You can survive without food for more than a month, but you can only live without water for approximately one week!
Lack of water, or dehydration, reduces the amount of blood in your body, forcing your heart to pump harder to help deliver to your muscles. In the early stages of dehydration, you can become dizzy, irritable and experience headaches.
Your body is approximately 60 percent water, your brain is 70 percent water, and your lungs are nearly 90% water. It is therefore essential to keep your body hydrated to function properly.
Water can also have an impact on your weight, much of the time you think you are hungry you are thirsty. Also, if your major organs are not working to there capacity your body’s metabolism rate can be affected and slow down.
Your body must replace around 2.5 litres of water a day through ingested liquid and foods, it also helps your body flush out toxins.
Staying hydrated
Take a pint of water to bed and if you haven’t drunk it through the night, finish it when you wake up in the morning. This is a good way to begin looking after your body for the day and will help kick start your metabolism. Adding lemon or lime is a good option for flavour.
Fruits and vegetables have the highest water content eg watermelon is 92% water, grapefruit and strawberries are around 90%, celery and radishes contain 95% water, cucumbers contain 96%, spinach and peppers 92. Make sure you add more in to your daily diet.
Watermelon is also top of the list containing essential high amounts of rehydration salts calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium.
Have a half or full litre bottle with you throughout your day, this way you can monitor your daily intake as you refill.
Staying hydrated while exercising
It’s essential to keep hydrated while exercising as water regulates your body temperature and lubricates your joints. It also helps transport nutrients to give you energy. If you’re not properly hydrated, your body will not to perform at its highest level. You may experience fatigue, muscle cramps, dizziness, or more serious symptoms.
Keeping yourself hydrated is vital in all aspects of body and mind from beautiful skin to preventing disease. Check how much water you consume and remember, during this unusually hot summer you will need to consume even more fluids than discussed.
David’s summing up
Staying hydrated goes hand in hand with weight loss and health. You must build habits in to your daily life to keep your water levels high throughout the year.
