Fitness Friday: Water for the Thirsty

Hey, guess what? It's still hot!! I'm going to count my water-drinking lecture as Fitness Friday, but it's just part of life -- and should be. If you ARE drinking your water, yay! for you. If you aren't -- it's just time. Yes, initially you have to MAKE yourself drink water. And if you haven't been drinking water, you will be SO thirsty when you start drinking water. If you haven't been a water drinker, your body has learned to basically shut down its thirst mechanism. When you first start drinking water your body will be so happy to finally get some it wants more and more and more! That will slow down, in time -- but you will remain thirsty when you need water.

Why do we need water? Warning – moderate talk of digestion processes ahead. It won’t be any worse than taking a kid to the pediatrician and discussing diapers, etc., but if that grosses you out, just go drink water.

1. Water helps the body get rid of waste. I know, a basic “duh” statement. Let’s think about if weight-loss is your goal. Imagine someone you know who has lost massive amounts of weight. Did they complain about how many fat cells they were sweeping up and/ or vacuuming up in a given day? Of course not! How does the body get rid of waste? All-righty then. Let’s certainly help THAT process out. Water flushes the system, keeping things that we don’t need in our body moving along.

2. Water aids in digestion. This goes along with #1, obviously. Your digestive system is dependent on water to keep it moving along. Imagine if you crammed everything that you ate in a given day down your disposal and didn’t run the water. You would have a serious plumbing problem on your hands. The same can be said for your body! If your digestive system doesn’t have the water it needs, it is forced to do its job itself by cramping up the muscles of the digestive system to move the food along. That’s grief no one needs! Drink water! For this reason, your system also needs mucho fiber, but that’s another day.

3. Cells in your body need water to repair themselves. The Lord made our body such a perfect machine that it can repair itself! Cells need to repair themselves after exercise, as well as any injury you may have. Water speeds up that process. Partly by getting rid of any waste in your system, but also by keeping the cells at an optimum level of fluid.

There are many other, debatable reasons for drinking water. I mentioned last week that some research shows that it increases your metabolism (especially ice water -- since your body has to burn calories to get the water to body temperature), another disputed study shows that it decreases your hunger, and some people seem to think that it gets rid of fine lines in the skin.

I have mentioned here that many of us are walking around dehydrated and don't even know it. Early symptoms of dehydration are dry lips and thirst. If you live in a dry climate, like I do, you may just think that dry lips are part of the lifestyle, but they don't have to be. Beyond those two symptoms, headache and stomach cramps and/ or nausea or diarrhea are all symptoms of dehydration. Yes, those are all listed as possible side-effects on any medication produced, as well as the symptoms for 19 other maladies -- but if you're drinking your water, you can rule out dehydration!

How much water do we REALLY need? In short, like exercise, ANYTHING is better than nothing. I have learned my body and how active I am and how thirsty I feel the next morning. I need to drink between 2 and 3 liters/ day to feel my best. There is TREMENDOUS debate about amounts: we need less than 64 oz., we need more than 64 oz., we need exactly 64 oz.

It's going to be different for everyone. I live in a dryer climate than the one I grew up in. I work out more frequently than some people (losing water through sweat). I am smaller than some people and larger than others. I don't think there is a 'one size fits all' water amount -- BUT I do think that 64 oz. is a good place to start, letting your body be your guide.

Say it with me now: ANYTHING is better than nothing!

Drink your water, stay healthy and be fit!