Water 101: Why I Prioritize 100 Ounces Daily and I Think You Should Too
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You know I’m a HUGE believer in honoring my body daily through movement, mindset, and macros. But one thing I haven’t talked a lot about in the past and have been highlighting more recently on Instagram is HYDRATION.
I truly believe that hydration is just as important as movement and nourishment. That’s why in this episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast, I share with you 7 reasons why I prioritize drinking AT LEAST 100 ounces of water a day.
And I know what you're thinking...
Julie, HOW can I drink 100 ounces of water daily?!
Here is what I recommend you do...
One of the easiest ways to drink 100 ounces of water daily is to use a super large water bottle. Then, you must know how many times you need to refill that water bottle each day to reach your hydration goal.
From there, figure out by what time of the day you need to drink X amount of water. For example, I like to aim to drink 50 ounces by 11:00 AM. That way, I don’t get stuck drinking all my water at night trying to make up for my lack of hydration throughout my day.
If you want to learn more tips and tricks like these ones to build the body you want, I have already released an episode that gives you a step-by-step guide!
You can listen to it here.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, Hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real, with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned, if you're ready to Embrace Your Real. Let's get it, let's go.
Hello, and welcome to this week's bonus episode of the Embrace Real Podcast. We're talking all about water 101. So if you tuned into Monday's episode, it was all about carbohydrates. Why I'm a firm believer in eating carbohydrates, but also why it's important to eat them in the proper amount. So if you are scared of carbohydrates, or if you maybe love them so, so much, but you're like, "I need to cut back on them." I teach you so much, I give you a crash course on carbohydrates. So I will go ahead and link that in the show notes below. But today's episode, we're talking about why I personally prioritize a hundred ounces of water daily and why I think you should as well. If you've been here for any length of time, you guys know I'm a huge firm believer in honoring my body through movement, mindset, and nutrition.
But one thing that I haven't about in the past and have been highlighting more on my Instagram recently is hydration. I am a firm believer in hydration, just as I believe in movement and moving your body every day for at least 30 minutes and nourishing your body properly. And so that's why in today's bonus episode, I'm going to be sharing with you seven reasons why I prioritize drinking at least a hundred ounces of water a day, rapid fire style. So get ready to listen up. If you have notes and you want to take them, do it.
But before I dive in, I had to share this super sweet review. It comes from Care Bear 101219, she says, "Great way to start your day. I look forward to whenever there is a new podcast, they're so uplifting and needed when the world around me can be so negative, they help pass time on my way to work and get my mind set for the day. I love the podcast and the Instagram post. Keep posting. We all appreciate it." Care Bear 101219, thank you so much. I love this community. You guys are my girls. You guys are my family and I cannot wait until one day, we get to all be in one room together and talk and laugh and cry and grow together. So I'm just excited about some upcoming things that we have planned for 2022. So stay tuned for that. I am just so excited.
Anyways, we are going to dive into today's episode. So seven reasons why I prioritize drinking at least a hundred ounces of water every day and why you should too. Number one, hydration may help you lose body fat. So the process of breaking down fat in your body does require water. In fact, the first step in breaking down fat is called hydrolysis, which essentially adds up water to fat to break it down. Crazy, right? So without enough water, it would be physically impossible for our bodies to break down fat. So if you regularly don't hydrate enough, reaching your fitness goals can be a lot harder. And you're just going to be working against yourself.
Number two, hydration can give you more energy. Did you know that dehydration can actually manifest itself in your body as fatigue or low energy? For example, around 3:00 PM when you hit that mid-afternoon slump, you may not actually need that second or third cup of coffee. What you may actually need is water. So the next time you feel sluggish, I want you to ask yourself, how much water you have drank for the day. And I want you to stop, drop, and chug. So that's what I like to call it, stop, drop, and chug. So if you are feeling sluggish, then take some water. And I want you to try to drink at least 10 to 12 ounces and just hydrate yourself and see how much better you feel in 30 minutes. And honestly, I can tell you, nine times out of ten, you need more water. You don't need that second, third, fourth, or fifth cup of coffee. Your body is actually just dehydrated. And that's what's affecting your energy levels.
Number three, hydration keeps your muscles functioning properly. Did you know that water is a key player in forming the structures of protein and glycogen, which are two essential things in your muscles? I know I didn't for a long time, until I learned about compromising the protein and glycogen in your muscles can equal to losing muscle strength and muscle control. So if you want to see optimal results from your workouts, you must drink water. Your body not only needs water to aid to your muscle recovery and growth, but it also needs water for your muscles to properly function during your workout. So whether you're resting or you're working out, it is so important that you are hydrating yourself properly.
Number four, hydration may reduce bloating. Our body holds onto water weight when we don't drink enough water, which sounds like an oxymoron, but it isn't. Water weight makes us feel like we're super bloated. And if we drink more water, we flush out the water weight, essentially for a lack of a better term, and the bloat can reduce, which is pretty crazy. At the same time though, dehydration can lead to constipation, which also leads to bloating. I don't want to dive into this too deeply, but dehydration leads to your stools becoming hard, which makes them harder to pass. So if you struggle with digestion, perhaps it's just that you are not drinking enough water and you need to prioritize drinking more water throughout the day.
