One of the basic principles of clean eating is to drink copious amounts of water to help flush your system of toxins and stay sufficiently hydrated. Take it from me, Wendy Battles, the Clean Eating Coach, I often struggle with drinking enough water.
It’s not that I don’t want to drink water. In fact, without fail, I always feel more alert and focused when I’m drinking lots of water everyday. And my skin looks so much better too!
What usually trips me up though, is days when I have a busy schedule of speaking and/or teaching. On those days, to prevent myself from lots of trips to the bathroom, I tend to drink less. I have one of those teensy weensy bladders and it feels like I constantly have to go. But it’s on just those days that I can easily get into a water deficit. And if I have a couple of those days in a row, I can easily find myself in a state of dehydration that affects how regular I am…or not.
I’ve blogged about water drinking many times before, sharing some of my tricks to keep hydrated. In Ayurveda, the traditional medicine of India, I’m a ‘vata’ constitution type which means I’m naturally dry by nature. Water drinking is one of my biggest, personal health missions to keep things operating at optimal levels.
With the holidays upon us and lots of gatherings to attend, I find that it’s even easier to be water deficient. Stop by a friend or family member’s home, and the first question may very well be, “what can I get you to drink?” When you look around and see lots of festive cocktails, it’s a natural inclination to go with the flow and have one yourself. So for me, it’s all about finding some balance with the water drinking at both parties and at home.
When I’m heading to a function, I like to begin with the end in mind and set my sights on drinking at least one eight ounce glass of water before having any alcohol. If I’m really on my game, I’ll up that to two. Then I feel so much better about having a glass of wine or cocktail. In a perfect world, I’d also have a glass of water in between every glass of alcohol I’d drink. The funny thing, though, is that I’m not much of a drinker anyway. One glass of something, and I’m usually good for the whole evening.
I came across a handy water drinking tool recently that’s been helping stay on my water drinking toes. My friend Tracie has a cool website called tinyrituals.com. She is all about the power of water drinking to feed your body and soul. I especially like her Time to Hydrate sticky pads, a simple way to keep track of your water drinking during the day. In fact, I thought it was such a handy tool that I’ve given each of my clients a Time to Hydrate pad as a holiday gift.
So far, I’m at about 26 ounces for the day and it’s just about noon. Not too bad, but I find that I often start the day strong with water and then fizzle out over time. This is a good reminder to keep on going.
What do you do to stay on track with water and make sure you get enough in? Water’s your secret to stay sufficiently hydrated during the cold winter months and the holiday season?
PS You can get a full list of simple and fabulous ideas to keep you feeling your best during the holidays with my audio recording, “Clean Eating During the Holidays: Outwit Holiday Overeating and Overindulgence.” You can check out all the details here: http://bit.ly/109omL
Filed under: Holidays, Hydration, Water | No Comments