Drink more water

A News poll survey conducted by BRITA Water Filter Systems found that Australians are chronically dehydrated with 4.5 million adults (30per cent of the population) only drinking three glasses or less of water each day, well under the recommended minimum daily intake of eight to ten glasses.

For the first time last year water was formally recognised as an ‘essential nutrient’ in the revised National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand.

The guidelines recommend that Australians need to increase their absolute minimum intake to eight to 10 glasses to prevent dehydration. For optimal performance however this value can be increased again. A good guide if you want to perform at your best is to drink 25-25mls of water for every kg of body weight. So for
a 60kg female that would be around 1.5-2L whilst for a 85-90kg male it would be around 2-3L. If you exercise a lot, the weather is hot, you’re pregnant or you drink lots of diuretics (tea, coffee,
alcohol, soft drinks), then drink even more.

Remember also that these totals are for water only. You should not include any other drinks in this. In fact many of the other things we drink are diuretics and actually serve to leach water out of our systems. Non-caffeinated herbal teas can be a nice warming substitute for the tea and coffee when the temperature
drops.

If you do decide to make some changes to your beverage intake remember that you don’t need to do it all at once. In fact it is actually better for you to make these changes gradually. Slowly increase your intake of water and reduce your intake of tea (caffeinated), coffee, alcohol and soft drinks and enjoy the
changes in your health and your performance.

The Challenge: Drink one extra glass of water each day for the next 21 days. Attempt this challenge as many times as you need until you are drinking 1L of water each day for every 25kg you weigh.