Can someone who eats healthy, drinks water, and exercises get kidney stones? I did. I was exercising and eating right, but found out I did not drink enough fluids to make up for my body’s usage of water. How do you know if you are drinking enough water? Let me share with you two simple indicators your body reveals to let you know if your water intake is sufficient.
After my kidney stone incident, I started to pay attention to how much water I drank and how frequently I was thirsty. To my surprise, I was not listening to my body. My tongue would start to get dry, and I did not want to be inconvenienced to go retrieve some water. I repeated this neglect many times.
The drug administered to me for lymphoma ruptures the cancer cells, and those destroyed cells are removed through my kidneys and urine. It is crucial for my health to stay diligent and get those toxins and waste out of my body. I’d rather not have a replay of kidney stones either, so I make a point to have water with me as much as possible.
It is too easy to take our natural bodily functions for granted, forgetting that urinating is another important aspect to keeping a body healthy. Any extra water, waste from the kidneys, and toxins are carried out of our body through urine.
First Simple Indicator
Keeping hydrated throughout the day, as much as possible, prevents the urine from becoming too concentrated. How do you know if you are drinking enough water? Many times you can visually see this by looking at the shade of yellow in the toilet before you flush. Some foods, medications, or vitamins can alter the color or scent of your urine. Such as, vitamin B turning urine a more vibrant yellow, beets may give a reddish tinge, or asparagus definitely gives off a noticeable odor.
Drinking plenty of water reveals itself by a pale yellow color. Not drinking enough water shows concentration by a darker yellow color. A quick peek in the toilet reveals: pale color – hey good job, keep up the good work, or a dark yellow – time to step it up a notch and drink more water. As you can see, this is one very simple way to monitor your progress on sufficient fluid consumption.
For Christmas, I added cranberries, raspberries, lemon, lime, and orange slices to the water. What a nice refreshing flavor!
Equally important is your bowel movements. Kidneys flush away waste products through urine; the bowels flush away waste products through feces. As waste products and water pass through the bowels, your body still grabs last minute nutrients, including water. As waste products travel down your large intestine the feces becomes drier and formed, provided there is no illness or anxiety causing diarrhea.
This is important to you, for as the feces loses water, depending on how hydrated or dehydrated you are, is how effortlessly and frequently you can have a bowel movement each day. Equally important is the combination of consuming water and plenty of foods with fiber to make elimination much more efficient, regular, and easier.
Fiber is the carbohydrate that does not go into the bloodstream during digestion, but gets a free pass to continue through the small and large intestines. Fiber takes any unnecessary items, and cleans house as is passes through. No fiber and no water means difficulty passing through the intestinal system—giving you grief. Where do you get the healthy fiber? Through fruits, vegetables, whole-grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. The combination of water and fiber is key to a healthy digestive system. When your digestive system is happy, everyone is happy! Those of you that struggle with constipation know what I am talking about!
Second Simple Indicator
How do you know if you are consuming enough water and fiber to make the process of elimination easier? Things to think about: How easy did the feces pass through the rectum? Regular elimination should be easy to pass. If you are dehydrated, feces is harder and possibly more difficult to pass.
Another quick toilet check, how hard or formed is the feces? If the feces looks like hard little nuts, or like a hard, lumpy sausage you are not consuming enough water. If the feces looks like a softer, smooth sausage, then you are on the right track for good health.
A Good Place to Start
I use glasses that are visually enticing, even at work. Glasses that say, come drink me!
I personally follow and teach the suggested daily amount of water to drink from Ted Broer’s book, Maximum Energy. The recommendation is to drink 1 oz of water for every two pounds of body weight. This amount should increase when conditions such as exercise, weather, and thirst put more demands on your body.
I have my favorite glasses that I like to drink out of. I know how many ounces each glass holds. To the best of my ability, I drink the necessary amount of glasses each day to meet my minimum 1 oz per 2 lbs. body weight.
Your health and the ease in which your body daily functions is worth every minute you invest. I hope these simple suggestions help.
Blessings to your health!
Finishing the Race 