Drink more water. Every health professional out there from Dr. Oz to Saharan camels advocates this. In fact, it may be the one thing they all agree on. (Well that and spitting is fun.) Which is why when coming up with my three “healthy additions” this week, it was one of the first things I put on my list. About 70% of our body weight is water – unless you are P.M.S.ing and then, as every woman knows, it goes up to like 110% – so obviously water is great for us. Which is why you’d think it wouldn’t be hard to remember to drink the stuff.
Confession: I have always admired people with clear urine. (Don’t ask me how I know the color of their urine – people just tell me things! That, and a I pay attention to what’s circling the drain from the shower stall next to me at the gym.) Sadly, this is how it usually goes down for me:
[A toilet sits center stage under a lone spot light. A girl enters stage left and sits on it. After several minutes of giggling over the naughty unintentional pun in the daily crossword puzzle she arises and turns back to examine the contents of the bowl. (What? Like you don’t look!)]
Girl: [A scream echoes throughout the theater] What is THAT?! Am I DYING?? What do you even CALL that COLOR?
Man, offstage: Relax honey, we had beets for dinner. Remember?
Girl: That was two days ago! Besides, it isn’t magenta anymore so don’t worry, I no longer think I’m internally hemorrhaging. (True story.)
Man: What color is it now?
Girl: Um… puce?
Man: Ew! Drink more water!
[End Scene.]
Let’s just say that I had great pity for the lab techs that had to examine all my pee samples when I was pregnant. I am not good about remembering to drink water. You’d think my body would get thirsty and remind me but even in the midst of the sweatiest, longest workouts ever I rarely drink more than a few ounces. Part of it is not wanting to wet myself during air jacks but most of it is just plain forgetting. And this is not good. One’s pee should not be the consistency of Jell-O.
In an effort to remedy this medical mishap in the making, I have tried many things to remind me to drink up. I’ve bought supercute water bottles with fancy ice cores and attached carabiners so that I can hook them to my keys and tote them everywhere. An idea which sounded good in theory but in practice meant that I had to buy a bigger purse to accommodate my now ginormous keyring and I refuse to carry a purse that I can’t shove in my diaper bag. So that was the end of that. Next I tried a rubber band around my wrist as a visual cue. But that failed on account of how often I used said band as a hair tie. Finally I tried just leaving bottles of water in random places hoping they would catch my eye but thanks to my kids backwashing in all of them, it just made me afraid to drink anything I hadn’t personally poured myself in the last 5 minutes – restaurants included.
And then I came across Owater. They sent me a sample to try out after I blogged about fitness drinks. Normally I am verrrryyyy picky when it comes to beverages. First off, I don’t like to drink my calories. I’m also averse to artificial sweeteners. And colors. And flavors. So that pretty much rules out every drink on the market. What is calorie free, sweetener free and color free? Plain water, that’s what. So I was all set to hate their stuff. But then I tried this:
It’s flavored water! But with no artificial anythings! And no calories! And no cloying sweetness! Just water with a hint of fruit. I loved it. In fact, I had to start rationing my bottles so I would have something to look forward to the next day. Although I may have lost a few as I had to hide them because my kids loved them as much as I did and I was certainly not sharing these fancy waters with kids. They drink bath water and like it, is what I’m saying.
So the Owater was a tasty start but one cannot expect to dine on lobster every day so I still need to find other ways to drink more water. What do you do to remind yourself to drink water? How do you take your water – straight up tap or something fancier? And – just out of curiousity – what color is your pee? Anyone else ever eaten beets and then panicked the next time they went potty, thinking they were dying? Anyone??
PS> For those of you following along with January’s Great Fitness Experiment and didn’t make it into one of the 30 spots for personal coaching, Trainer Lindsey has come up with a great (free!) workout for everyone! Happy sweating!
I try to keep my pee clear, and whenever it gets yellow I know to go drink some water. When I get sick of drinking water, I mix in a Crystal Light or Propel packet. Whenever I get a hunger pang in between meals I drink a big bottle of the flavored water and it tides me over. Seriously, drinking a lot of water has a HUGE affect on my appetite. I eat way more when I don't drink enough.
Oh boy, water. We use to be best friends, but something happened and we don't talk as much as we used to 🙁
One thing that helps me is I drink a tall glass of cold water in the morning. Unless I am dying of thirst, it is one of the more unpleasant things I've had to do, but it helps a bit. I also always try to drink a glass with every meal. I was going to suggest carrying the bottle with you or putting them everywhere you go, but you said that doesn't work. Hmmm. You could always attach an IV haha.
Anyways, mine used to be clear back in the day, now it is a lighter yellow.
