HYDRATION!!!!

In the last post we talked about nutrition and our eating habits. It is very important to eat healthy but if we don't include the drinks we ingest in our diet plan, it will eventually catch up with you. Our body is made up of around 72 to 85 % water. Women should drink at least 9 cups of water a day and men should drink 13 cups a day, this is at resting. You should add one cup to your water intake for each 30 minutes of activity on average. If you are working out very vigorously you should add more.

When we work out we loose our water weight first. It is not healthy to purposefully dehydrate yourself ever! You must hydrate your body! Nothing that contains sugar hydrates your body. Your body does not process it as hydration, it will be filtered through your body and the only part of it you will retain is the sugar. If you drink one 12 oz. can of Cola you are ingesting 140 calories, 45 grams of sodium, and 39 grams of sugar.... you should only eat 32 grams of sugar in your whole day!!! Not to mention that the carbonation in any soda dehydrates you. Soda is not good for you and will not help you loose weight or get in shape. The worst part of soda is that the soda companies have made "diet" sodas to convince us that we are doing something healthy by drinking the "diet" version of their soda. Diet sodas are worse for you than the traditional soda. The artificial sweeteners in "diet" soda further dehydrate you and are now known to be one of the causes of a whole list of health problems with obesity  and diabetes topping that list!

There are healthy ways to ingest drinks containing sugar, such as Gatorade, Powerade, and natural juices. Juices should be consumed in the morning with breakfast or your early meals since this is when your body breaks down fruit the best. Sports drinks are good for when you are working out and you are trying to rehydrate fast. They will also help bring your blood sugar levels back up after a hard workout. They should be an after workout recovery drink more than a replacement for water though.

Also, often when our body is craving something during the day, we assume it needs food. Often this is wrong. If you make a habit of drinking a glass of water every time you feel a craving, or like you are hungry you will find yourself eating a lot less snacks. Our body tells us it needs water, we just tend not to listen.

I challenge you to try changing to consuming mostly water for one week and drink a glass of water when you feel hungry throughout the day. After one week see how much keeping yourself properly hydrated makes you feel.