But ultimately, the main reasons people tell me they don’t drink water is that they don’t have TIME TO DRINK WATER.  And that has been me before, I will be sitting at my desk and my water is right next to me and I forget to reach over and grab my water.  And IT IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!  We need that water people, and your body will tell you when you need more of it!

How Do You Know You Are NOT Doing Okay With Your Water”

• Constipation is a HUGE indicator of not getting enough water.
  • If you aren’t pooping, you are dehydrated! Water is what keeps everything else going in your body.
  • You also could be pooping but it is not a full…. Poop… (Check out the Bristol Stool Chart to see what your poop is supposed to look like, and it goes full into detail about your poop!)
• Heartburn is another indicator. When your digestive juices in your stomach are flaring up, they come right up your esophagus. And when this happens, it comes into your throat because it doesn’t have enough water in there to dilute the hydrochloric acids that are in your stomach. If you wake up in the morning with heartburn, this is also a sign of dehydration.
• Got salt cravings!’ Salt is what our body uses to help absorb hydration. When you don’t have enough water, your body starts to crave the salt!
• Dry Itchy Skin (and not just because you wash your hands too much😉..) on all parts of your body.  Tell sign that you are not getting enough water. Take a look at your skin and girl, use lotion, they are your friends!  Water helps our skin not only stay hydrated, but also helps with ageing!! Your SKIN is the first thing to show your age!! So, if you don’t want to look your age, drink your water!!!
• When you first wake up in the morning, I want you to look at your pee and see what color it is. Is it dark yellow’ All pee should look like lemonade. If it is dark yellow, chances are you did not drink enough water the day before!
• If you wake up with a headache, sometimes means you didn’t drink enough water the day before as well.

And trust me guys, this happens to me too!! I am never going to be that fitness person that stands on a pillar with a cape and tells you to listen to everything I say.  I got my stuff too! WE all have our stuff! I am not picture perfect!! I share with you my worst because I want you to break free of this fantasy that you are going to climb this hydration mountain and all things are going to be cured!  That just ain’t gonna happen, girl!

Drinking enough water throughout your day comes from habit.  It comes from cues and triggers throughout the day that reminds you to drink.   Are you going about your day doing certain things that you can also drink water while you are doing’  Can you carry a water bottle around with you’  See how you can fit getting extra water in throughout your day so that you can ensure you are drinking enough.

How much do you have to drink each day’

The old adage was 8 glasses of 8 ounces of water a day.  But a good benchmark is to take your weight, half it, and then drink that much water in ounces. So if your weight is 100 pounds, you need 50 ounces of water a day, which is a little over 6 glasses of water daily.  To make it easy, grab a 24 or 32 ounce water jug and measure your ounces that way.  You can also download an app on your phone to track your water.  MyFitnessPal tracks water, and so does Water Log.  And set a reminder reminding you to drink X amount of ounces by certain times in the day.

Now some of us live in really hot places, especially in the summer, and working out in these hotter conditions does happen and you can get dehydrated easier.  When you hit those dehydration levels, I want you to think about a drought. Places where the earth is soooo dry that there are cracks running through it! That is dehydration! The same thing can happen to you! When that does, I want you to focus in on getting your body electrolytes.

Electrolytes are minerals in your body that have an electric charge. They are in your blood, urine, tissues, and other body fluids. Electrolytes are important because they help to balance the amount of water in your body, balance your body’s acid/base (pH) level, move nutrients into your cells, move wastes out of your cells and they Make sure that your nerves, muscles, the heart, and the brain work the way they should.  Getting electrolytes are another way to really take all the moisture and bring it into your body in a quick way.  (think Gatorade.  It is a way to keep you going without maxing out)   They help your body to take in more water, so when you exercise and work out in humidity or really hot heat, or just doing a long workout, electrolytes will help to keep you hydrated and going.

Getting extra electrolytes into your body is really easy and super important.  Here are some tips and tricks to help get electrolytes: (without drinking products that contain artificial ingredients and colors.)

• Kick-off your day by adding a little Himalayan sea salt into your water. (Himalayan sea salt has shown to have the same natural electrolyte properties.)  But don’t put in so much you are drinking saltwater, it is really just a sprinkle of it.
• Put lemons in your water and put it in a big jug in the fridge so that you can drink that water all day. Lemon is a great way to help get natural electrolytes into your body.
• Chia seeds are also great as well. You don’t have to drink the chia seeds because they get weird and chewy but put them into a small satchel that you would use for homemade tea to add into your water jug for the day.

SOOO many people say, “I just don’t have any time in my day to drink water…”  And one of the best ways to start is by making a habit of it.  Like I said above, start adding water to things you do throughout your day.   For me, I have to have a glass of water in the morning before I even allow myself to have my coffee.  Then I have to drink another glass of water before my 2nd cup of coffee.  Then I drink in the morning while I work out, so by the end of the morning, I am already down 32 ounces.  You can make the time to do it!

