Anyways, by drinking beverages or even eating a lot of foods with sugar in them, you are training your body to love sugar. This is the complete opposite of what we actually want to do for our bodies - Fat doesn't make you Fat, Sugar does.
It just make sense. If your body is made up of 50-60% water, and throughout the day we loose water by breathing, sweating, and going to the ladies room, then we need to replace that water on a daily basis.
A lack of water, or dehydration, can cause a multitude of issues and to prove a point I am going to list a bunch of them:
- Fatigue - Caffeine makes this worse, not better.
- Muscle Weakness
- Poor Concentration - Not always an ADD/ADHD issue.
- Headaches - Don't just pop a pill, drink some water!
- Dizziness
- Lightheadedness
- Decreased Metabolism - Everyone is so quick to try some fat burning concoction to loose weight, why not just drink more WATER!!
- Dry Mouth
- Heart Palpitations
- Deterioration of Brain Cells
- Dry, Itchy Skin
- WRINKLES - Again, we are all about the latest wrinkle creams. Wear sunscreen and drink WATER!
- Increased friction in the joints
- Decreased protection of the internal organs
- Some even say there is a link to HEART ATTACKS
Now please tell me that because water is not sugary and tasty, that you are cool with dealing with the things on the list above. Just because you are young and do not feel that these things will affect you, think again. How you treat your body now ABSOLUTELY WILL affect your body later!
How much water should I drink?
- For example, lets say I weigh 145lbs (on average) then I would have to drink (145/2) = 72.5 Ounces of water each day.
- I almost always have either a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, so I will add another 8 Ounces to that total (8 oz per cup of caffeine), equalling 80.5.
- I also, usually workout for at least an hour on most days so I would have to add another 32 ounces (8 for every 15 minutes), giving me a grand total of 112.5 ounces per day.
A normal water bottle is about 16 ounces so this would mean that on the days that I have a cup of caffeine and workout for an hour I would shoot to have 7 bottles of water. ** Understand that this is an estimate, not exact science.
Ounces of Water per Day = (Body Weight/2) + (Cups of Caffeine x 8) + (Minutes of Exercise/4 x 8)
Do you remember PEMDAS?
How in the world am I going to drink that much water?
- Drink a glass of water first thing each morning and right before bed - 1 bottle down, 6 to go!
- Get yourself a water bottle that you are going to carry around with you EVERYWHERE! I use my Tervis Tumbler cause it doesn't condensate all over the place and its 16 ounces so its easy for me to keep track of how much water I have had to drink. Ryan also has one, but he now likes to use his SUBU Waterbottle. Convenience is key! If you have the water in front of you, I promise you will drink more water.
- If you do not have a fancy refrigerator, get yourself a Brita Pitcher and keep it full in the fridge. Again, convenience is key! Fill up your bottle every time you leave the house.
- Go half and half. If you have to drink something other than water, fill your glass half up with juice, tea, or a sports drink and then half with water. I know, I know! It doesn't taste the same, but you get some sweetness with your water.
- Do the same thing with caffeine. If you have a cup of coffee you should also have your water bottle near you! Drink water as you drink your coffee. I mix my green tea with water and lemon almost everyday. Just make your cup of tea, pour it over ice, and then squeeze in half a lemon. This way you get caffeine, flavor and water, all in one!!
- Before you eat sweets, drink a glass of water. If you find yourself craving sweets, remember that your body is addicted to the sugar. Just like any other stimulant, your body gets use to having it and then goes crazy when you cut it off. See if a glass of water will kill the craving! My favorite thing to have at night when I am craving something sweet is Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Vanilla Tea. It takes a couple of minutes to make, which slows you down from just grabbing the ice cream tub and a spoon, and is warm and a little sweet. No, it is not the same as ice cream but ice cream makes you fat and this doesn't!! (Please see my note about ice cream in the About Me section.) It helps to relax your body to get ready for bed and don't forget, if you make a big mug of it you can add it to your daily water total.
- Drink water when you drink alcohol! Alcohol, like caffeine, cancels out water that you have drank that day. So if you drank 5 bottles of water during the day and then go out and have 5 beers, you basically cancelled out all of your hard hydration work! Either double fist with a drink in one hand and a water in the other hand or alternate. Every time I go up to a bar and order a drink, I also order a water. This helps to A) prevent the dreaded hangover by keeping me more hydrated & B) to limit my amount of booze!
Pee Test!
Dive in like this little guy !