Summer has officially set in, sending heat waves across the United States. The most important thing to remember in the summer months is to stay hydrated. However, staying hydrated isn’t always easy to remember. That’s why we’re here. We have the top tips on how to stay hydrated and take care of your body during the summer, making sure you never miss a beat.
Summer break is the best time to be out and about, taking in the sunshine and enjoying outdoor activities like gardening, walks, or late night baseball games. However, the summer heat has a tricky way of dehydrating you, even if you aren’t physically exerting yourself. Dehydration can sneak up on you, so make sure you know the signs of dehydration and how to stay hydrated.
Signs of Dehydration
According to the Mayo Clinic, dehydration occurs when someone loses more fluid than they’re taking in. When this happens, your body doesn’t have enough fluids and water to carry out the normal bodily functions. Not replacing and replenishing your body leads to dehydration. An early symptom that your body is dehydrated is increased thirst, so if your body is craving water, listen to it! Replenishing your fluids is vital, so pay attention to the small signs that you’re needing to hydrate. The other common signs of dehydration differ by age, but they are listed as the following:
Infants and Young Children:
- Crying without tears
- No wet diapers for three hours
- Dry mouth and tongue
- Sunken eyes and cheeks
- Sunken or soft spot on top of skull
- Irritability
Adults:
- Extreme thirst
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Confusion
- Infrequent urination
- Dark colored urine, similar in color to apple juice
Why You Should Stay Hydrated
Hydration is a daily habit that should be carefully considered. We’ve all heard the age old rule of drinking eight glasses with eight-ounces of water everyday. However, if you’re someone who stays fairly active or sweats frequently, you want to go ahead and start drinking more water.
When it’s hot outside, your body automatically begins pumping a higher level of blood to your system to make you sweat. Your body will naturally cool down as the sweat evaporates off the skin. But, if you’re struggling to cool down, your core temperature rises and your heart starts working harder. So, while your body is utilizing sweat to cool you down, it’s also releasing fluid from your body.
Knowing this, remember that you need to fuel your body with the daily average, then add additional water to substantiate the fluid loss due to sweating.
Tips on How to Stay Hydrated
There are different options that you can take to ensure that your body is staying hydrated, even in the sweltering heat.
Tip #1: Invest in a Reusable Water Bottle
Having a water bottle that you keep on you at all times is a great way to promote hydration. Pro tip: buy a large water bottle so you’re never left with an empty bottle. You’ll find that keeping a water bottle with you at all times is a great way to increase your water intake, as you’ll end up mindlessly drinking water while moving on with your day to day activities.
What’s even better on a reusable bottle is that you’re avoiding excess plastic use and you’re able to fill your bottle at home with filtered water. Having filtered water just tastes better, leading you to continue hydrating throughout the day. Here are our top choices for glass water bottles and filtered water bottles. As recommended, remember to drink at least eight, eight ounce glasses of water each day.
Tip #2: Eating Foods With a High Water Content
Staying hydrated goes beyond drinking water. Fruits and vegetables yield a high water content, helping you fuel your body with vegetables and adding to your daily water. Some top fruits and vegetables with a high water content include:
- Watermelon
- Peaches
- Cantaloupe
- Strawberries
- Grapefruit
- Tomatoes
- Lettuce
- Cucumber
- Celery
- Radish
- Pepper
- Spinach
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
For even more fun, add some of these fruits to your water, giving you fruit infused water that’s both delicious and beneficial for your body.
How to Stay Hydrated Tip #3: Keep Drinking Water When You Start to Feel Sick
Even if you’re beginning to feel under the weather, it’s still important to continue to push the water. Two big signs of dehydration include vomiting and diarrhea, both of which cause you to lose extra fluids. You do not need to chug water, but it’s important to take sips to keep adding fluids into your body.
Tip #4: Avoid Exercising and Overexertion Outside
When the temperatures are up, the chances of you sweating and releasing more fluids is up too. This is why you want to avoid overexerting yourself to the point of dehydration and exhaustion during summer. Take a break from the outdoors and cool down in air conditioning or a shady spot. There’s no shame in not going as intense during a summer workout, as losing the electrolytes will lead to a harder recovery, as well.
Make sure to drink plenty of water before you go out, while you’re exercising, and after you exercise for optimal results.
Tip #5: Find Alternative Hydration Drinks
There’s more than just plain water out there for you to use. There are options like hydration tablets with electrolytes or coconut water. With water being the base of hydration, there are alternatives that you can use to add some flavor into your water intake.
Hydration Tablets
The water hydration tablets, or electrolyte powders, are a great resource to fuel your body and bridge the gap between dehydration and lost nutrients. Some benefits to the powders include:
- A less sugary option that sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade
- Promoting a calm and focused mind by using proper electrolyte numbers
- Quicker recovery with dehydration
- Support a high amount of energy through nutrients that feed your brain
- Reduced recovery time
- Reduced aches and pains
With this option, you’re going to want to find brands with:
- Antioxidants
- Calcium
- Chloride
- Low calories
- Low to no sugar added
- Magnesium
- No artificial sweeteners
- Phosphate
- Potassium
- Sodium
Coconut Water
Coconut water has amazing benefits. It’s a great source of fiber, vitamin C, antioxidants, and other minerals. This is a naturally occurring juice found within the center of a young and green coconut. It has benefits towards preventing kidney stones as it prevents the crystallization of calcium, oxalate and other compounds that create kidney stones.
Why You Should Skip the Sports Drinks
These drinks are tasty, but they’re normally packed with over 20 grams of sugar, 80 calories in each bottle and food dyes. After an intense workout or a long hot day in the sun, your best source of hydration is water. Sports drinks are okay to consume occasionally, but for everyday hydration, stick to water. This is especially important after working out, as you’ve trained your body and burned calories, so you want to avoid adding them right back into your system.
Avoid Alcohol, Sugary Drinks and Caffeine
We know…where’s the fun in that? But, these liquids work against your body towards hydration. Coffee, sodas, alcohol, smoothies, and energy drinks have sugar and sodium. This essentially removes water from your tissues, leading you to dehydration without you even knowing! Instead, swap out the sugary drinks for fruit infused water.
Allow Yourself To Cool Down
Regulating your body temperature is a key necessity to proper hydration. If you know you’re going to be outside when it’s hot out, you’ll want to dress in loose, lightweight, and light colored clothing to reduce the risk of a heat stroke and keep your body cooler. Additionally, wearing a hat is a great way to add shade to your face. Make sure to take plenty of breaks indoors or in the shade and don’t be afraid to splash some cold water on your face. Being overheated is no joke, so take breaks and drink plenty of water.
Traveling? Don’t Forget To Plan For Water
Whether you’re bringing a reusable water bottle with you, buying a case of bottled water while you’re there, or just drinking water on the flight- make sure to do it! Drinking water on an airplane is a great option, as airplanes have low-humidity. This contributes to lower hydration levels upon landing. Don’t spend your vacation dehydrated, keep on top of it and enjoy your time off.
The Best Way to Hydrate? With Filtered Water.
At ONIT Home, we know that filtered water tastes better and is better for you. Skip the water fountains and fill your bottles before you even go out.
To find out how to have filtered water in your home, visit us online or give us a call today at 1-833-433-0331. We’ve been setting up families with whole home water filtration systems, leading to better tasting water and hydration.