Water

It's HOT out there and we should all be topping up the sun screen, keeping covered and staying in the shade. We should also be drinking a lot of water. Now let's face it, tap water is not exactly tasty unless you've just come off your bike from a half hour ride. But we all know that we need water.

You lose about a litre and half in fluid just in pee alone. That's not including other losses, including transpiration  which is significantly higher in the heat. I think it's difficult to set a daily requirement for water, because it changes so much from day to day, considering body type, location, metabolism and size... but a good indication is certainly the colour of your pee, dark pee means your body is straining to concentrate your urine and keep the fluid circulating. This means, of course, that you're not getting enough fluid.

Let's get a little bit more specific about what kind of fluids. If you haven't noticed already, about a half hour to an hour after drinking coffee, tea or alcoholic beverages, it's as though they pass right through you. They do in fact, and they stimulate your body to get rid of more water (diuretic = diuresis = more urine production = less retained water in the body), so these are not very effective ways of upping your hydration count.

Recently, I was passed on a nice little summary of reasons you should not drink from bottled water from the foodie.fm blog, you can read it here. I think most of us have heard this story before, but I did like the link they made to the blog NancyCreative about making your own flavoured tap water. Here is a list of them:

Citrus Cucumber Water
Cucumber-Herbal Water
Cucumber Melon Water
Honeydew-Lime Water
Herb and Berry Flavoured Water
Lemon Lavender Water
Lemon Mint or Basil Water
Lemon, Lime and Orange Water
Frozen Fruit Water
Orange Mint Water
Watermelon Basil Water
Fruit Water

Mmmm! I bet you are thirsty now! Find them all here

Photo of flavoured water from NancyCreative blog