But if you are one of those people that just do not like the taste of water, or it doesn’t taste like anything so you hate to drink it, then here are some things to help get you hydrated throughout the day while getting your water in!:

• Coconut water
  • There is chloric in it which is my big challenge. You can sprinkle it in with regular water to give it some taste too!
• Hint Water
  • This is just a fruit and vegetable infused water. If you don’t want to do it yourself, you can buy it already done. Otherwise, throw some fruits and vegetables and herbs in your water jug for the day!
• Green tea
  • Take some green tea, brew it and drink it all day long!
  • I am tea junkie! I love iced tea, so this is one that I really love.
• Essential oils are also good in the water.
  • There are a number of different blends that you can put into it. Citrus and basil, lemon and basil, grapefruit and rosemary.
  • But before you do this, make sure you’re buying quality essential oils before you are ingesting them. I did a show a few weeks ago so take a listen if you’re curious’
• Fruits and Vegetables are good ways to get extra hydration!
  • Water-based fruits and vegetables are amazing!
  • Watermelon, zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes, celery, melons, blueberries, grapefruit.
  • Great for getting in that quality water for you and your getting in important vitamins and minerals and nutrients into your body at the same time.
• Oranges and cinnamon sticks in your water!!
• DIY Electrolyte drink
  • Water
  • Lemon
  • Sea Salt
  • Honey
  • Simple drink especially if in a high humidity, high heat environment
• Amped Hydrate is great too. This is one of the products I use for my electrolytes.
  • It is all-natural
  • No high fructose corn syrup at all.
  • And comes in flavors like coconut, lemon-lime, orange and blue raspberry.

Try out some of these things and see if it helps to get more water into your day!  And go and grab a big 32 ounce or more water bottle, make it pretty with stickers or get some graphics printed on it and carry it around all day long with you!  Make drinking water exciting!!

I hope some of this information was helpful for you guys!  Let me know what you think and what are some of your tips and tricks for getting enough water into your day! I want to know your thoughts on Hydration magic makers, so leave a comment below or find me over on social and let me know!

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/FabFitSquad

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Website: https://kimbarnesjefferson.com/

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661

The post Apply These Techniques To Increase Your Hydration appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

I’d like to share with you some sublte differences between the feelings of thirst and hunger
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. Learn these and you won’t confuse the two ever again.

Listening to Your Hypothalamus

The hypothalamus is the part of your brain that monitors and controls hunger and thirst. The next time you think you may be hungry, try drinking an 8 ounce glass of water. And then give your hypothalamus time (usually 15 minutes is plenty) to communicate to your body whether it is happy with your water treatment, or needs food.

After 15 minutes and  you still feel hungry, it is probably okay to go ahead and eat. Some of you may say what if my stomach starts to talk to me. A grumbling stomach could mean nothing at all, it could mean you are thirsty, or it might mean you are hungry. Learn to press the pause button before you put food in your mouth.

When Was The Last Time You Ate’

If it has been several hours, you may very well be hungry. That is where the “water test” mentioned above comes in handy. Believe it or not, we can go longer without food than water, so be sure to drink more often.

Another difference between thirst and hunger reveals itself if you continually eat and eat, but still feel like you have an empty stomach. Odds are, you need to get more liquids into your body.

If you believe that you may be hungry but you also have a headache and are feeling tired and fatigued, that is a physical sign that you are probably dehydrated.

Eating when you are thirsty, and drinking water when you are hungry, does not do your body much good
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. By using the above tips to differentiate between the physical signs of hunger and thirst, and you will treat your body properly every time.

The post The Physical Differences Between the Feelings of Hunger and Thirst appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

Easiest way to keep tasty infused water with you at all times! #musthave
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http://www.amazon.com/Infuser-Bottle-Flip-top-BPA-Free-Tritan/dp/B00NAL3BPW/

I know drinking water is tough. I recently started using this and it’s really made me help increase my water intake, plus make me feel like I’m at a fancy spa!  Sometimes you need a little flavor to motivate yourself. When I went looking for a new water bottle to help keep water at my side at all times I came across this cool bottle. It’s an “infuser water bottle.”

This bottle has two filters in it so you can add fruit, vegetables, or herbs in the cylinder or in the main bottle without ending up with seeds or pulp coming out when you sip. Even when you load it with fresh strawberries you won’t get a single seed!

Here are a few reasons this bottle is totally worth picking up if you enjoy flavored waters:

• You can customize your water’s flavors by using anything you want. You can do slices of lemon, fresh blackberries, cucumber slices, mint leaves… anything you could imagine to create your own unique flavored water. Best of all they’re natural and healthy ingredients that won’t add a ton of calories to your drink.
• You don’t need to change the fruit out for each bottle. Depending on what you use you can keep refilling the water with the same fruit for anywhere from 3-8 times! Just fill it up and let it sit for 5 minutes before drinking. You do need to make sure to change the fruit every 12 hours or so just so it’s still fresh.
• It’s cheaper than buying bottles of infused water at the store. You can get a cucumber or a piece of fruit and get water for the whole day with it!
• The bottle is BPA free so you know it’s safe to drink out of. These bottles have been tested by the FDA and approved to be safe.
• It’s leak-proof and has a clip to hang it on your bag or carry it in your purse without worrying.
• Need a carbonated drink but want to avoid the sugar in soda’ Use sparkling water instead for a natural fruit soda drink.

Either way you need to have a water bottle by your side, shouldn’t it be one that makes water easier to drink’ The best part is really all the different flavor combinations. Obviously there are the basic standby flavors like strawberries or cucumber with melon but you can also give some unique flavors a try. How about grapefruit and rosemary’ Or cucumber and jalapeno’

Let me know what your favorites’

The post Fun Way To Get Your Water In appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.