How do you feel when you don’t drink enough water?

Image from Food Matters

We have talk about the benefits of drinking water throught the blogs, I believe most readers who didn’t drink enough before have started drinking more water! However, if some of you still wonder what are the feelings of not drinking enough water, then here are some of the ‘feelings of dehydration’ listed by Annie Bond from care2.com:

1.Fatigue, Energy Loss

2.Constipation

3.Digestive Disorders

4.High and Low Blood Pressure

5.Gastritis, Stomach Ulcers

6.Respiratory Troubles

7.Acid-Alkaline Imbalance

8.Ecess Weight and Obesity

9.Exzema

10.Cholesterol

11.Cystitis, Urinary Infections

12.Rheymatism

13.Premature Aging

Do you have any or more than one symptoms? Then you must pay attention to your water-drinking condition! It’s not too late to start drinking more water! Water, Thanks.

GP

Take the hydration challenge!

Image from exercise2day

I would like to invite all of you to take the hydration challenge with me, and with Monica Olivas, the famous blogger who runs ‘RUN EAT Repeat’. Monica created the hydration challenge and the details are:

The Challenge: Make sure you drink enough all week

The goal: To learn how much Your Body needs to be properly hydrated

How: Track what you drink, how ya feel and your pee

Who: You (Me too)

Why: Because being just 2% dehydrated can hurt athletic performance. ANd we don’t want to make running or Zumba or Crossfit any harder than it already is, right?!

Happy hydration with Monica! Want more information about running, recipes, weight loss, lifestyle and so on, check RUN EAT Repeat for more!

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Really?! Myths of water that you need to know!

Myths and facts, just like black and white, you can’t draw equation between them. The conflict between myths and facts also lie in the area of water-drinking. Women’s Health offered several ‘candidates’ in order to make people think :Do you really know how to drink water?

Round One:

We need to drink eight glasses of water every day

Unfortunately this statement is just a myth and the truth is, your daily intake of depends on your diet, size and unique body chemistry.

Round Two:

Drink only when thirsty and you’ll get all of the fluid you need

Drink when thirsty? Like what I said in previous blogs, we lose 1% of water everytime we feel thirsty. Need preofessionals? Leslie Bonci, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center says: “You lose fluid so rapidly that the brain can’t respond in time’.

Final Round

Drink water before meal helps you lose weight

Probably many girls are curious about this round. Unfortunately, this is still myth! Barbara Rolls, the author of The Volumetrics Eating Plan. tell you : the water you drink before or during a meal won’t keep you from overeating, and it won’t flush food out faster from the body.

What do you think? If you want to know more about the myths and facts of water-drinking, check Do You Know How To Drink Water for more!

(Image by Marcel Christ)

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Interesting facts about water!

Water is essential to our health for sure. I have already mentioned facts like ‘roughly 70% of our body is water’ but do you know there are actually way more intesting water facts out there. AllAboutWater lists 20 insteresting and useful water facts and here are several selected ones:

A healthy person can drink about three gallons (48 cups) of water per day.

While the daily recommended amount of water is eight cups per day, not all of this water must be consumed in the liquid form.

Pure water (solely hydrogen and oxygen atoms) has a neutral pH of 7, which is neither acidic nor basic.

By the time a person feels thirsty, his or her body has lost over 1 percent of its total water amount.

The weight a person loses directly after intense physical activity is weight from water, not fat.

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Do you know which company dominates the bottled water market?

There are various bottled water brands in Australian bottled water market: Mount Franklin, Deep Spring, Pump, Peats Ridge Springs, Neverfail Springs and so on. Do you know that all mentioned brands above all belong to Coca-cola Amatil? In fact, CCA dominates more than 35% of the market share, which is the largest player in industry. Personally, Mount Franklin is my faviourite choice probably because of its elegant design and more importantly, the design even makes the taste of Mount Franklin slightly better than other water! Mount Franklin falls under the category of spring water. A spring is a component of the hydrosphere and it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground. Mount Franklin uses expert hydrologists to verify the quality and sustainability of water springs in order to delever the purity and quality. For more information, check Mount Franklin‘s official website! What is your favourite bottled water brand?

Image from Mount Franklin

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Spring has come! What should you do to fight against springtime dehydration?

Image from Zenlines

Australia’s spring is here. The whether gets nice and warm  which makes people want to go out and do some exercise. We tend to underlook the dehydration problem in such a confortable whether that are warmer than winter’s but still relatively cool. Recent research shows that exercisers can actually lose more water in colder, spring-like weather than at any other time of the year. Sarah Kelsey provides her own advice on how to prevent dehydration in springtime dehydration!

