Old miner’s mule song
Water me down in the mornin’,
Slosh my buckets middle of the day,
Wet my thirsting body toward evenin’
Lest my bones go dry and I blow away.
We are roughly two-thirds water, depending on muscle mass, gender and age. And, no, we don’t drink enough to satisfy our needs. We lose water all day through the skin, breath and elimination of waste. Half of us are mildly hypo-hydrated and, therefore, we compromise the body’s functions—and our performance. We push the body like thoughtless masters, yet we survive because the body is incredible.
Water provides vital service to every cell, moving food from the first bite, through the digestive process, into the blood and into the cells as nutrients, and, finally, out as waste.
Water is crucial to maintaining body temperature, lubricating joints and giving fullness and shape to cells. Deny the system adequate water and we exhibit symptoms of dehydration, including fatigue, headache, dry throat and stiffness. There’s hopeful research that says water by the quarts might dilute the risks of certain cancers, including breast, colon and bladder cancers. I’m reminded as I write to grab my handy water bottle and take a long sweet drink. Join me?
We lose at least two quarts of water a day, much more if it’s very hot or we are very active.
Replenishment comes via the watery foods we eat and the liquids we drink. Larger people obviously need more water proportionately to accommodate the larger metabolic loads.
While few people ingest enough of the clear liquid, most folks insist on mixing it with sugar, flavorings, chemicals and caffeine. The chemicals we surely don’t need and which may be toxic, the sugar spikes our insulin and is a generous source of unwanted calories, and the caffeine has diuretic properties that negate the drink’s hydrating effects.
Eliminating soft drinks and their counter-point companion, salty chips, from the diet is a giant step toward good health and fat reduction. Sugar spikes insulin and disturbs a string of hormonal responses that support fat storage. Salt promotes unnatural, extra-cellular water retention—bloat.
Here’s your chance to make a small, yet significant commitment and take a giant step toward your goals—health, fat loss and discipline: Drink more water.
Avoid calorie-dense juices as thirst quenchers and hydrators. Though they contain some nutrients, the sugar content might be too high a price to pay. Often, commercially processed juices are profanely altered and the goodness has been replaced by something weird.
Often we think we’re hungry, but we’re actually thirsty. If you drink only when you’re thirsty, you’re late; thirst comes upon us when we’re already half a quart low on fluids.
Drink regularly throughout the day and consume two quarts of the miracle agent to be safe. You’ll get a Gold Star for trying.
Pretend some kind and wealthy admirer is depositing $10 into your life savings for every quart you drink, redeemable only in old age. The returns will be plentiful; you’ll be rich beyond your imagination.
You’ll want to know that a plentiful water supply:
• blunts the appetite
• facilitates fat burning
• promotes muscle building
• fights muscle loss
• readily encourages shift of energy source from glycogen to fat
• cleanses the cellular system of toxins and waste
• prevents water retention
A sufficient water presence in the system promotes the fat-burning process by flushing out the natural fat-burning byproducts via the kidneys.
Further, the kidneys cannot function efficiently without enough water and thus transfer certain aspects of the workload to the liver. The liver’s primary job, metabolizing stored fat into usable energy, is hampered and fat storage increases, fat use for energy decreases and glycogen for energy increases (interfering with our low-carbohydrate scheme to fuel the body).
The high-protein diet that is emphasized in these pages is dependent upon water for its cleansing of urea, a waste product of protein metabolism. The greater the ingestion of protein, the more urea leaving the body as urine.
Research shows that as cells increase in volume in response to adequate hydration, an anabolic (muscle building) environment is created. Conversely, as cells shrink due to decreased hydration, a catabolic (muscle breakdown) response is stimulated. Cortisol levels increase with dehydration, a cell-damaging condition.
Water retention is often the symptom of a struggling system. One’s first guess would be there is too much fluid entering the body. Logical, but wrong. The more water you drink, the less you retain. In contrast, the less you drink, the more you retain. The vessel in which you dwell insists on surviving and recognizes low levels of water intake as a threat to its life. Any precious incoming water is held selfishly in supply outside the cell walls for its future subsistence and appears as swollen tissue due to the water retention.
Drinking more water is the solution to the hoarding.
Confused? Drink at least two quarts of delicious, water a day and turn up the music. Carry it wherever you go. Makes a good habit and serves as a physical reminder of who you are and of your mission. Cheers!
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