KEY

6

Water Your Life

Your body is two-thirds water, just as the earth is two-thirds water and one-third dry land. You and I, and all living creatures, must precisely maintain the water content in our bodies. If it drops below normal, sickness results. Water is so fundamental to our existence that the Bible compares it to the Word of God. We water our bodies with natural water and our souls with the water of God’s Word. Ephesians 5:26-27 says, “So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things.”

Just as the water of God’s Word cleanses our souls from spiritual filth, so water surrounds and bathes every one of our cells in life-supporting fluid. Water is not only the fluid around our cells, it is also the fluid within our cells. The water passages of our body transport different nutrients and materials to our cells and remove waste from our cells. They help keep our bodies clean and nourished.

Without water, energy cannot get from our food to our muscles and our brains, waste cannot get cleansed, kidneys cannot function, and the immune system cannot circulate. We cannot cool ourselves either; those little water droplets that get pushed out through the skin as sweat are the body’s main system of dumping excess heat.

Everything we do or think depends on the functioning of our cells, and if we want our cells to function at their peak, then providing our bodies with enough water to do its job is essential.

What Happens Without Water?

If a body does not get the water it needs, problems arise. You can go on a hunger strike for a month and suffer no problems worse than a loose wardrobe, but go on a water strike for more than a day and the consequences are severe. Low-level dehydration includes symptoms such as dry, itchy eyes, dry skin that doesn’t “snap back” when pulled, constipation, and kidney stones. More serious dehydration begins with nausea, dizziness, and confusion and leads to muscle cramps, kidney failure, and eventually even death.

Even low-grade dehydration has important consequences. When the water level in your body drops, your blood begins to have trouble getting fuel and other nutrients to your cells, so your energy level drops. Your brain cannot run at full power either. You may not even consciously realize you are thirsty, but the evidence is there: fatigue, grumpiness, and poor concentration.

If this sounds like the way you feel every afternoon, then you may not be getting enough water. And if you try to fix your fatigue with coffee or cola, the situation gets worse instead of better: You burn your remaining energy much faster and the coffee leaves you more dehydrated than before because it is a diuretic. The caffeine in coffee and colas is like “low-grade stress in a cup,” and offers none of the health benefits of water. If you are prone to afternoon slumps, you would be surprised how quickly you can pull out of them with nothing more than a big glass of water.

Keeping enough water in your body is vital to your health. I encourage you to be proactive about this instead of depending on the feeling of thirst to tell you when you need more water. The sensation of thirst is not always reliable, especially in the elderly. People can get used to feeling all sorts of ways, some of them bad. We can get used to feeling a bit thirsty and dry, but we do not need to let that feeling become familiar and acceptable. I encourage you not to get so used to being thirsty that you do not notice your need for water. Keep your body hydrated all day, every day.

Water and Weight Loss

Believe it or not, drinking water helps tremendously with weight loss, and not being overweight is vital to good health. This is partly because of water’s ability to increase metabolism. Drink more water and you will burn a few more calories per hour, regardless of how much you exercise. Water also helps fill your stomach—temporarily. Even though the feeling of fullness will not last, it can make a difference because it slows down your eating and gives your body time to realize it’s full before you overeat.

I suspect the reason a lot of people feel the need to snack throughout the day is dehydration rather than low energy. Since mild dehydration registers as fatigue and poor concentration instead of thirst, many people mistake those feelings for hunger. They believe they have “low blood sugar” and need a snack. They end up snacking throughout the day or reaching for the coffeepot again and again, when all they really need is a tall glass of cold water to completely revive them.

But the biggest reason water is a weight loss godsend is that when you drink water, you are not drinking other beverages—sodas, shakes, sweetened iced tea or coffee, energy drinks, juices, and so on. Many of these products are full of sugar, and that certainly won’t help the numbers on the scale go down.

I once visited a relative I had not seen in months. She looked great, and I asked if she had lost weight. She had lost 25 pounds. “All I did was start drinking a lot of water,” she said. Right there is the simplest diet you will ever see. No changes in meals or exercise at all; simply switch from caloric drinks to water and watch the pounds melt away. If you tend to drink more than a couple of sodas or juices a day, they can easily add up to 20 or 30 pounds a year. You will never find an easier way to improve your health and your waistline than by cutting these unnecessary drinks out of your diet.

How much water do you need? A well-known formula is to take your weight, divide by two, and drink that many ounces of liquid a day. Eight ounces is one cup, so if you weigh 128 pounds, you should be getting eight cups of water a day. If you weigh 160 pounds, you should be getting 10 cups. Not all of this water has to come from actually drinking it. Other liquids count, including the water you get from fruits and vegetables. One of the best things you can do for your body is to make sure it gets the water it needs. I hope you will determine today to stay hydrated to help keep your body working well.

Five Ways to Stay Hydrated

1. Make It Taste Good
Tap water that does not taste good is a serious impediment to drinking eight or more cups of water a day. This task should not be torture for you; it should be pleasant and hassle-free. Do what you have to do to make your water intake something you look forward to; that’s the only way you know you will keep doing it. Some ideas:

Put a filter on your tap.

Buy bottled water.

Squeeze a wedge of lemon or lime into every glass.

Make iced or hot herbal tea.

There are also many flavored waters available that you can enjoy, but be careful not to get ones with sugar in them.

2. Carry Water Everywhere
You can remind yourself to drink more water, but if it is not handy, you are not likely to do it. Making sure water is always available will go a long way toward establishing the new habit of staying hydrated.

Keep bottles of water in your car, at home, and in your office so you do not even have to think before reaching for them. And when you go to a restaurant and the server pours your glass of water, drink it! Why order another beverage you don’t need? In addition, whenever you walk by a water fountain or cooler, take a drink.

3. Have Your Water Call You
If you find it hard to remind yourself to drink a glass of water every hour or two, let technology solve your problem: Set your cell phone to ring every hour as a water reminder! That’s one drastic solution to make sure your water is not “out of sight, out of mind.” Here are some more:

Fill a pitcher with ice water in the morning at home or work, wherever you will spend your day, and keep it in front of you as a reminder to drink.

Keep a water checklist each day. It’s easy to lose track!

Ritualize your water drinking. Tie it to specific times throughout the day as natural reminders. The easiest times are probably mealtimes, but many nutritionists advise against drinking much water during meals because it can dilute your stomach acid and prevent proper digestion of your food. First thing in the morning is a great time for a glass or two and will help get your metabolism started.

4. Eat Fruit Every Day
Fruit can be 80% water or more, so eating some fruit each day will provide you with the equivalent of an extra glass of water. Some vegetables are also high in water content. You certainly cannot expect to meet your entire fluid requirement through food, but it definitely counts toward that goal.

5. Install Water Coolers
Studies have shown that if people see water coolers, they are more likely to take a drink of water than if they have to get one from the tap. The water cooler functions as a subtle suggestion and people trust they will get good-tasting water from it. If your office does not have a water cooler, suggest installing one. You will help improve the health of the entire office. Coolers work surprisingly well at home too.

Act on It

Which of the five actions in this key will you take so you can stay hydrated and experience the health benefits of water in your life? Write them down, commit to them, and start today.