ELIMINATING EXCUSES | fitness

This week I will share some tips to help you make healthy food and beverage choices.

So you just finished a nutritious and delicious meal and you are thirsty. What are you going to do? A: Reach for a beer. B: Reach for a diet soda. C: Reach for a glass of refreshing water. D: Go to Starbucks. I hope you choose C. Even though water does not contain vitamins or minerals and it does not have any caloric value from carbs, protein or fat, water is an integral part of nutrition. It is the key enabler of many bodily processes like protein synthesis, energy metabolism and many other critical chemical reactions. Water is essential to human life.

Therefore, staying hydrated is critical. I recommend that you consume at least 8 - 10 eight ounce glasses/day. If you are very active or working out, you’ll want more since sweating is one of the key avenues for water loss. One way to determine if you are drinking enough water is to look at the color of your urine. If you are properly hydryated, you will have clear urine as long as you are not on any supplements or medication (they have been known to change the color of urine). Don’t wait until you are thirsty to drink water and don’t stop drinking it because you feel that you have quenched your thirst. Research has shown that if you rely on thirst to determine when to drink water, you’ll put back only about 50 - 75% of the fluid you have lost; and thus you would start the next day already in a state of dehydration.

Now you have some key facts on water. DO SOMETHIN’!

***information source: ACE Personal Trainer Manual 3rd edition, edited by Cedric X. Bryant, Ph. D and Daniel J. Green

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