We’ve all heard for most of our lives we need to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. We know that our body is primarily made up of water and we need it to stay alive. Yada, yada, yada… but what we don’t realize really how important this whole drinking water thing is.
Water is essentially 70% of your body – including your brain. So when you get dehydrated (which most of us are a majority of the time) our brains aren’t working properly, and a whole lot of other things aren’t either. Water helps transport nutrients around our body, regulates our body temperature, prevents cancer, helps with kidney function, gives our muscles fuel, digest food – and the list goes on and on. . and it’s not just stuff on the inside that you can’t see that’s affected. Making sure you drink enough water can help you concentrate and stay alert, help clear up your skin, prevent headaches and joint pain, and of course help you lose weight.
So that’s the jist of it all – but let me go into a little more detail about how water really works for you.
Kidney Kick-Start. So we all know the kidneys are the body’s filtration system. But it takes a good amount of water to make it work right. Think of it like the oil for your cars engine. If it gets low, the engine doesn’t work very well does it? And it can cause some major issues; it’s the same with your kidneys. If your kidneys can’t do their job and filter the blood properly then you are going to have some problems – from kidney stones to other nasty diseases.
Water and the Brain. Being deprived of water can cause some serious issues – short term memory damage, memory impairment, and problems with your visual motor skills. You know how on occasion you get ‘brain fog”? Most likely from dehydration.
Good-Bye Joint Pain. Drinking the proper amount of water is crucial to your joints! They need cushioning! It’s the WD-40 for your squeaky joints! The synovial fluid which lubricates the cartilage that protects your joints – they need water!! Your body will be happy and in return so will you!
Drop the Pounds. No matter what type of diet – or healthy living – plan you follow, they all involve drinking water; and lots of it. Drinking water on an empty stomach first thing in the morning can improve your metabolic rate by up to 24%! Talk about a kickstart! It also helps reduce cravings and makes you feel less hungry (a lot of time we misread our body , we think we are hungry when we are actually just thirsty..so drink up). Water also cleanses the intestines and makes it easier to absorb those nutrients, which is awesome when you are trying to lose weight.
Now I know a lot of people who have great intentions of drinking plenty of water on the regular; but it’s just not happening. They forget, get distracted, or just don’t feel like they can consume what they should. Now if you are trying to stack on track try these few steps:
*Drink half your body weight in ounces of water (if you weight 160 lbs, drink 80 oz each day)
*Carry a reusable bottle of water with you EVERYWHERE you go – to remind you to keep drinking
*Check your color – when you are drinking enough water your urine should be a light color
Now if you are like me and drink nearly 100 oz of water each day – there is no way you are buying that many cases of water each week! Between what I drink, and my kids drink I would have nothing in my cart but cases of water..and my food budget blown to boot! So instead of individual bottles of water, my family buys gallons of Glacier Water to quench our thirst (and save my budget!)
Glacier Water is great tasting water you can re-fill yourself. Each Glacier Water Refill Station is a mini bottled water plant! The water goes through a 5 step filtration process which produces some great tasting water – for a fraction of the price of bottled water!
We started out our Glacier Water journey with a water cooler. Now my fridge is always full and there isn’t room for gallons or bottles of water to fit! I don’t mind drinking room temp water on occasion -but nothing is like a nice cold drink of water when you are thirsty (not to mention it helps speed up your metabolism when it’s colder!) Not only is it nice and cold, but it’s way more convenient than a half a dozen empty water bottles laying around my house, and it helps save the environment. I cannot begin to tell you the amount of empty water bottles I found under my daughter’s bed (it’s shameful really) – so we decided to make a change.
The convenience of picking up a few of the 5-gallon bottles every month – not to mention the money savings makes a huge difference! Depending on how much bottled water you are used to buying you can save hundreds of dollars a year by switching to Glacier. (Find Glacier Water in your neighborhood here.)
Glacier Water and All in a Days Work are so convinced that a Glacier Water and a portable water bottle for you to carry around will convince you to stay on track – that we are doing a giveaway! Enter to win a 5-gallon Glacier Water Bottle along with a HydraTrack Bottle with Water Intake calculator! Just enter below – and keep drinking!
Tell us – do you drink enough water each day? How do you do it – and if not, what do you plan to do to stay on track?
