Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Posts Tagged ‘Water’

Don’t Get Dehydrated

Posted by terrepruitt on August 26, 2010

As you know from my first post on water, the body is made up of a huge percentage of water.  As you probably also know, sweating is a process that the body utilizes to cool off.  I must always be hot.  🙂  Here in the California Bay Area we had record temperatures.  San Jose reached 102 and San Francisco reached 94.  For me, when it is that hot, it is easy for me to drink water.  I drank a bottle of water right after teaching Nia class today.

It is much easier to become dehydrated in the heat because your body might be sweating more in order to stay cool. Also, because air conditioning takes the moisture out of the air, drinking water even if you are not in the heat is a good thing to do.  Often times when the temperatures get high outside the air conditioner goes on or stays on longer, which seems like it would dry the air out more.  So even in the air conditioned office or home or mall, drink the water.

I often been told that by the time you are thirsty you are already mildly dehydrated.  I like the idea of drinking water throughout the day, but it is really important on the hotter days.  There are different stages of dehydration so when you get thirsty drink don’t wait for until you are lightheaded, or get muscles cramps.

Of course there are other more serious reasons people become dehydrated.  There are also other treatments when the dehydration is severe.  I am just addressing the normal everyday don’t-let-yourself-get-dehydrated-in-the-excessive-heat kind of thing.  Funny because my last post regarding water was because it was nice and cool and sometimes a challenge to drink water.  In the heat please remember to hydrate!

Posted in Water | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Help With Drinking Water

Posted by terrepruitt on July 8, 2010

San Jose weather up until about June had been all over the place!  One day it would be cold, one day it would be windy, the next day it would be raining, then the next day there would be sun, then the next day it would cold, rainy, and windy.  Then—bam! HOT!  It was all over the place.  Honestly, I have a difficult time drinking water when the weather is cold.  When I am cold because the weather is cold drinking water makes me MORE cold.  So I had thought of coming up with things that help me when I have to work at getting “enough” water.

One thing I do is, I heat it up.  When the weather is chilly I just put it in the microwave for about 30 to 45 seconds.  I like it warmer than room temperature but not so hot that I feel as if I need to actually be drinking tea, coffee, or hot chocolate.

When the weather is warmer, but I am wanting something more than just plain water I put a cucumber in it.  I had seen this and wanted to try it, then a friend brought it over earlier this year and reminded me.  (Thanks, Friend!)  I am not a fan of lemons, but some people do that.  I like to put a few slices of cucumber in it.

Other things I do, I change what I am drinking the water from.  Sounds weird, I can imagine, but it works for me.  I pour it in a mug instead of drinking it out of my usual bottle.  Sometimes I drink out of different glass, just to have a different sensation.

I find that when the weather is hot I don’t even have to think, I just drink, but when the weather is cool or comfortable, I need a little more reminder.  I drink it when I am practicing a Nia routine or teaching a Nia class, but honestly, lately, just during the day I need to step up my water drinking, I have slacked off a bit and I am feeling it.

Do you drink water?  Do you add things to it?  Drink it plain?  Have a special glass you drink from?  Tell me, I love to hear different ideas.

Posted in Water | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments »

Food Diaries

Posted by terrepruitt on April 4, 2009

I believe one of the most useful tools in the quest for health and wellness is the food diary. There are many ways you can keep track of what you eat (and drink). Remember that unless it is water, it counts for something. Sometimes we are not very conscious of what we are eating. Especially if we are busy or it is a habit, for example you cut the crust off of the sandwich for the kids and automatically eat it. That counts. Bites of things count. If you don’t eat the whole dish of ice cream but you have a few bites that counts.

So, you need to decide what your goal is, then you can decide how you want to keep track. You can simply write down everything you eat or you can keep track of what you eat AND how much. You can include calories, you can include amount of fat, you can include amount of protein. Your goal will assist you in deciding how much information you want to keep track of.

Now-a-days there are hundreds of options to keep track of what you ingest. There are online food diaries, or digital diaries, if you have an iPhone there are numerous applications that can help you. Food Diaries (of food logs) run from really easy to difficult. It depends on what you want to keep track of. I used to use one that I really liked because it was simply. But they changed it and made it difficult, so I am not going to even bother mentioning it here. There are plenty of free ones out there so you don’t need to pay a sign-up fee or a monthly fee. Once you decide what you want to keep track of I am sure you can find one that will do exactly that. You might want to keep in mind a few things, even if you don’t want to keep track of a certain thing now you might want to in the future so it might be nice if the one you use can keep track of multiple things (vitamins, minerals, etc.). It is really important to use one that allows you to customize your food. I found that most of the ones I looked at have a ton of Fast Food already programmed in, but I don’t eat fast food, so I had to input most of my food, then once I did that I could just click on the custom entry whenever I ate it.

Try it. Even if at first you just write down what you eat. It is a GREAT tool. Try it and you will see.

Posted in Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Water

Posted by terrepruitt on March 24, 2009

I want to share with you my feelings on water. You have probably heard all the hype about water. Some say to drink eight eight ounces each a day. Some say that if you drink that much you are washing vital nutrients out of your systems. Some say that coffee, tea, soda, or etc. qualify as water. Some say the more vegetables you eat the less water you need to drink. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

There are facts that we can look at:

  • Our weight is made up of between roughly 67% and 70% water.
  • Blood is 92% water.
  • The brain is 75% water.
  • Muscles are 75% water.
  • Water is the primary mode of transportation for all nutrients in the body and is essential for proper circulation.
  • Water serves more roles than any other single nutrient in the body.
  • Water helps nearly every part of the human body function efficiently.

I could talk about facts all day, but what I want to get to is, like I said, my feelings. I feel that water is important. I feel that water makes me FEEL good. What I recommend in regards to drinking water is—-try it, experiment. If you drink water keep doing it. If you don’t normally drink water, try this:   Check yourself, for three or four days, pay attention to how you feel. Pay attention to the way your body functions. In other words check yourself both PHYSICALLY and MENTALLY. Then, drink water for three or four days and see how you feel. If you are like me you might feel a little grumpy at first, but only because you have to go to the bathroom a bit more than usually. But getting over that, see how you feel. I drink water because I feel better when I do. When I am grumpy for no reason, the first thing I think of is, “How much water have I had today?” I really believe it helps me both physically and mentally. So, maybe you don’t want to participate in the aforementioned experiment, but at least try a glass/bottle of water the next time you are grumpy. Maybe it can wash that grump right out of you!

Experiment with how much water is good for YOU. Honestly try to see if it makes you FEEL different. Our bodies need water to function so it makes sense that if we are drinking enough we will FEEL good. Only you can really know how much water is enough for you.

Thanks  for checking this out.  Until next time Lovelies. . . . . .

Posted in Water | Tagged: , | 3 Comments »