Number five, hydration makes your skin more clear and vibrant. So not only will hydration help your skin become more clear, but it can also help with the elasticity of your skin. And elasticity is what keeps your skin looking young. So when we lose the elasticity, that's when wrinkles can happen. So hydration can actually help you look younger for longer. So maybe you don't need to spend the hundred dollars on fancy anti-aging night creams. Maybe you just need to drink more water, or maybe you can do both. I personally do prioritize skincare as well, but I also first prioritize hydration.
So it's really, really important that you are hydrated. And like I said before, it's so crazy how much younger I look now at 31 than I did at 21. And it was because I was not fueling my body properly. It was because I was not hydrating my body enough. I was dehydrated all of the time. And when I look at my skin, when I look at my nails, when I look at my hair, all of those things, I look so much more vibrant now. And so many people always say that. And it's because I have learned to properly fuel and hydrate my body. And when you do, I'm telling you guys, it does wonders.
Number six, dehydration can make you tired, irritable, and lack focus. So I don't know about you, but when I am not hydrating my body enough, and sometimes I don't even realize it until I'm like in a really bad mood, or I'm very, very distracted, or I am just exhausted. I don't have energy. The first thing I always ask myself is, what are the foods that you're eating? Is there something that you ate that is just maybe not sitting great in your stomach, or are you eating enough, or did you eat too much? And the second thing that I always ask myself is hydration, simply because dehydration can affect so much. So if you want to be in a better mood, drink more water.
If you want to focus better, drink more water. If you want to be more productive, drink more water. Besides the fact that you will be going to the bathroom more, trust me, it's a good payoff. In my opinion, I would much rather have energy and productive and feel good and go to the bathroom more than lack all of those things and not go to the bathroom. If you want to feel more vibrant in your life, drink the water sister. I'm telling you just drink the water. I dare you to drink a hundred ounces of water for 30 days and see how much your life changes. Your life will change for the better. And yes, you might be seeing the toilet a little bit more, but I'm telling you, it is worth the payoff.
And the seventh reason that I love water so much is that it can actually boost performance during exercise. So this one needs some more research to confirm this, but one new review found that dehydration reduces performance in activities lasting longer than 30 minutes. And I can tell you that I believe that consuming more water can actually enhance your performance during strenuous activity. Whether that's a weightlifting session, that's a run, that's a jog, it's a cycle, whatever you are doing. But I am a firm believer that water can actually enhance your activity if you're doing it for longer periods of time. And so that's why I love it so much. So I want to encourage you to drink at least a hundred ounces of water per day. We actually teach all of our clients inside our Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy, how much water their specific body needs. And so I thought that I would just share that calculation with you, if you're wanting to know exactly how much your body needs.
So there's two ways to do it. There's a simple way, which is essentially, divide your body weight in half. And that can be the minimum amount of water that your body needs in ounces. Or you can go a little bit more specific and it's 0.67 times your body weight in pounds. So 0.67 times your body weight in pounds would be the minimum ounces of water that you need daily. And then what we recommend inside our Academy to all of our clients and our one-on-one clients is to add about 12 to 16 ounces of water for every 30 to 45 minutes of additional activity that you do. So for bare minimum, you can do the 0.67 times your body weight in pounds. And then if you are doing a 30 or 60 minute workout, you'll want to add an additional 12 to 16 ounces for every 30 minutes of activity.
And that's just to ensure that you are properly hydrating yourself. And you'll see if you are not drinking enough water and you have a high expenditure when it comes to your workouts or your activity, you will get fatigued. You will get headaches and you'll lose energy. So this year I want to make sure you are on top of your water intake. So I want to encourage you to drink that, at least minimum of a hundred ounces of water per day and start living your best life. One thing that I do oftentimes, especially if I get off-track with hydrating my body, and I'm trying to get back into the rhythm of it, is I will set four to five alarms throughout the day that say, stop, drop, and chug. And so, as soon as that alarm goes off, I try to at least get 12 to 16, sometimes 20 ounces of water in that stop, drop, and chug. And you will be amazed. You only need to do it a few times throughout the day to get that minimum of a hundred ounces of water a day.
I hope that this helped you. If you want to learn more tips and tricks for building the body that you want to, we actually put together an episode for you that's essentially a step-by-step guide. It's like a 101, what you need to do to build the body that you want. So be sure to check out Episode 181 for that complete guide. I will link it in the show notes below. If you have a girlfriend or someone that you feel would benefit from this podcast as a whole, I just ask that you share it out with them. You can copy the link, send it to them in a text message. You can post it up on your Instagram story and you can share it with your community. I deeply appreciate you guys. I love you guys so much, and I'll talk to you in the next episode.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, juliealedbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcast to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought, the most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real, because you're worth it.