How can you tell? It’s crass, but the classic way is to see how coloured your urine is. The lighter it is, the more hydrated you are with the best being pale to clear.
Sometimes it’s hard to drink water, you may not like the taste or rarely feel “thirsty” but there is a myriad of research regarding “hydration sensation” that shows your body can lose the ability to tell your brain that it needs more water if you are dehydrated all the time. I can regurgitate facts to you all day long; the body is made up of 70% water, the body can only live a couple of days without water, generally adults will lose between 2-3 litres a day and that’s just general day to day activity, not including exercise, if you are dehydrated your blood gets sluggish and puts more pressure on your heart to move it around, it lubricates your joints and tissue, water from food only accounts for 20% of total water needed for your body, it is more difficult to lose weight if you are dehydrated. You get the idea.
I want you to picture beef jerky (which is dehydrated cow muscle….). And try to imagine how you would be able to function if your muscles looked like that. Your muscles NEED water. And if you want your muscles to be at their best you need to hydrate them, not turn them into beef jerky.
Here are some tips on how to stay hydrated:
- Keep a water bottle within reach at all times
- Flavour it – Lemon and lime slices are great, but if you have to make it more palatable, even whizzed up berries will do the trick and you can get water bottles with filters what will keep all the pulp in the bottle.
- Cleanse it – use a water jug purifier or get a water bottle with a charcoal insert.