Day 16: water, water, water = energy (or so we will see)

Every day during the afternoon I find myself soooooooo tired.  You would think it was midnight.  I am so tired it is hard to do anything.  I just want to close my eyes and take a nap.  Sometimes I give in and take a snooze!  It is frustrating to me because at a time during the day when I can be most productive due to kids napping, I find myself wasting away time due to the fact that I am exhausted and can't focus on what I am trying to accomplish.

This afternoon when I was feeling tired I decided to research online reasons for afternoon fatigue.  I found an article that sparked my interest.  It was titled, "Another Reason for Felling Tired - Dehydration".  I had not thought before that maybe my afternoon slum was due to being dehydrated.  It is probably very true as I know I don't drink enough water each day.  I have to pretty much force it down.  I would rather have a big glass of milk or juice.  This article really made me think.    

Here is an exert from the article I found:

Another Reason for Feeling Tired - Dehydration

by Catherine Pratt 

www.Life-With-Confidence.com 

"I discovered that most of us are chronically dehydrated and don't even know it. Some of the symptoms of dehydration are: brain fog, fatigue, and exhaustion. Sound familiar? They were all things I could definitely relate to.

I thought I did drink a lot of water but reading through his report, I realized it wasn't as much as I thought.

In the course, it suggests to drink “a bottle” of water as soon as you get up in the morning. Drinking water as soon as I got up wasn't something I'd tried before. I was more of a “throughout the day, whenever I remembered” kind of water drinker.

I thought it was worth a try though. If it didn't work, I hadn't lost anything and if it did work, it'd be such an easy solution to feeling tired.

So, now I drink 2 glasses of water as soon as I wake up and then another 2 during breakfast. After that, I drink another two glasses whenever I have a meal and also at different times throughout the day. So, all in all, I think I end up drinking around 10 or 12 glasses per day.

It's a minor change to what I was doing before but the amazing thing is that it has really made a difference for me. I used to struggle to wake up in the morning and also just to stay awake. About 2 or 3 in the afternoon used to be the worst time for me. I would get just so sleepy that all I would want to do is lie down and go to sleep. Since, I've increased my water consumption, I don't have that anymore. I feel much more alert and awake now.

I must say, I'm pretty impressed what a difference a simple change like drinking more water can make."

Did you know there is a formula for how much water you should drink in a day?  I didn't.  Here it is:

Take your weight in pounds and divide it by 2.
Take the result and divide this by 8 (for 8 ounces of water)
This number is the approximate number of 8 oz glasses of water you should be drinking daily.

So there you go.  Who knew?  I am going to give it a try and see if I can curb this afternoon tired spell!

Tomorrow's challenge: start the day off with a couple big glasses of water!