As long as you live in a country where the tap water is actually approved as safe to drink.)
But I hear you say, our tap water doesn’t taste very nice, it’s over chlorinated etc etc. Well if you keep a bottle or jug of tap water in the fridge it will taste completely different, and be cooler too. And think of the money you’ll save drinking tap water, which is 1000+ times cheaper by quantity than most bottled water.
And you sports fanatics out there aren’t to be smug either. It’s great to do your exercise in the warm weather, but are you taking into account how much water you’re losing as a result of it?
There is a way of finding out how much water you’ve lost during an exercise session. You simply weigh yourself before you start exercising, then you weigh yourself immediately after you finish. The difference in weight is the amount of fluid you’ve lost during that exercise, and is the absolute bare minimum that you must put back into your body, on top of your normal daily fluid intake.
Correct hydration during any type of exertion is vital. Your body can’t survive without fuel, so you eat energy bars, dried fruit, bananas etc. But water is fuel too. It may not look like it, it’s clear, flavourless, cheap, but it’s vital. Without it your body will stop.
You don’t drive your car around until it runs out of petrol then fill it up do you? No, you keep refilling the tank so that it never gets entirely empty (well most people do, there are exceptions). Your body is the fuel tank, water is the fuel. Put it in before you need it.
Do you carry a bottle of water with you when you exercise? After an hour in the gym have you only usually drunk one tiny paper cupful of water? Do you come straight out of the gym and buy a fizzy drink or a coffee? How many hours ago did you last empty your bladder?
I find it absolutely essential that I carry a bottle of water around with me in the gym, in fact for any exercise over about 15 minutes I make sure I’m carrying water. And I make sure I drink it. I’ve even turned around and driven home to get my water bottle rather than do an exercise session without it. Yes, I know, if I was brighter I’d keep a spare in the car.
Water is good for you, it’s cheap, usually safe, usually plentiful, won’t rot your teeth, makes you look younger and healthier when hydrated, flushes out all the nasty things in your body that you’d rather not hang on to, keeps you alive.
So next time you look in the mirror do you see a plum or a prune? a grape or a raisin? Drink water!
Caution: As with all exercise, if you haven't exercised for some time, or if you have any medical conditions, you should see your physician first for a checkup. Tell them what you are planning to do so they can advise based on any medical history you might have.
