Water as a means to detoxify.
Water is essential for our body. Our body consists largely of water. Water is also an important tool for our body to detox. It helps to remove the toxins from our bodies and keeps our bodies healthy.
How much water should I drink each day?
A frequently asked question is what amount of water per day you should drink. This is a simple question, but the answer is not so simple. There are many studies on this subject and recommendations differ. The truth is that the amount depends on several factors. For example, how active you are, where you live and what your eating habits are. There is not one answer that is true for everyone. The more you know about the needs for fluid of your body, the better you can estimate how much water you should drink per day.
The benefits of water for your health.
Water is your body main chemical component. It’s about 60 percent of your body weight. Every system in your body depends on water.
Water:
- flushes out the toxins from your vital organs
- brings nutrients to your cells
- creates a moist environment in your ear, nose and mouth and other tissues
A lack of water in your body can lead to dehydration. This occurs when you do not have enough water in your body to carry out normal bodily functions.
Even mild dehydration can lead to the complete loss of your energy and make you feel exhausted. Your responsiveness has deteriorated and you can not concentrate and your body goes into complete stress.
Symptoms that may indicate that you are dehydrated starting to get:
- dry mouth
- hunger
- headache
- yellow, smelling urine
- fatigue
- loss of concentration
- muscle cramps
- increased heart rate
- feelings of anxiety or depression
If you experience these symptoms, first try drinking a full glass of water, often you will see that you’ll feel much better within fifteen minutes.
If this happens frequently, make it a habit to to drink enough water throughout the day.
It can also help with weight loss. Drink two glasses of water before your meal, and you will eat less.
So how much water should I drink?
Every day you lose water through breathing, perspiration, urine and feces. To have your body functioning normally, you need to replenish the water again by drinking enough water and other fluids and eat foods that contain water.
So how much moisture is an average, healthy adult person to drink in our climate? The average that emerges from various studies is 3 liters for men and 2.5 liters for women.
What is true of the advice to drink eight glasses of water a day?
Everyone has heard the advice, “Drink eight 8 glasses of water a day.” That’s about 1.9 liters, which does not differ much from the general recommendations. Although the “8 glass” rule is not supported by hard evidence, it remains popular because it’s easy to remember after you have heard it so often. Keep to this rule and count all the other liquid you drink and eat each day for your daily total.
Do take your lifestyle into account.
In these situations it is advisable to drink more water:
- if you exercise intensely
- when you have a physical job where you sweat more than average
- if you weigh more than average
- if it is a hot, summer day
- when doing an intensive detox treatment
- when you are sick
You get the idea. To make it more complicated, there is a formula to calculate the amount of water depending on your body weight. I made this a little easier by simply saying, you’re a woman, divide your body weight by 25 and you have the number of liters of water you should drink. When you are a man, add 10 percent.
So, if you weigh 70 kilos, drink 70/25 = 2.8 liters and for a man 2.8 + 10% = 3.1 liters. If any of the situations mentioned in the list above apply, then add another 10%
Overview Chart
Still complicated? I made a list for you with an overview of the different weights:
Canva Charts Demo by Rishma Zandberg
How do I make it a habit to drink enough water?
It will take you some time to form a new habit your own. I have some practical tips to help you. From my own experience I can tell you that it takes about a month, but after that it’s just one of your daily routines. Remember that brushing teeth was also not a habit, but not a day goes by that I do not brush my teeth and I do not even think about.
Start your mornings with two glasses of water before doing anything else.
OK, you wake up, get up and go to the toilet, brush your teeth, take a shower, and so on. But once you get dressed and come into the kitchen to really start the day, teach yourself to first drink two glasses of water, possibly together with vitamins and supplements that you’re taking.
Set out the amount of water for that day.
If you have a water pitcher, fill it with the amount of water you need to drink that day. So you can see how much you have drunk already and how much you still have to drink.
If you do not work at home, use a sealable bottle. I’m not a fan of plastic bottles, so I use glass water jugs and a stainless steel thermos for when I’m away from home.
Set an alarm on your phone.
If you think you might forget to drink, put an alarm on your phone with a reminder that it is time to drink your water. I also have been using an app for a while to help me remind myself, the advantage is that the app also registers how much and how often you drink. The app gives an alarm and you confirm that you drank your glass of water, only then the alarm goes off. The disadvantage is that the app can not really “see” you drink water, so you can still fool yourself …..
Use a personal water bottle.
I bought a large glass water bottle which holds almost a liter of water. That bottle is always prominently on my desk, in my view. Almost every time I look up from my keyboard for a moment to collect my thoughts or if I have to wait because my computer is busy, I’ll take one or two sips of water. Before you know it, the bottle is empty and that gives me another opportunity to take a break and walk to the kitchen to fill my bottle.
In a future blog post I will do a test a variety of water bottles.
Keep a diary
I recently started using a bullet journal to organize my day (and my life). If you’re not familiar with the phenomenon bullet journal, check out the video at the bottom of this blog post, definitely worth a look. But that is not the reason for this blog post. What I’ve done is a page in my journal bullet made every day of the month entitled “Do I drink enough water?”.
Every day when I empty my bottle empty at the end of the day, I put a tick in the box for the day. You can even make a promise to yourself to reward yourself when you have held a full month. And not immediately think “if I hold out for a month, I buy a new car.” Give yourself a reward that is appropriate to the task, promise yourself a new water bottle for example, or a treatment with a manicure or pedicure if that’s your thing.
Flavoured water.
As you can see in the picture, my water is not pure water. It is flavoured water. The water in the picture is mixed with chamomile tea to give it flavour. You can also add a few drops of stevia in your water. Another idea is to add lemon or lime juice. That way you kill two birds with one stone. Not only are you drinking enough water, if you add the right ingredients to your water can help you detoxify and lose weight. In one of my next blog posts I will give you some recipes that can help you detoxify and lose weight. In it I will explain what ingredients to use and what they are most suitable for, so sign up for the newsletter to not miss the blog post.
Tap water.
Can I just use water from the tap for drinking? In principle, the drinking water in the west is relatively safe to drink, but it still contains additives you might not want in your body. You can choose to boil tap water before you drink it. You can also use a water filter, more about that in my next blog post.
If you want to read more about our drinking water, I refer you to the Wikipedia page about drinkingwater.
Bonus
As a bonus, the promised video explaining how to use the Bullet Journal.
