With us all having to adapt to new routines at the moment, some of the basic and yet most important habits for our health, can be overlooked. Drinking enough water is absolutely crucial to our daily health, wellbeing and overall feel good factor.
Water makes up around two-thirds of our body weight, carries nutrients and waste products around our bodies, regulates our temperature, acts as a lubricant and shock absorber in our joints and plays a role in most chemical reactions happening inside us, therefore you can imagine if are water levels are low, it can have a huge impact to the way we feel.
For decades we have been bombarded with messages telling us that drinking litres of water every day is the secret to good health and with good reason. It has a big impact on things such as – raising energy, improving our skin, weight loss and avoiding cancer to name a few.
We’re constantly losing water through sweat, urination and breathing. Ensuring we have enough water is crucial to avoiding dehydration. The symptoms of dehydration can become detectable when we lose as little as 1-2% of our body’s water and we continue to deteriorate until we top our fluids back up.
Research shows a 1-2% drop in water can lead to:
Feeling tired and lethargic.
Weight gain, because 80% of the time you think you are hungry you are actually thirsty – therefore you end up eating more.
Unable to concentrate on a computer screen for long.
Your hair, nails and skin can suffer.
You become irritable.
Your sleep patterns can alter.
It is advised women drink around two litres per day and men 2.5 litres.
While water is the healthiest option since it has no calories, other drinks also hydrate us, including tea and coffee. Although caffeine has a mild diuretic effect, research indicates that tea and coffee still contribute to hydration.
Of course you can also get water from fruits and vegetables some have a very high water content such as watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, apples, cucumber, broccoli, spinach and tomatoes.
I would suggest buying a 500ml bottle of water and making sure you fill it 4 times a day. This works well and its not too big to carry around.
There are also a number of water tracking apps which you can download to check you are drinking enough. If you are exercising or it is a very hot day, it would be wise to consume extra.
Listen to your body and from now on make sure you and your family drink enough water each day, make it part of your lockdown routine.