Water!

Water is an essential building block of our body - if we are dehydrated, we have a harder time moving through all of our day to day processes.  Improper hydration leaves us open to headaches, lower energy, foggy thinking, body pain, suboptimal functioning.

For most of us, we want to aim for 2 litres of water per day.

If we do a work out, we want to add at least an additional 500 ml to our daily water intake total.  

Most of us aren't natural water drinkers - we have to train our selves to drink water.  

The best way to get our selves to drink more water is to slowly increase our intake by 1 additional cup (250 ml) per day each week (i.e. - week 1 - 5 cups per day, week 2 - 6 cups per day and on).  This allows our body to adjust to the increased water intake and for it to slowly become a part of our regular routine.  

Setting out our goal amount of water (in a pitcher or reusable bottles) at the start of the day is helpful too.  This serves as a visual reminder of how much we have already drank and how much more we have to go.  

We want to slowly drink water throughout the day rather than gulping down large amounts at a time.  This allows for the best hydration of our system. 

Room temperature (or warmer) water is the easiest on our body - it is best to avoid ice cold water because it does place extra stress on our system.  

For most of us, after having drank 500 ml of water, we will have to go pee within 1 hour - this is helpful info to have when on a long road trip or during a concert!

The only thing that counts as water is water - unfortunately coffee, tea, juice, pop all don't count as water because the body will relate differently to each of these drinks and not receive the same amount of hydration as it does from water.  

We don't want to use thirst as a daily guide/signal for us to drink water.  Unless we have eaten a saltier than normal meal or it is very hot outside (or we have an underlying endocrine concern), we shouldn't really ever feel thirsty.  Drinking water regularly throughout the day and properly hydrating our system generally prevents thirst from occurring.