Thirsty And Dehydrated But You’r Drinking 2 Litres A Day?

This is such a common scenario and I find I run into people more and more these days who are super dehydrated yet they are carrying around their water bottle with them everywhere and drinking the suggested 2 litres or more a day. In fact, this was me 5-6 years ago, when I knew no better.

You see, we understand that we need to be drinking water and that hydration is the key to glowing skin and shining bright eyes, but if that water is running straight through you and you’re on the toilet every 1/2 hour, this is telling you that your water isn’t being absorbed. Another tell tale sign is that despite all your efforts and the amount of water you are consuming, you are still dying of thirst.

In order for your body to absorb and assimilate water it needs to contain minerals, this is what helps the liquid penetrate into your cells and replenish them. Without those minerals, it is as if the water is heading through a fast running pipe.

It’s important to understand that each and every day you need to address your bodies hydration levels. On average a female needs to consume around 2 litres and a male 3 litres of water that contains minerals. Or to be more precise, 0.033 x your body weight. Water is crucial for proper hydration of your joints, ligaments, muscles and other tissues as well as the key to the proper thermoregulation of your body. The average person loses nearly 3 litres of water via breath, sweat and urine. When you then add in a workout, excessive heat and other factors you will require extra hydration.

Knowing now the importance of hydration, here is the crucial factor to take home with you. It doesn’t matter how much water you are drinking because if your body can’t absorb it, you will remain dehydrated.  The other thing to understand is that clear coloured pee is not a sign that you are healthy. In fact, if your pee is clear you could still be dehydrated. Your pee is supposed to be yellow, this means your body is cleansing and detoxifying your system properly and drawing out what it is designed to. Clear colour pee or aiming to have clear coloured pee is not a good idea. We want our body to be functioning optimally and flooding your system with liquid it can’t absorb is going to lead you into a frustrated path and more likely than not in some awkward situation where you are trapped somewhere and needing to go to the toilet disparately.

So how do you become more hydrated and get the benefits from your water?

Natural spring water that is pumped from the earth is called artesian water. It contains all the amazing nutrients and minerals from the earth to help hydrate the body. The problem is today we are either drinking tap water that is heavily chlorinated or naked filtered water stripped of everything……or worse still water bought in plastic bottles that have been sitting in the heat of our cars leaching hormone disruptors into it.

The key is you want to try and replicate this natural artesian water as much as possible and provide your body with mineral-rich water that it can absorb. Now, unfortunately, we can’t all have a fresh water spring out the back of our house so here is the way I tackle this.

First, you need to make sure you are drinking filtered water.  Water that has been stripped of any chemicals that might be in your town supply. Then you simply add a pinch (1/8 teaspoon per litre) of Himalayan rock salt to your water. This then adds the minerals back into the water and allows your body to be able to absorb it again. You may notice how when you do this you end up having less trips to the toilet and you aren’t so thirsty.

When you are eating a clean nutrient dense diet without all the added preservatives and additives, we need to remember to add back in good quality salt. This is one of your best mineral supplements you can have. It’s loaded with them. So when you are drinking water without food, add a pinch of salt (minerals) to it and when you are consuming food add a pinch of salt to your food. To ensure your water stays in top form, use glass bottles to carry it around versus plastic which leaches hormone disrupters into your water.