IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 I've recently flogged my body into shape with healthy eating and more water. The biggest thing I noticed was how dehydrated I was. I had to force myself to drink water in the morning, and it made me feel a bit sick. After 3 days though I was so thirsty I could drink 5-8 pints a day no worries. If you're willing, try this little test on yourself just for fun, it only involves forcing down a few glasses of water over 3 days, so it's not gonna hurt... - Drink 3 full pints of water in the morning: 1 in the morning straight out of bed, one at 10:30am and one at 12pm After 3 days of force feeding myself water (I wasn't thirsty and hated it) - I was actually thirsty at 3pm and could easily drink 2-3 more pints that day. Before that I had to force them down. From then on and even now, I feel like glasses of water all the time. Give it a go and let me know how you go - I'd love to hear if it works for you. I think a lot of westerners are dehydrated and our thirst urge is not functioning properly - somehow our thirst urge has been switched over to make us feel hungry, when actually our bodies are thirsty... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitewind Posted June 21, 2012 Aha! I totally agree with this. It is very easy for us to get confused between thirst and hunger, and where I grew up in the UK the story was that the city recycled the drinking water about 8 times; it tasted foul, and I refused to drink it (no water filters in those days). When I moved to Sydney, I found the city water almost drinkable, with a filter it's really quite good, though not as fresh as mountain streams - I would like to use one of those de-ionisation devices that you can get for watering systems, works on plants a treat too, so they say. I always feel healthier when I drink heaps of water, though I do have a strong appetite too. Only problem is is I have a small bladder and need to pee often, which isn't good when you're working in the field. There is a theory that most complaints are caused by lack of water in the cells; a regular headache is surely a sign of dehydration, so is sore muscles, bad back, aching joints - the vast majority of these complaints go away very quickly once you rehydrate your body. The cells are all functioning at full power and can regenerate fast. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CβL Posted June 21, 2012 Be careful with this. Drinking too much water will just rinse yourself of electrolytes and you might as a result get an ion imbalance (e.g. too much sodium results in an inability to relax deeply, this could happen if you were already low on potassium and flushed the balance of it away). The body is uber efficient, and as long as you don't feel in pain because of your thirst, then that generally means you have enough fluid. Something related that I would argue is important is to be mindful and to dilute your stomach/blood when you drink caustic liquids, i.e. soda, alcohol, coffee, tea, (spicy food?). If you don't dilute these with enough water, then you're basically killing at least the first layer of tissue that these liquids come into contact with. Your kidneys just hate being drenched in overpowering, strong chemicals, and work less efficiently when so. However if you've just finished a salad with a few chunks of chicken or eaten an apple... then there's no real need to dilute that with water (as these are relatively benign and contain enough water anyway) Where I think the body really gets confused is ion imbalances. I bet that many people who are too high in sodium react to their bodies cravings to fix it by... eating more sodium-laden foods, as they don't recognize the minutiae of a magnesium deficiency and how to solve it (which is best solved through eating enough, green vegetables, and often, not megadose rock pills at the time of the apocalypse). 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
solomon Posted June 21, 2012 Can't help but drink lots of water. Nothing else makes me feel so refreshed and clear headed. Can't work without it, I would go so far as to say it's dangerous.. stuffs up my concentration etc Definitely agree with you about the head and bodyaches due to dehydration. Scary how quick some people are to pop a panadol when they have a headache or hangover instead of giving their bodies what they need. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 WhiteWind: I lived in the UK for a year and my favourite saying when asked for a glass of water was "Just a little slice thanks." Bluntmuffin: I think you're spot on there, I had a continual stomach/bowel cramp a while ago, turns out it was smooth wall muscle contractions from too much coffee (we'd recently got a coffee machine at work and I was having 3 coffees a day) - a little magnesium in my diet fixed it very quickly. As well as cutting back to my usual single cuppa. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitewind Posted June 21, 2012 Definitely agree with you about the head and bodyaches due to dehydration. Scary how quick some people are to pop a panadol when they have a headache or hangover instead of giving their bodies what they need. One of the reasons I don't trust modern medicine all that much is because my brother-in-law is a doctor of medicine, with dozens of letters after his name. He comes home from work almost daily with a headache (yes, he does work long shifts), goes to the medicine cabinet and pops a pill. I told him so many times a glass of water would probably do the trick, but he wouldn't listen, because hey I'm just a hippy plant loving wannabe herbalist and he's the big man. He absolutely refuses to look at any alternative medicine systems and treats them with utter contempt. He used to complain about the number of cigarettes I smoked yet would down 3 litres of coke every day and two bottles of gin at the weekend! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
niggles Posted June 21, 2012 Aha! I totally agree with this. It is very easy for us to get confused between thirst and hunger I used to know a guy who couldnt tell the difference between wanting a cigarette and needing to poop. So first he'd have to have a smoke to distinguish which urge he was feeling. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 ^^ - Thats so funny! I used to smoke on the loo - and you know what?! The 2 urges did get combined! Whenever I was at a mates place, we'd spark up and I'd need to go potty... It took a lot of reverse training to break that cycle. It doesn't take long to train yourself like this - combine a few habits for a coupla weeks and whallah, each one reinforces the others... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Auxin Posted June 22, 2012 Boy I'd stand back when he really REALLY needs a smoke! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
niggles Posted June 22, 2012 ^^ - Thats so funny! I used to smoke on the loo - and you know what?! The 2 urges did get combined! Whenever I was at a mates place, we'd spark up and I'd need to go potty... It took a lot of reverse training to break that cycle. It doesn't take long to train yourself like this - combine a few habits for a coupla weeks and whallah, each one reinforces the others... nicotine is meant to stimulate bowel movements, so its not that weird.. but it does sound funny. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
