Challenge of the Week-Drink more water!

Water makes us 60% of our body weight and is essential to keeping us alive yet somehow I tend to have a hard time finding time to drink enough of it! Dehydration can lead to headaches, loss of focus, increased appetite (you falsely believe you are hungry), sleepiness, dry/sticky mouth, constipation, and decreased urine output. None of those sound fun. Drinking adequate water can help clear your skin, eliminate cravings and unnecessary snacking, improve your digestion, and flush out toxins. Remember that tea and any beverages that add things to water is not considered part of the daily water intake that you need. Yes, they count as fluids but they do not support your body as well as clean water especially if what you are adding to your water is full of chemicals. How much water do you need? We all heard 8 glasses a day and that is easy to remember but it varies depending on your activity level, environement, gender and diet. A better way to tell if you are drinking enough is to check your urine..if is is light yellow to clear then you are most likely hydrated. I have heard the rule of thumb to divide your body weight by 2 and that is the number of ounces you need. I know when I drink enough water because I feel better and can tell that I am hydrated. Play around with it and for the most part we could all drink more!
Here are some tips to help you drink more water:

-Wake up and drink a glass of warm lemon water. This is a great way to get some vitamin C and to help cleanse the body of toxins (See one of my posts on this topic)
-Sip on a glass with breakfast
-Drink a glass of water mid morning
-Drink a glass of water 30 minutes prior to lunch
-Sip on some water with lunch
-Drink a glass of water in the afternoon
-Drink a glass of water 30 minutes prior to dinner
-Sip on water with dinner
-Drink a glass of water an hour before bedtime..maybe even warm to calm you down.
-Always drink room temp water if possible with meals. This helps your digestion working at its best!
-Add lemon oil, orange oil, or peppermint oil to your water. Ensure that your oil is of the grade that can be ingested. It adds great taste and can help with digestion.
-Add cucumbers, oranges, lemon wedges or lime wedges to your water for taste.
-When you are craving a snack, drink a glass of water first and decide if you are still hungry.
-Freeze your water for a popcicle after a run.
-Add in some watermelon juice after slicing one and freeze for popcicles or a tasty variation.

Here's to more water this week!