This may be too much information, but I had a friend who was a BIG exerciser, but he hated water and rarely drank anything else. He would have dark orange pee. I tried to convince him to health up, but it never worked out. We've also lost communication, so I have no idea where he stands now
I am on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to water consumption – I drink TOO MUCH….I am peeing all the time so I know exactly what colour my pee is – clear wiht just a hint of colour…well, except for that time when I took a multi vitamin as well as some hi-potency B's and ended up peeing the equivalent to a hilighter. Yeah, that will get noticed real quick…especially circling the drain in the shower 🙂
I think I MAY sometimes drink too much sometimes because my pee is usually clear with just a hint of colour. My body is used to drinking a lot of water and when I don't get it all, I'm hyper aware – thirsty, tired, cranky. And hungry.
And yes, I turn and look at my pee every time. Unless I've recently had asparagus. And then I block my nose and get outta there!
I buy lemon juice, and I have a sigg water bottle. Every morning I put in a couple squirts of lemon juice, and then fill it with water. I usually empty it and then refill it, which is enough water to keep me in the clear zone.
I also drink a fair amount of herbal tea while studying.
And, I don't usually drink coffee, but when I do, my pee smells like it. Kind of like there's stale coffee in the bathroom all of a sudden. I find that super weird.
On a somewhat relevant note- when I fly, I drink litres of water. I was in the air for about 8 hours today and I think I drank around 5-6 litres. It was ridiculous. Yet I didn't pee it out. Where did it all go???
hmmm my pee is clear
it makes me glad
yet me still thinks
my intakes BAD.
Could it be that shade
and still need more
is alwaysonpotty
whats for Miz in store?
I drink not enough
in this drying season
BUT if we go by color
then for more? NO REASON!
Bottled spring water, preferably Evian or Real Canadian…Pale yellow…I don't like beets.
I usually do ok with drinking water at work. I'm stuck sitting at a desk all day, so I keep a bottle right there where I can easily see it/reach it/drink it. When I'm home on the weekends I don't do as well – I'm forever forgetting where I left my water bottle.
And yeah, I know…Plastic bottles not good, but our tap water tastes like chlorine and I don't like filtered water.
I'm like JavaChick – really good at work 'cause my bottle is sitting right there on my desk. Weekends not so great 'cause my bottle is usually on my night stand and I'll see it there when I go to bed at night and think 'Crap, I didn't drink any water today!'
One of the best deals I have ever found is my water cooler (you know, like they have in most offices). I hate my tap water, so I don't drink it. I found a water cooler at a garage sale for $35 (they retail for at least $100). I fill 5 gallon containers at my local grocery store for $.30/gallon). It is yummy and the perfect temperature and right in my kitchen to remind me. One drawback – my 19 month old LOVES to play with it, so we often come upon water puddles.
Like above poster, I get all my water on workdays because I have my 32 oz bottle right there and fill it three times daily. But I'm not as good about it on the weekends because of so many distractions and being out of routine.
I drink tap or filtered water. Pee is generally clear. Being 10 months pregnant, I try not to drink anything after 6pm in order to avoid too many up-and-downs in the night, but I swear I could drink nothing after noon and still pee two liters in the night….
I had to do one of those 24-hour urine catches during my last pregnancy, and filled up two of the gas-can style buckets that the lab handed out.
I'm the opposite: I drink a ton all day. I think I'm overly thirsty and I'm always peeing, but no worries–I don't have diabets. (Because, you know, I started to wonder…) Generally my pee is clear, without even a tint of yellow. But as soon as I take a multivitamin it turns an unnatural shade of neon yellow.
My tips: Carry a water bottle with you wherever you go. I take two cups of water with me to my desk. And, for me, it helps to have ice-cold water. The lukewarm stuff takes like spit.
Good luck!
Every morning when I wake up, after my morning pee, I drink a glass of water – at least 8 oz, preferably a lot more. Not only is it refreshing (and I probably drink more than most do in an entire day), I have found it is a good way to stimulate the intestines so I can BM before going to work.
I have a cute, pink, 24oz Camelbak water bottle with a sippy straw that I carry around with me at work and in a 10 hour day, I likely fill it 8-10 times. My urine is straight up clear by 10am. There are days when I am so busy that I purposefully dehydrate myself a bit to avoid going to the bathroom. These days I get a banana yellow color, still pretty good thanks to my early morning chug fest.
Additionally, I drink about 18oz of coffee a day and odd amounts of tea.
I love plain water, good old, lukewarm tap water is fine and dandy for me most of the time. There was an incident earlier this year where the water at work was a little, um, off, but I dragged 2 gallons from home with me everyday until the water quality improved.
I've never eaten beets, but I have had those bladder numbing pills from the doc before! Good thing he warned me about the urine, or I would have been seriously been concerned about my flourescent orange pee!
