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Health coach Matt Ireland continues to share his six foundations, focusing on the importance of hydration in this bite-size clip:

Transcript

The human body is made up of 70% water. Now you may already be aware of this fact but what you may be surprised to know is the human body can survive three weeks without food but only three days without water. So what I am basically telling you is, if you want to improve your heath and feel better. You will get more benefit from making sure your body is properly hydrated than worrying about the foods that you are eating. 

Now dehydrated people commonly mistake the sensation of thirst for hunger. This can lead to them over eating and weight gain and feeling depressed. When really all their body wants is more water. I always ask people, what’s easier? Drinking more water or cutting out the foods you love to eat.  People often say drinking more water is the easier option.

How Much Water Should I Drink?

Now I am afraid to say only fluid, the only drink that can hydrate the body, is water and by water, I mean plain boring water. The main purposes of water in the body, there are many, but just to keep it simple are digestion and detoxification. People ask me how much water should I drink? Now there are lots of opinions on this. But again to keep things simple, I would say aim between a litre and a half and two litres of water every day. 

The time at which you drink this is important because as I said, one of the main purposes of water is digestion. So what I would advise doing, is drinking a glass or two of water first thing in the morning before your breakfast. Therefore it enables your body to digest your breakfast, you gain more energy and a better well-being from that. I would recommend you buy yourself a Kilner bottle. They are one litre. Your task is to fill it up in the morning, put it on your desk at work and drink it throughout your day at work.when creating new habits, it’s much easier if you have a visual aid to remind you to keep drinking.

Now when creating new habits, it’s much easier if you have a visual aid to remind you to keep drinking. To hit your one and a half litres, you’ve had one cup in the morning which is about a quarter of a litre, you've had your one litre of Kilner bottle during the day. All you need now to hit the minimum is one glass of water, either with your dinner or before you go to bed and you have hit your quota which I think that is pretty easy.

Caffeine: Drinking Tea and Coffee at Work

A big mistake people make is, they say I don’t drink much water, but I drink lots of tea and coffee. Now the reason this is a mistake is because caffeine is an irritant to the body. It stimulates the kidneys which produces urine to flush that caffeine out. So what I am saying by this is, any water that is in your tea and coffee is used to flush out but so too is some of your body reserves. So if you don’t drink much water in the first place, but you drink a lot of tea and coffee, then you could actually be dehydrating the body even further which causes more problems.

For the next week I would like you to try drinking between one and a half and two litres of water, or at the very least more water than you usually do and cut out the amount of caffeine you drink by a comfortable amount. It doesn’t matter if that’s one cup, two cups or everything.  Whatever is comfortable for you. Just see how you feel in the following week. Again this is just a really simple exercise you can do to notice how much better you feel in your day.

Lainey Gower

• Senior HR Administrator, UK
• +44 207 092 0061
• lgower@morganmckinley.com