Staying Sane: Drink your water!!

“Pure water is the world’s first and foremost medicine.” Slovakian proverb

source: http://www.Quotegarden.com

The human body has some basic needs. Sleep, food, air, water. I wrote about the Hierarchy of Needs and the implications to working mothers last year. Some are basic and some are complex. To be the best you can be to yourself and your family you need to take care of yourself. I decided to focus on one of these basic needs now since it was hot today. The need for water.

The body consists of 65% – 70% water to perform some pretty critical functions. Transporting nutrients and removing toxins to name the most obvious. The Importance of Water and Your Health does a great job of outlining the importance of water to your body, and the impact of dehydration (problems with short term memory, fatigue, others).

If you are anything like me, when you were pregnant or breastfeeding you were accutely aware of the need for water and diligent about getting enough to keep yourself and your baby healthy. But maybe since then you’re not as diligent? But we should be! Since all of you working mamas have busy schedules, and little ones to look after, you need to be on your best game. And you should teach the importance of water to your kids so that they stay hydrated (especially in the summer as they are busy running and exercising their bodies in the warmer weather).

Here’s a tool that I thought was reasonably simple to use to figure out what your body needs: Water Calculator

The best sign that you are not getting enough is the color of your urine. Clear/light yellow is perfect. Dark yellow is not so good. Once my kids started using the potty this is one of the things that we would talk about. If he/she was doing a good job drinking enough water. I fist-pump and high-five when their pee-pee comes out clear. If not, we go and get some water for them to drink. “Be good to your body”, “treat your body with respect”, “you only get one body, make sure you take care of it” are common phrases that I use with the kids.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer and keeping hydrated! Happy drinking all!

– Mama K