Hydration tips, tricks and tools
The why and the how plus what we need to do to up daily water intake.
I touched on this last week but the topic deserves a spotlight of its own. Water! To consistently maintain good health you need to honour your body’s need for water.
It’s a great time of year, summer in the Southern Hemisphere, to look at your garden, or someone else’s garden. Notice how the vegetables will either be standing tall and producing plenty, or falling over floppy, wilting and failing to reach their potential. Whichever state the plants are in will in large part be due to diligent watering or negligent watering.
Don’t be the wilted plant! You won’t be nearly as productive and you’ll wonder why you feel tired all the time. Everything seems harder when you're dehydrated, or even just not fully hydrated.
Being properly hydrated allows the lymph to flow and washes our fascia, the subtle connective tissue wrapping all organs, bones, muscles and nerves. It helps us to feel better, look better, poop better and just generally operate at a higher level. It’s an overlooked tool in our health kit precisely because it’s so basic. And as you are probably beginning to notice, I LOVE basic tools.
So, to hydrate. I like to use a 1 litre glass or stainless steel water bottle. Then I can roughly ‘measure’ my water intake, and refill the bottle 2-3 times a day. If you’re at home, buy or find a pint glass, which is roughly 500mls and refill it 4-6 times a day. The variation in amount will come down to your personal activity levels and body weight.
Making health practices concrete and actionable in this way dramatically increases your likelihood of sticking with them. My enthusiasm for drinking water first thing in the morning is an example of this. It’s a convenient time (before daily chaos) and is also supportive of intermittent fasting practices, giving the body a nice shower after a night of detoxing.
Hydration doesn’t need to mean we gulp water all day long, either. Eat your water! Seek out high water content fruits, vegetables and leaves. And, lastly… learn to be okay with peeing often. I know far too many people who lower their water intake to avoid the inconvenience of peeing. If you’re cautious with water due to potential interference with nighttime sleep, get the majority of your water intake done before midday and then taper off as the day progresses.
Key takes
Don’t be the wilted plant
Eat your water
Be okay with peeing often
The more you drink water, the more you crave it.
As always, we’re aiming for joy, ease and curiosity. These are my own personal baselines for health on a daily basis. Keep establishing, practising and noticing and I’ll see you back here next week!
Sophie’s Marketplace
A few bits and pieces I’m loving right now, maybe you will too.
1. Glass bottles with lids. I recently picked up a six pack of these beauties to store in the fridge. More chic than a pint glass IMO. Also, ideal for storing nut milks, vegetable juice and even a smoothie on the go. At just over 500mls, they will help to effortlessly measure water intake.
2. Matakana Water Company. Auckland residents looking for a beautiful mineral water option can now buy large volumes of water through this family run water delivery business which is located an hour out of the city. If you have a water tank at your home that you’d like to fill, these guys are the ones to talk to. You can also fill up at their community tap in Warkworth, which has an honesty box policy.