Pay Your Body Back with Water

Your busy life requires water to keep it flowing!

Are you drinking enough water to stay healthy? Here are some clues:

• Do you have digestive difficulties? Are you constipated or feel like food sits like a rock in your belly?
• Do you have difficulty controlling your blood pressure?
• Do you easily get over-heated or find it hard to stay warm?
• Are your hands or lips chapped?
• Are you gaining weight or not shedding pounds the way your would expect based on your diet and exercise habits?
• Do you have joint pain?
• Do you have muscle cramps?
• Do you have headaches (especially in the afternoon)?

All of these signs may indicate you aren’t getting the water your body needs to function the way it should.

Water helps you regulate your temperature, moderate your blood pressure, and is essential to digestion. Drinking water can even help you maintain a healthy weight.

• Drinking cold water temporarily raises your metabolism (while your body warms the water) and can burn 25 to 50 extra calories.
• Drinking something warm after being chilled (after you get out of the pool for example) will help fight the hunger sensation your body sends. It wants to eat and fire up your metabolism to warm you up! Water is a wonder.

How much water do you need?
Most of us need about 60 to 80 ounces of water along with the water in the food we eat. This means you will need eight kitchen sized glasses per day or two large water bottles full.

Keep in mind you will need even more water if you are pregnant, breast feeding, have a fever or diarrhea, if the weather is very hot or very cold, or are on a diet (you body makes extra waste as it converts the fat in your body, which needs to be rinsed through your kidneys).

Here are some tips to get enough water:

• Don’t guzzle – your body can’t process 60 ounces of water all at once! Spread your water intake across the day – this will also help spread out the bathroom breaks!
• Get a BPA Free water bottle and keep it near you: at your desk, in your car, etc. (Why BPA Free?)
• Water is the best source of fluid for you body, herbal tea, sparkling water and water flavored with a small amount of 100% fruit juice is just as beneficial.
• Coffee can act as a diuretic (making you have to urinate more often). Don’t rely on coffee to provide all of your fluid.
• Skim milk and 100% fruit juice provide fluid, but also carry additional calories. Drink these in moderation.
• Avoid pouring powders into your water which contain chemicals, sugar, or artificial sweeteners.
• Soda, even diet soda, is loaded with sodium. Soda is a treat, do not count soda as part of your fluid intake.

How can you tell if you are getting enough? Use this handy hydration calculator from About.com to find out how much you need specifically.  One simple way to tell, however, is to look in the toilet. If you are getting enough water your urine should be nearly colorless and nearly odorless.

Pay Your Body Back™ with enough water every day and it will pay you back with good health!

Eliz Greene works busy people to improve heart health, so they can work well, feel better, and stress less.

She is a heart attack survivor and the author of the Busy Woman’s Guide to a Healthy Heart as well as 3 other books on wellness. She writes one of the top 50 health and wellness blogs and is a sought-after wellness & stress management speaker.

If you are planning a women’s wellness program, workplace wellness program or programs for healthcare professionals check out EmbraceYourHeart.com to see if Eliz would be a good fit with your organization.