Water/Hydration

Water, we all know it's important to drink it, but why? Remember that little factoid from childhood, that the human body is approximately 60% water? Well if you can wrap your brain around this, imagine we're big bags of water with about 40% other stuff suspended in it. Poke your own belly. It does have a bit of that water balloon boingy quality, no? Anyhow, that 40% other stuff makes up the structures that contain all the water in various containers both big and small. Now the question is, what is the purpose of all that water? I like to think of it this way. Our bodies are like Venice and the water is the transport system . Molecules of all sorts, with various functions navigate our liquid canals and pools like Venice's gondolas. These gondolas bring messages, food, remove trash even kill rogue gondolas. Now imagine if the water levels drop and the canals become muddy. Those gondolas are going to have a hard time getting quickly from place to place to do their jobs.

OK, enough cutsie stories. Our bodies need to be kept topped off with water to maintain that 60% hydration. Oddly enough you can't count on thirst to be your guide. Once you're thirsty you're already in the red! Here's the guide I use to maintain my body's optimum hydration. Take your weight, say it's 130, half that and you get 65. That's how many ounces of water you need to drink over the course of every day. I'm talking water here, you can't count juice, tea, coffee or Gatorade. We're talking pure, clean water. And if you sweat you need even more!.

So get a big bottle and fill it up. Sip it all day long and know you're keeping your body happy and hydrated!