I felt like a bonehead. I'm a personal trainer, I'm an athlete, I'm reasonably self-aware...and yet on Sunday afternoon I found myself feeling depressed, irritable, clammy, headach-y and tired. And I could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong. Eventually, I tied how I was feeling to the fact that I had had several glasses of champagne at a brunch that morning (that's another story) and two cups of coffee during the day, but no water. NO WATER. #facepalm
Dehydration: it happens to the best of us. I was chronically dehydrated until I became a personal trainer at 23. I had grown up drinking fruit juices, tea and soda, and never drank plain ol' ordinary water. I also ran around like a crazy person and lived in Florida for most of that time. Studying for my first personal training certification, I recognized myself in the list of symptoms for dehydration:
*Dry, sticky mouth
*Sleepiness or tiredness — children are likely to be less active than usual
*Thirst
*Decreased urine output — no wet diapers for three hours for infants and eight hours or more without urination for older children and teens
*Few or no tears when crying
*Dry skin
*Headache
*Constipation
*Dizziness or lightheadedness
--taken from the
MayoClinic site
Hey, I thought, I feel most of those things, most of the time. I wonder...I started to drink more water, and I started feeling better than I even had in my life. It was hard for me to believe that such a simple fix existed for all of those physical ailments. Of course, the question then became, how much water? In recent years there's been more media emphasis on hydration and more of a business in water consumption (plastic water bottles sold at Costco, fancypants aluminum and BPE-free bottles), and you seldom see someone at a gym or yoga class without a personal water source. How much should you drink? The common answer is 8 cups a day, and that's more or less correct. The more specificity the better (in my book), though...The Institute of Medicine suggests that for men, 3 liters (about 13 cups) a day is about right...the daily intake for women should be 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) a day. I like a super-awesome level of specificity, though, and that means linking water intake to body weight, so my favorite table is here:
Body weight
Daily fluid requirements (approximate)
10 pounds
15 ounces
20 pounds
30 ounces
30 pounds
40 ounces
40 pounds
45 ounces
50 pounds
50 ounces
75 pounds
55 ounces
100 pounds
50 ounces
150 pounds
65 ounces
200 pounds
70 ounces
--taken from
Medicine.net
Keep in mind, too, that if you're sweating, you're also losing sodium, so you need to replace electrolytes as well. And you get water in food and in other drinks as well as just water - yet another reason to eat lots of fruits and vegetables! So how can you test if you're getting enough through all of your fabulous methods? The best indicator isn't thirst or even how you're feeling (though you shouldn't be thirsty and you should feel good) - it's your pee. Colorless or light-colored urine gets the thumbs up, darker yellow means you need to start drinking.
And not drinking champagne, like me. That, as I said, is another story. :)