I drink 2 32oz. bottles of water a day (I have a big bottle I just refill from the cooler at work), plus a glass or two in the morning and a glass or two in the evening. I love water. 🙂 I think a lot of it is that I keep a heater on by my desk at work and it keeps the air around my desk pretty dry, which makes me thirsty. My pee is generally clear, but I take B vitamins, so my first pee after taking my vitamins is inevitably highlighter yellow.
My favorite water based beverage is actually sparkling water, but I don't buy it very often b/c I go through so much water that if I only drank sparkling water I would be broke!
Loved the color of pee comments. I had a stomach bug last week, threw up all night, did not drink all day and then my (little bit of) pee was almost brown – scared me so much!
I drink lots. Got into it years ago and once you get there, your body craves it. We have well water so have a cooler in the house and get monthly deliveries (you should see how many bottles between my husband and I and we both work at home). For me one of the keys was finding the right water bottle. My husband like the camelbacks, I did not like all that sucking – just too much work. I like a wider mouth but then ended up wearing it. After much trial and error (I have a shelf full of them), I found a great one that has a flexible straw in the top. This means I can drink while driving and reading (no need to tilt your head back). It holds just about 28 oz which is a pain because I fill it so often but I just bring it everywhere. I also prefer room temp water – find it easier to drink more of (maybe because I have sensitive teeth?). My daughters make fun of me because I have to pee so often and I believe my bladder has actually expanded – I had an mri last week and the technician asked if I needed to use the restroom – I said no – he told me that my bladder was huge (not sure if that was a compliment or not). Unfortunately, it does not feel huge when doing jacks, knee ups, etc. I swear I can pee right before and still have trouble – the joys of age and babies.
Oh – I also drink hot green tea and night. That ups my water consumption without really trying. For me, my nightly tea signals the winding down of the day – most nights my husband makes it for me – that is the best part.
I've upped my intake considerably through herbal & decaf tea's. My office environment is cool so I offset my freezing fingers & toes with tea all day long. I do try to keep it caffeine free although sometimes I need that extra boost.
I have a problem with water intake as well. I can't drink before workouts or the sloshin in my tummy makes me want to puke.
I got a snazzy waterbottle to cart around and it pretty much proved my hypothesis that whatever Mommy has becomes magnetically irresistible to kids. It's WATER and the second I take a sip they are demanding a drink (and backwashing). Gotta love kids 😉
“unintentional pun in the daily crossword puzzle” … Are you talking about yesterday’s AARP crossword with clue of faux pas and answer of boner??? My husband and I laughed about that one, but I honestly don’t know what the intentional meaning is! (And I know that I’m a dork and I do the AARP online crossword every couple of days. I just like to pretend that I’m retired when I’m not at work.) Good luck upping your water intake!
My pee is usually neon green, but that's because of my Iron/B12 supplements.
Sometimes when I forget my supplements it becomes clear.
I usually just drink tap water. What I find helpful is keeping a ginormous water bottle next to the computer at work. Then I just keep drinking it because work is boring and peeing is slightly more interesting.
This post was hilarious to me. Mostly because I pay very close attention to my pee color.
If it's anything other than clear, I go chug water and make it a point to always have a bottle or glass with me the rest of the day.
And I've never tried beets. lol
oh man i am terrible at drinking water throughout the day. my pee is like ice tea colored throughout the day then i chug a nalgene at dinner and my pee gets clear during the night. kind of funny that my pee is the most dilute when i first wake up. (and wow i can't believe i shared that!)
one of my resolutions is to be more consistent with water drinking!
Prior to pregnancy I was absolutely horrible about drinking water. I have been known to sip on (gasp) diet sodas during my workouts. It shouldn't have been a suprise that I had frequent kidney/bladder infections.
After I peed on the stick (dark yellow color btw) and found out my daughter was coming, I decided that I need to take in more H20. There was no way I was adding the pain of kidney/bladder infection to the fun that is pregnancy.
I used a three-fold attack…I mean approach. First, I keep a large water bottle on my desk, one on my nightstand, and one in my car – which serve as visual reminders to drink water. Then I also set pop-up reminders on my work calendear, gently prodding me to drink a glass of water. Lastly, I do not allow myself to drhink any of my other beloved beverages (juices, decaf coffee) until I've had a minimum of 16 ounces of water.
Maybe this is a little extreme…probably quite extreme. But I have not had a single bladder/kidney infection in 8 months – that's a record for me.
I don't know what it is, but the past couple of days I have been SO THIRSTY!!! So I've been drinking a lot of water.
This morning I did a 6 AM Bikram class, and that definitely helps with the water intake, lol!
(Back in grad school, we were advised to drink 12-20 glasses per day. And then our teachers wondered why we were constantly running to the bathroom. They nicknamed us "Tiny Tanks.")
Sorry, I don't have any tips. Unless you can re-program your smoke alarm to say "Drink water, Charlotte. NOW!!!!"
