Water Water Everywhere-but I will not drink a drop!

Sound familiar?  I know to many, water is a boring bland burden, and did I say boring? I’m sure most of you reading this would rather have a cola any day over a cup of water, well-get over it! Your body needs water to operate properly, if you aren't drinking water or enough of it there will be consequences; like headache, fatigue, constipation, irritability and mental confusion. Many people don’t realize that this is happening because of their lack of H20 consumption. Water has many roles once in the body; it flushes the kidneys dissolves minerals and acts as a delivery system, a lubricant, and a temperature regulator. When just 1 percent of body fluids are lost, body temperature goes up and concentration becomes more difficult; these are the less serious complications that mild dehydration can cause.

Long term complications are much more serious, dehydration contributes to toxic overload in the body which can lead to a hyperactive immune system, and cause or contribute to a variety of diseases, including arthritis, asthma, colitis, depression, diabetes, dyspeptic ulcer, duodenitis , gastritis, heartburn, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, low back pain, neck pain, and osteoporosis. Chronic dehydration is also the cause of kidney stones and other kidney problems.

So, if the reasons above are not enough to get you to drink your water, I will appeal to your vanity, water can really help you lose weight! Many times when we 'think' we are hungry, we are actually thirsty. The thirst mechanism kicks in when we've lost between 1 and 2 percent of body water. If we ignore the first sign, and eat something instead of drinking a glass of good ole' H20 then we are dehydrating are selves further, we are now at 3 percent dehydration- this seriously affects mental and physical performance. Not only that, but your skin will be dull and wrinkles will show more easily when you don’t hydrate yourself properly.

Ok, now that you know why water is important, the next thing I want to bring to your attention is what kind of water you want to put into your body, think of your body like a car, you want to use the best gas possible for optimum performance, so we don’t want to use regular tap water that's filled with fluoride and other containments. So, let’s break it down from best to worst.

The best water to drink is mineral water, because it has the added benefit of minerals! But not everyone wants to pay the price for this kind of water, and that’s fine. So regular pure water will do, spring water and distilled water are all fine options, if you choose to use a water filter, the filter cannot help but remove not only the bad minerals, but the good ones as well, and again, this is not a big deal, just a fact.

You can also count herbal teas into your daily water intake. Let me reiterate, I said herbal teas! NOT regular tea, herbal teas are not really "tea" in the traditional sense, but this is what we call it, teas like chamomile, peppermint, licorice etc., whatever it may be, all can count as water, as long as you don’t add sugar, milk or an artificial sweetener like aspartame, a sweetener like stevia is fine. In fact, I encourage the use of herbal teas, herbs can help in alleviating many problems, but they also contain vitamins and minerals as well, and many also contain antioxidants which help prevent cancer by attacking free radicals. When choosing herbs for tea, you can choose purely based on flavor, or you can specifically target an ailment, for example if you cannot get to sleep and are feeling restless, chamomile would be an excellent choice to have a cup of this before bed, this herb is a nervine and helps calm you. Or you could drink Valerian which is commonly used in people who have insomnia.  Herbs can serve more the one purpose, chamomile is not just good for its calming effect and to induce sleep, it's also great for stomach aches, and contains chemicals that are anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, and antiparasitic. I highly suggest that before taking any herbs you should make sure it will not interfere with any medications that you may be on, or allergies that you may have, for instance, if you have high blood pressure you should not take licorice, if you are allergic to ragweed then you should not drink chamomile. It's also important to get herbal teas that are organic (please see the "Why shop organic" page).

Another tasty idea to flavor your water is to use lemons, limes, ginger, mint- or drink seltzer! Green tea is great to drink as well; I recommend 3 cups of this daily.

If you are interested in ordering herbal teas that are of high quality please visit; http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/ This is a great site, with lots of information and great herbal products. If you are interested in learning more about water, I recommend picking up the book, "Your bodies many cries for water" by, Dr. F. Batmanghelidj. Or visit his website at www.watercure.com for more information.

We all should have a food journal so we can make ourselves responsible for what goes into our bodies, every day I write down what I am eating as I am eating it, and at the top of the page I draw 8 boxes, I make sure to check those boxes off until my 8 glasses of water have been consumed, this is a really easy way to stay on track. A simple note pad will do, personalize it anyway you want, but I really do suggest keeping a record of what you are consuming, even on the days when you have been terrible to yourself, write it down! It's really amazing to see that once you start having to own what you are stuffing into your mouth by staring it right in the face, it starts to make you think twice about eating that Twinkie, or having the cola over a glass of water. 

So please love your body with the universal solvent. Drink your 8 glasses of water daily and stay hydrated!