Water – What a Lot Could Do To You

People can die from drinking too much water. There is a psychological condition that causes people to drink an unhealthy amount of water. Also, marathoners have died from drinking too much water.

So – is water dangerous? Well yeah, because you can drown in it. But to the average Joe – not really. Not in the Western World!

The reason why people can die from too much water is quite interesting. Without getting too scientific, basically, too much water can cause your cells to swell up too much and become imbalanced. The sodium that is necessary for cell function starts ’swimming all over the place’ and it could lead to all sorts of horrific things like: irregular heartbeat, fluttering eyelids, fluid in the lungs and most scary – brain swelling. If it gets to the stage of brain swelling, its pretty serious. A saline-like solution needs to be administered as fast as possible to get the cells to balance themselves again, or it could very quickly cause death.

Now – apparently a healthy adult’s liver can process up to 15 liters of water a day. Thats loads. That is around 60 glasses. Give or take a few. The recommended water intake is around 8 glasses. For goodness sake, don’t go and drink sixty glasses of water. Death by water isn’t so much because of the amount of water – its about the time frame. If you drink a whole lot all at once, its pretty much drowning yourself. Not nice.

Hyponatremia (water intoxication) is very very rarely seen in normal people. When it does occur, it is in babies under 6 months old, and athletes. The reason it occurs in babies is because they are fed bottled milk formula which is dissolved in too much water. And athletes – they run too hard too fast and then drink too much too quickly – saturating their cells and depleting their already reduced sodium level in the cells. This is why it is a good idea to drink sports drinks during a long bout of exercise – they have sufficient sodium in them to keep cells functioning properly.

So I’ll repeat some earlier advice: don’t drink too much all at once. Sip all day in small amounts and make sure you are drinking enough. If you exercise, up your intake a bit – and lessen it if you’re just sitting around. Listen to your body. If you feel hungry, you are most likely more thirsty than hungry – so have a drink before you chow down. You’ll do yourself no end of good! Just be sure that you have clean water – and take care when you go to undeveloped countries as the facilities aren’t necessarily there to ensure perfectly clean water. Make sure you drink enough!

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Water. Your Essential To Survive.

Water is essential to life. Without water we could not survive. Our bodies are around 75% water. If we don’t continually replace this water, our bodies will eventually begin to dysfunction and slow down. Our brain will slow down and we’ll eventually feel sluggish and tired – without energy or drive. Without water, we will die.

So why am I writing this? Doesn’t everyone know this? Most people know they need to drink liquid – their bodies tell them when they are thirsty. However, in the western world, water is not the first choice for most people. They will reach for a Coke or a beer… and then later down the track they will wonder why they don’t feel completely on top of ‘their game’.

You need to drink more water. I need to drink more water. It is recommended that for survival purposes, one person requires 3 liters of water a day. This is basic survival. Granted, it is assumed that the water will be used for cooking and cleaning as well – but a large portion will be used for drinking. I’m assuming that in a survival situation, you won’t be running around – you’ll be sitting conserving energy as much as possible. As a result, you’ll be expiring less – using up less water. Yet in order to survive, it is still recommended to drink a huge amount of water. In our every day lives we use a considerable amount of energy and expire a lot of water. So we’ll need to replace a whole lot more water than we would in a survival situation.

Liquid is not good enough. Tea is not good enough. Water is the best thing for your system. Tea can be great – full of antioxidants – but don’t only drink tea as it does also contain caffeine. Drink more water! It will help in so many ways:

Improve brain functionality

Improve muscle movement

Improve skin condition

Speed up cell regeneration and many others.

If I haven’t had enough to drink during the day and I go for a run, I don’t get a stitch necessarily, but I do feel very sluggish and my muscles feel like they are asleep. Its not from lack of warming up or unfitness – its from lack of water. If I have enough water, then my muscles move in a much smoother way – as if they have been lubricated.

So – drink more water. It has been said drink 8 glasses a day. However – how big is a glass? I’ve seen a whole range of glass size. Perhaps a good rule to follow is the bigger you are, the more water you need. Men need more water than women – but pregnant or lactating women need even more water. I would say to drink around 2 liters of water a day. Around that. Build up to it so that you aren’t running to the bathroom every now and again  – and sip slowly during the day rather than a large portion a few times a day. Perhaps you don’t like the taste of water? Add a bit of fresh squeezed lemon juice – or my Mother’s special recipe…(and my favorite) – frozen berries. The berries add some flavor as well as some color. My mother let her sister in on this secret – and now high profile designers in Melbourne are adding berries to their water.

Drink more water!

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Three Week Blitz – Week 2 Day 2

Well I got through another day. This time tomorrow I’ll be  halfway through.

I must admit though – I felt really depressed today. I’m not really making any progress that I can see. I’m still the same weight (I know, its not about weight – but still!!) and I have bad posture and keep eating too much. However, the weights are getting easier to lift so I must be doing something right!

 

I did Tuesday of Mahler’s kettlebells. I added a few reps in too so I’m getting somewhere. After that I hauled out the kiddie punching gloves and socked the punching bag for 6 mins. It’s a long time! I was puffed after that for sure.

 

Food today was:

Smoothie made from bananas, pear, raspberries, black currants, and kiwi. Such a nice pink colour! I mixed it with some milk for breakfast.

During the day I ate too much again. Some almonds, some frozen raspberries, some chicken (even the stuffing – ack!) – then I was given some avocado, tomato and salmon for lunch. It was nice as! I also consumed a couple of feijoas and an apple. Dinner was authentic butter chicken with rice and steamed cauliflower, carrots and peas with a bell pepper, tomato, celery and avocado salad.

We even had dessert! I cut up a whole lot of apples, an orange, almonds and black currants into a casserole dish. Covered that with a mixture of cornflour and water and drizzled it with some organic maple syrup. That was put into the oven for a bit. I was hoping it would cake up a bit but it was just a bit syrupy and jam like. It was pretty good but it shrank down some and there wasn’t very much to go around. I had mine with yoghurt while everyone else had ice cream. There, one good thing!

 

So. What I’m finding is that I’m not drinking enough water. I’ve said it so many times! I need to actually do something about it. I’ll get Elliot to badger me every day. Nothing like a good accountability partner (come back on Thursday for more info)!

 

Hooray, tomorrow I run.

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