When it comes to your nutrition, you’re probably focusing on your food, how much you’re eating, and the quality of your food sources, but what about what you’re drinking?
Hydration is an essential foundation to creating nutrition that allows our body to function optimally on so many levels. Without enough water intake, our mental cognition declines rapidly. A loss of just 1% of our body’s water content can reduce mental cognition, and a 2-3% decrease can result in aerobic decline.
So how much water do you need to be getting?
It varies for everybody. That being said, a good rule of thumb is to get half of your body weight in ounces, which means if I weigh 150 pounds, I need to be getting 75 ounces of water daily minimum. When doing strenuous exercise or if you are somebody who naturally sweats more, you might want to consider an addition 32 ounces of water on top of that.
In addition to water intake, you should consider electrolyte supplementation or focus on getting electrolytes through your food. Water intake is vital, but without electrolytes, we’re unable to properly utilize and hold onto water, resulting in the never-ending bathroom trips effect.
Electrolytes include sodium, potassium, calcium, chloride, phosphate adn magnesium. The easiest way to get electrolytes in our diet is through adding salt to our food, eating foods that naturally contain electrolytes like lemons, or even adding an electrolyte supplement to our routine post-workout to help replenish any lost electrolytes through sweat.
