How do you know you might need more water? Here are 5 tell-tale signs:
1. Dryness: dry lips, skin, eyes, and hair
2. Inflammation: skin rashes and burns, clogged pores leading to acne, red eyes
3. Urine color: the moment you wake up your pee is dark yellow instead of light yellow (not clear)
4. Constipation: if you don’t have a bowel movement for 1 full day or longer
5. Sweat: little to no sweat
While increasing water intake does involve taking a few more trips to the bathroom (in a well-functioning body, people may pee every 3 hours), you should not be peeing out water immediately after drinking it.
Here are 6 steps to help your body absorb water effectively:
Step 1. Drink lukewarm or hot water instead of ice cold water.
Ice cold water freezes the enzymes and fluids in your gut so your body can’t properly digest food, which creates toxic buildup. In addition, the blood vessels constrict so the toxic buildup gets stuck inside you instead of draining through your lymph (cleansing) system.
Lukewarm or hot water gently encourages the natural flow of the lymph system and over time, you have less buildup. This rule is extremely important for women during menstruation or when wanting to conceive because ice cold water reduces the circulation and energy needed to prepare the reproductive organs.
Step 2. Add these 4 ingredients to water to increase absorption.
1. Add a teaspoon of unrefined mineral salt (not ordinary table salt but Celtic Sea Salt, Utah’s Redmond Real Salt or Pink Himalayan Salt) to every 32-ounce container of water.
2. Add a squeeze of lemon to your water.
3. Soak chia seeds for a few hours and add them to your water.
4. Add ginger slices to your water.
Step 3. Drink one tall glass (16oz) of warm water the moment you wake up.
To make sure the body is clean, flush your body with warm water immediately after waking up. Some of this morning water might not be absorbed, but the point of drinking so much water at once is to stimulate the proper bowel movement.
Step 4. Set a goal to drink half your body weight in ounces each day.
Heavyset people might have intercellular water retention due to years of improper diet. Talk to your doctor if you are retaining too much water.
Step 5. Find a water bottle or container and calculate how many servings you need a day to meet your goal from Step 4.
Step 6. During the day, sip water but don’t chug – especially with meals.
“Water before a meal is nectar. It replenishes fluids and encourages juicy digestive organs. Small sips during a meal is honey. It helps turn the food into a sauce. Water after a meal is poison because it dilutes stomach acids.” – Dr. Vasant Lad