I Just Can't Get Enough! Water that is...

Do you drink a ton of water and yet still feel dehydrated?  Or like you're still thirsty even though you just downed a liter of water? I have been one of those people most of my adult life.  Its super frustrating to drink so much water, go to the bathroom a lot and yet still feel thirsty, ummm what is going on??? 

I'm sure there are many people that are similar to me, so I'd like to share what I have recently learned.    This will be beneficial to anyone that is very athletic, lives/travels in a hot climate, or my drinking buddies and wine lovers :)

I started doing hot yoga every day since October.  I absolutely LOVE it, but I was having a hard time drinking enough water, it just would not fit in my body.  Not to mention my previous condition of drinking tons of water to begin with, yet still feel thirsty.  I'm healthy, athletic, and eat vegan gluten free 95% of the time, and at least one meal a day is raw.   I expressed this frustration to some of my yoga teachers.  And she suggested adding something to my water, and drinking coconut water.  I already drank quite a bit of coconut water, I love it.  But I implemented what she said.  I began drinking a coconut water minimum once a day.  I love the zico bottles, so that is very easy for me to measure.  Then I would add something to my water, an orange, a lemon, some mint, a strawberry, blueberry, cucumber...

After a few days, (probably it only took a day, but when I noticed) I was feeling better, more energetic - a symptom of dehydration is just feeling very drained- and to my surprise I was craving less water.  Craving less water was a first for me!  Now I can just take a hot yoga class when ever I want, I don't need to plan and prepare, and make sure that I drink enough water by a certain time, like I was doing previously.

I remember reading an article somewhere, that said that as we get older our body naturally doesn't retain water as well as it used to, and so adding something like fruit to your water will help your body retain the water better so that you body is getting the hydration it needs.  At the time of reading that article I did it, but was not religious about it, and eventually forgot about it, until my yoga teaching suggested this.

Now very often, in addition to just adding lemon or cucumber to my water, I will toss a few strawberries, or whatever fruit I have in the freezer, and fill the rest of the blender with water, or coconut water :) and throw that into the mix of my drinks for the day.  Its easy, plus a great way to add a little more nutrients into you diet!  Today in preparing for yoga I added only a few cubes of frozen mango, filled the blender with coconut water, and some chia seeds after blending.  It was delicious, thirst quenching and satisfying!  And it also didn't fill me up, where as if I made a full on smoothie, I would have felt a little too full for class.

While you don't necessarily need to be a Yogi to try this out, this hydration technique will also be very beneficial to anyone that does any kind of high intensity training or workouts, like cross fit or athletes, if you live or are traveling in a hot location.  Heat sick is NO fun, simply add a lemon to your water bottle before you venture out, it will make your day so much better.  And of course if you are day drinking or wine tasting.  If you're at a bar then this will be super easy for you to do, so try it out, and see how much better you feel the next day.  You can simply ask your server for any garnish in your water, a lemon or lime will probably be the easiest, but if you are somewhere nice, why not request a strawberry, orange slice or a cucumber? 

Cheers!
​Jessica