Healthy Hydration

I am not a doctor – any views expressed here I have researched to the best of my ability but may not reflect your doctors advice or be the right thing for you 

You’ve probably heard it before – you should be drinking more water. A widely touted figure is eight eight-ounce glasses a day though this isn’t quite right. Activity levels, other drinking habits (read tea and coffee), thirst level and heat can all play a role in how much you need to consume in a day. 

Hydration affects a ton of different body systems too, from affecting your mood and giving you headaches if you haven’t properly hydrated during exercise to boosting your metabolic system by 24-30%. If you aren’t properly hydrated you may find your digestive system gets out of whack or your acne gets worse. Hydration is essential.

The Institute of Medicine explains the individual factors that go into water consumption better than I can here – although I can give you a summary that doesn’t involve reading 40 pages of scientific data. Adequate intake is recommended at 2.2 litres for women, some of that liquid comes from fruit and vegetables and the rest of your hydration is triggered by thirst which prompts fluid intake if you’re dehydrated. 

There are also signs of dehydration you can look out for and it’s not all elimination based – though the colour of your urine is a good indicator. You want that to be pale gold not mahogany or any other colour (red and brown being the worst unless you’re eating a ton of beets). You’ll get thirsty, you might get a headache or you could feel tired. So it’s really important to get enough fluid, but you probably don’t start drinking excessively. 

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, while 2 gallons of water a day is an admirable goal and may boost your metabolism (come on girls we’ve all been there in a foolish attempt to jump start weight loss) it’s probably best to go slow. If you only drink a single glass of coffee in the morning you might find drinking more seems like a herculean task. 

I’m on vacation in the Dominican Republic right now, more on that next week – and adding more water has been tough but necessary. I’m hot so I’m losing more water as I sweat and try to recover from a plane trip which already seems to suck the moisture out of you.

The first day I only managed to drink a single bottle of water followed by cocktails. The second, two bottles when I went hiking, the third -three. Do you see where I’m going with this?

What I’m saying here is go slow, if you’re not used to drinking enough try introducing more hydrating liquids daily. Not coca-cola come on guys – herbal tea or water or kombucha (though watch the sugar on that last one) – work well to hydrate and the added probiotic of the kombucha is probably a bonus if you’re hydrating because you have digestive issues.

Hydration is important inside and outside – while you’re sipping your glass of lemon water, make sure you put some moisturizer on your skin and try some hyaluronic acid on your face.

Stay healthy, stay hydrated, stay hedonists!