Water

When it is hot, we get dehydrated more easily.  We want to avoid that, because it feels bad.  Our bodies work better and we are nicer humans when we are hydrated.  (Insert quote from The Breakfast Club here, if you are old enough.)

A lot of us are not hydrated enough under normal circumstances.  A quick way to know if we are drinking enough is this:  bathroom trips should occur at least every hour.

 

There has been a bunch of debate and argument and blah blah blah about what liquids count for hydration.  The short version is:  all of them, but some are better for us than others.  Most of what we drink should be water.  It has no calories, comes clean out of the tap, and doesn’t require shopping.

 

I am not here to take away anyone’s morning coffee.  I would not survive.  And the truth is that it is probably not bad for us, as long as we aren’t drinking it by the gallon.

 

Those fancy sports drinks can come in handy when it is very hot or when we work out very hard.  They have electrolytes in them that replace stuff we sweat out.  We don’t need them unless we’re working out for two hours or more (think marathon, century ride, etc.) or unless it is so hot that we’re sweating faster than we can drink.  They won’t hurt us, so if they taste good and we don’t have to watch our calories, we can drink them in place of some of our water.  It gets expensive, though!

 

One liquid we need to be careful about:  alcohol.  Obviously, we don’t want to drink to excess for lots of reasons, but we especially want to be careful when it is hot because we get extra dehydrated from alcohol.  We need to drink more water when we drink.

 

Go play.  And take the water bottle.