Health and wellness tip of the day for my brides-to-be: did you know that water is the most common nutritional deficiency plaguing our society? Chances are you probably haven’t even thought that water (or, lack thereof) could be a nutritional deficiency!

I’m telling you - if there is one thing you can do, right now, to improve your health… it’s to get yourself hydrated. Water cushions our bones and joints, removes waste, flushes toxins, protects our tissues, transports nutrients, improves oxygen delivery to cells, regulates body temperature… it’s kind of a big deal.

We can survive weeks without food, but only days without water. Let that one sink in for a second!

I love teaching my clients about proper hydration because they start to feel so much better almost immediately. Dehydration masks itself as so many uncomfortable symptoms that we’ve written off as normal and ignore - when really, these symptoms are your body’s way of screaming out to you that something is out of balance.

Some of the symptoms of dehydration include:

Fatigue
Anxiety
Depression
Cravings
Headaches
Cramps
Heartburn
Joint Pain
Irritability

I’m going to wager a guess that you’ve felt some or ALL of these symptoms, maybe even daily, and have decided that feeling this way is just your normal. I’m here to tell you, it’s not normal, and it might just be that all you need to do is get hydrated!

So - how do you figure out how much water you actually need to drink? Is it the old advice we’ve all heard - 8 cups a day?

Not quite, but the formula is pretty simple: You should be drinking your body weight in pounds divided by two (so, if you weigh 140 pounds, that’s 70oz a day.) And if you’re drinking diuretics (think coffee, matcha, alcohol, etc… anything that dehydrates you): your body weight in pounds divided by two plus oz of diuretics x 1.5 (let’s say you drink a 16oz mug of coffee… that’s 70+16x1.5 = 94oz of water.)

Little (hugely important) tip for ya: add a pinch of sea salt and a squeeze of lemon to your water for some natural electrolytes so you can be sure that you’re absorbing the water and not just flushing your system!

Now that you know why it’s so important to get yourself hydrated… here are 3 easy tips to drink more water:

Invest in a reusable water bottle:
I’ve had a stainless steel klean kanteen for years and love it. I take it with me… everywhere. (I even bought a purse just large enough to hold it!) Figure out how many ounces of water you’re aiming to drink each day, then figure out how many times you’ll need to refill your water bottle to make that happen.
Set an hourly “water” reminder on your phone:
It’s kind of crazy how fast an hour can go when you’re busy… and before you know it, you’ve gone 3 hours without having a sip of water. Set a reminder every hour to get some water, and combine it with standing up / walking around for a minute or two. It’s a win win.
Pick something you do often and align it with taking a sip of water:
Check Instagram? Sip of water. Check your email? Sip of water. Slack someone a funny gif? Sip of water. You get the picture. It’s much more effective to drink water throughout the day than to chug it all at once, so this can be a great way to take smaller sips more often.

Let me know if you try any or all of these tips and how it goes for you!

Ready to become the glowing bride you DESERVE to be? Then I’m ready to guide you there. Take a look at the different ways we can work together here!

Curious to learn more & see if bridal nutrition is right for you? Schedule a FREE clarity call and let’s chat about it!