I am not competitive by any means except in the water arena. Perhaps it's my overly boring job, or just the fact that I do check the color of my pee…but I make water-drinking a game! I HAVE to drink a full (16 oz) bottle of water every morning when I take my vitamins. Then, my pee is neon yellow. Then I just make it a game (at work) to see how much water I can drink by say…10am…then 1pm…then 4pm. Most of the time I can get in 3-5 bottles and that's before I even go home! Then it's another full bottle with dinner and probably another one before I go to bed! And after lunch my pee is almost always clear. SUCCESS! The bad part is on the weekends I don't keep up with it as much, so I get headaches. So it's just another incentive to drink! I might also note that I sweat heavily so I'm not one of those people that's going to OD on water.
**sweat heavily when I EXERCISE, not like all day or anything 🙂
That is so funny you posted this… just yesterday, I set cups of ice-water upstairs & downstairs in prominent places to REMIND ME to drink more H20! Did it work? Nope.
The pee color thing too… that's how I tell my kids to check to see if they're getting enough water. They think it's funny but get so excited when it's super-light. Hey – it works! lol!
I guess I have a lot to learn in this area because I don't worry about drinking water at all. I have recommended diluting high salt, sugar, and salt foods with water, but that is another story.
Most, not all, of the water I get is in other things, but as I said, I have a lot to learn. Maybe it's because I didn't like the instructor when I did a nephrology rotation in school.
Funny! I just had the beet experience this morning! I had beets for supper last night and this morning my pee was red. At first I was like "O crap! What's wrong with my kidneys? Do I have a bladder infection? I KNEW my pee was smelling funky – why did I ignore it?!" Then I remembered I had beets for supper. So I've been monitoring pee since and it's now clear. Whew!
I drink less water than I did 10 years ago (not sure why) so this is something I feel I need to pay attention to. How about making your own fruit flavored water?
I can't believe I just spent 20 minutes reading what colour other people's pee was…
Does the temperature of the water you are drinking alter the affetiveness, I wonder?
Yeah, not really on topic, I know, just something I wondered.
I generally drink enough water, though I used to HATE HATE HATE plain water – oddly enough, once you start getting your 8 glasses per day you just get addicted. I just have intervals of my day and water checks – by lunch, I better have downed at least one huge 20-oz glass. Another 1-2 before I leave work. A full water bottle during/after a workout. One more before bed.
It's harder for me over the winter though – during the summer it's no problem but when it gets cold? For some reason it's a challenge. It's not that I'm drinking anything else, it's just that I feel like putting less liquid in my bod. Bad, I know!
I have a 32 oz. bottle on my desk that I try drink down at least one while I am at work, if not more but that doesn't usually happen.
I drink at least one glass (not even a glass, I use one of those large red dixie party cups – what can I say, I'm that classy) with lunch and dinner.
When I work-out I have a 16 oz. water bottle I bring with me and drink down almost all the way.
Lastly, my boyfriend and I keep/share one of those big gulp size plastic cups he gets from fast food joints, full of ice water on the coffee table in the living room and we share it and take turns refilling it, or arguing over whose turn it is to refill it.
I am going to start drinking a glass of water, or should I say red dixie party cup, full of water every morning – thanks for the idea!
Oh yeah, and my pee is generally pretty clear or very light yellow.
Just ran across your blog for the first time and love it already…
I've started flavoring my water with essential oils from the store-just make sure you check to see if it's the kind you can ingest! My favorite is peppermint right now because even when it's warm, it still feels like I'm drinking cold water. It also is nice because it keeps your breath in control all day, even when you burp…
I carry a refillable water bottle with me EVERYWHERE. I never leave the house without it. Although it's more of a psychological thing – if I don't have it with me I'm suddenly SOOOO thirsty!
Too funny but a good message! I have a PUR water filter on my faucet & fill my "eco good & safe" water bottle every day & it get emptied every day. I take it to the computer desk or wherever I am. Plus I drink one in the gym too. Weekend, not as good but I am OK with that & I try to drink more when I get home from wherever I am. I also have some flavored "treat water" I drink!
Yes, I do check out the toilet bowl for both #1&2 since both are important to look at.. I know, TMI! 🙂
PS: PUR now has filters with flavors in them.
When I get bored with plain water I add lemon or lime wedges and shredded mint leaves. It gives it a nice refreshing taste, no additives, preservatives, sugar, fake-sugar or calories.
I tend to carry around a bottle with me at all times and drink pretty continuously. It works great whilst I'm at work, and I tend to forget when I'm home.
I must admit I don't usually notice the colour of my pee unless it's asparagus tainted. I've eaten plenty of beetroot but haven't noticed any change. Maybe because I eat it regularly and don't have that much of it.
Its a very nice blog on fitness.
The experiments which you shows here are excellent.