Day 9: If You Are Already Thirsty, You’re Too Late

So a couple of days ago I was experiencing cotton ball and peanut butter mouth from being so badly dehydrated. How do I know that I am dehydrated? Easy, I have ALL the classic tell tale signs. The first being thirst. If you already feel thirsty, it’s too late, you are already dehydrated. The name of the game is prevention, drinking enough water BEFORE thirst sets in. This is why I set myself up with a schedule for drinking water, so I would REMEMBER to drink my quota…which I AM doing by the way! Three litres per day scheduled around meal times makes it very easy. YAY!

For those of you interested in knowing if you are dehydrated too, here are a few more tell tale signs:

1.       Dark or cloudy urine

2.       Dry mouth and/or thick tongue

3.       Dry and/or shriveled skin

4.       Fatigue and/or unexplained tiredness

5.       Chills

6.       Head rushes

7.       Muscle cramps

8.       Confusion

9.       Headaches that feel like a hangover

10.   Irritability and/or negative moods

The list is actually more extensive than this and varies depending on the level of dehydration you are experiencing, but I think you get the point. To remedy the situation it would appear that the most obvious and logical solution would be to JUST DRINK MORE WATER. Right?

Wrong.

You would think so, but that’s not entirely true. There’s actually more to it than that. When you become dehydrated you’re not only losing water you are also losing electrolytes – which you absolutely NEED for the chemical reactions to happen within your cells. The specific electrolytes needed for rehydration are sodium and potassium salts. Without the combination of water and these salts, it can lead to water intoxication and even death. Yes, I said death. You can ACTUALLY die from drinking too much water, and it’s because of the imbalance. Balance is the key, so replace your electrolytes. How? Well, here’s what I do. I take a little bit of sea salt after I drink some of my water. It’s so simple.

Salt you say? Isn’t that bad for you? Yes, if you are consuming the regular white over-processed and refined table salt kind. What you want is to get the natural or unrefined sea salts that still have the trace minerals in them. You can find them at any health conscious store. Remember, when choosing the right sea salt, stick to the pink and gray salts, like the Himalayan sea salts or the two I use pictured below:

Since starting my rehydration process (and it’s only been a few days now), I’ve already noticed some subtle differences. It amazes me just how much changing ONE thing can affect many things, and I look forward to the snowball health-effect and knocking more of the classic symptoms off my list. Cheers to that! *clink clink*

Stay tuned tomorrow for my next challenge, which will also be the funniest (and probably grossest) of them all I’m sure. Ciao for now!