Note from Kathleen: I run this article every year about this time because, if you’re anything like me, you forget about important stuff like drinking water.
Recently, a friend was taken to the hospital. She had a headache and leg cramps. She felt dizzy, confused and weak. Her husband found her unconscious on the floor of their bathroom. Her diagnosis after a scary ambulance ride: Dehydration. Her symptoms were all classic signs of inadequate water intake.
Now let me get this straight: It’s hot here for the North Carolina mountains in June. The thermometer hit 90 degrees a couple of days this week. But that’s not really all that hot. Many of you, especially my Asian friends, deal with temperatures far higher than that every day.
I’m willing to venture a guess that many, if not most of you are not drinking enough water.
In ordinary temperatures, everyone needs ½ ounce of water per pound of body weight a day. That means if you weigh 150 pounds, you need 75 ounces or 2.5 quarts of water each and every day. When it is hot or if you are exercising, you need more.
If you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated.
The best strategies:
Drink at least 8 ounces of water when you first awaken to hydrate you at the start of your day. Most of us don’t drink water throughout the night, so we’re pretty much behind the 8-ball when we wake up.
Sip water all day and evening long. Try to keep your water intake at a steady level throughout your waking hours.
You don’t like water? That’s hard to imagine, but that’s what my dehydrated friend said. Squeeze in a wedge of lemon or a lime. You can also make a cooling drink by slicing cucumbers into a big jug of water and sipping it. BTW Soft drinks and iced coffee drinks don’t count toward your water intake. The caffeine and sugar can actually contribute to dehydration. Those so-called sports drinks are nothing more than sugar. Avoid them!
Ice is nice. Absolutely!
Measure your intake. I drink out of quart canning jars so I know exactly how much I have taken in. If you have trouble keeping track of how many quarts you have consumed, keep 3 or 4 or more rubber bands around your wrist and add one to your jar every time you finish it. Count them up at the end of the day and you’ll have a very accurate count of your intake.
Traveling? Carry water with you, best in stainless steel containers. Carry a small cooler, if necessary. While warm water will hydrate you just well as cold water, it just tastes yucky in summer. By the way, never drink out of plastic bottles that have been left in the car. They heat up and the plastic gives off endocrine disrupting phthalates.
Check out the color of your urine: Except the first urine in the morning, your urine should be a light yellow color. If it is darker than straw-color, you are not drinking enough. Worse yet, if you don’t urinate every couple of hours, you are dehydrated.
Increase your salt intake. It may seem counter-intuitive, but the natural minerals in your unrefined sea salt (you are using that, right?) help replace minerals lost through sweat.
Stay cool, exercise and harden in the cooler hours and enjoy your summer, my friends!