1. Drink lots of water.

2.Try a sports drink.

3. If you’re thirsty, stop working out.

4. Weigh yourself.

5. Eat water-rich foods.

So, find more and listen to these tips provided by Sarah Kelsey and start enjoying spring without worrying about dehydration! Remember to say ‘water,thanks’ as water is always the best option to stay hydrated.

GP

Have you ever considered the differences between the water that you consume daily?

We tend to refer water as ‘water’ in almost all circumstances. Yet in fact, there are various types of water available today that are actually different from each other. Hildon water provides a detailed information about different types of water that we usually drink in our everyday life. You will find out which type suits you the most.

Tap Water

Australia tap water is safe to drink and thanks god for giving this nation such precious gift. However, since it may carry heavy chlorine residual to maintain microbilogical safety during storage and transit through water mains, tanks and pipes, it is better not to rely on tap water all the time.

Filtered Water

There are a number of filtration and bottle filling systems available today. The filtered water you drink is typically tap water that has been filtered to remove the chlorine residue – simply to improve the taste. Many of the filters used would not protect against contaminants such as the parasites Cryptosporidium and Giardia.

Bottled, Table, Pure or Drinking Water

These types of water can originate from a mixture of sources; some of the well packaged and marketed bottled waters are merely re-processed tap water. Waters labelled as ‘purified’ or ‘vapour distilled’ are actually tap water that has gone through further processing, such as reverse osmosis, to make them suitable to sale as bottled drinking water.

Spring Water

Like natural mineral water, waters that are labelled ‘spring water’ must originate from an officially recognised source. However, unlike natural mineral water they do not undergo the intensive 2 year recognition process and until recently did not have to be bottled at source.

Natural Mineral Water

Natural mineral water must originate from an officially recognised source and must be bottled at that source. The source is protected from all risk of pollution and that the composition, temperature and other essential characteristics remain stable. The water is then subjected to ongoing testing and continual maintenance long after its original qualification.

Here is also a comparison chart that shows the differences:

Table from Hildon

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Specific Tips on How to Love the Taste of Water!

We all know water is good to our health. However, when we face the temptation of other tasty drinks it is a little difficult for some of us to choose water and say ‘water, thanks’. Well, it is time to make yourself love water. Wikihow provides three main suggestions of how to love the taste of water:

1) Sourcing the water

Not all water taste the same! You might already noticed that the tapwater tastes different to the bottled water and there are also differences between other source of water (Filtered water, well water, distilled water etc.). Why not explore the different tastes of water? You may find yourself fall in love with it.

2) Encourage enjoyment of water

Why not DIY your own water taste? Add a lemon, a strawberry, apple…add anything that is healthy and tasty inside!

Make sure you always keep the water near you so that sometimes when you thirsty the first option is to drink water!

3) Appreciating the benefits of water

Wikihow also mentioned that we should appreciate the benefits of water to encourage us to drink more water. This is exactly why this campaign is called ‘Water,Thanks’! You can find more water facts in other posts of this blog.

  

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Let’s make it simple, when and how much water should we drink daily?

So how much water do we really need to drink daily? You might heard of the rule of 8*8 that it is recommended that we should drink 8-ounce of glasses (2 Liters). However, this is just a general rule that might not fit everyone. Additionally, who would ever bother to calculate the exact number of the water intake? Therefore, according to Authority Nutrition, the simple way that should apply to 90% of people is:

1)When thirsty, drink.

2)When not thirsty anymore, stop.

3)During high heat and exercise, drink enough to compensate for the lost fluids.

4)That’s it.

ENJOY drinking water, ‘Water, Thanks’.

GP

Don’t want to drink water because you don’t like the taste of water?

Some people complain that they know water are beneficial but they are not motivated to do so or they simply just don’t like the taste of water. Well, Melissa Harrision from BuzzFeed offers 13 easy ways to drink more water!

Solutions listed below are the most recommended and efficient ones from my personal point of view!

1) Buy a bottle you love! I may not like drinking water, but if I bottled the water with my favourite bottle, I would love to drink more!

Image from swellbottle.com

2) Infuse the water with fresh fruits or vegetables!

This is particularly helpful to those who do not like the taste of water! Add your favourite fruits, Yummy!

Image from thepeachkitchen.com

3) Use an App to track the progress!

There are apps such as Waterlogged and Daily Water that can help track the drinking progress! Be motivative!

Image from iTunes

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