I Was Trying to Drink More Water When Electrolyte Packets Caught My Attention

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I have never been a water girl.

Never.

I see women walking around with those huge water bottles that look like they could supply a small family for the weekend, and I always wonder how they do it.

They have their water beside them in the car.

At work.

At the store.

Sitting on the nightstand.

Meanwhile, I can pour myself a glass of water, set it on the counter, walk into another room and completely forget we ever met.

That has pretty much been my relationship with water for most of my life.

I knew I was supposed to drink it.

Of course I knew.

But there are plenty of things we know we're supposed to do that somehow never become things we actually do consistently.

Water was one of mine.

For a long time, I did eat a lot of ice.

And I mean a lot of ice.

So part of me wants credit for that because technically ice is water.

I'm counting it.

But I stopped eating ice about three years ago, and once I did, I realized that whatever little extra water I had been getting that way disappeared too.

My actual water intake was pretty terrible.

For years, I didn't think much about it.

Now I do.

I think getting older does that to us.

There comes a point when you start noticing your body in ways you didn't before.

Things that used to be background noise suddenly have your full attention.

Your sleep.

Your knees.

Your digestion.

Your skin.

The fact that apparently you can hurt yourself by sleeping wrong now.

And lately, I've been paying more attention to how much water I'm actually drinking.

Part of it started with my skin.

I've noticed that it's getting a little dryer than it used to be.

My first thought was, “Well, there it is. I haven't been drinking enough water for most of my life and now my skin has finally filed a complaint.”

I laugh, but it did make me think.

I started wondering what else water affects that I haven't really thought about.

And that's when I went down the rabbit hole.

The first thing I had to get straight was that water matters, but it's not magic.

I don't want to tell women that drinking more water is going to erase wrinkles, tighten our skin, balance every hormone, fix menopause, clear our minds, lubricate every joint and have us waking up looking twelve years younger.

That would be nice.

Very nice.

But that's not what I found.

What I did find is that our bodies use water all day long for things we barely think about.

Digestion, temperature control, circulation, getting rid of waste and keeping everything functioning the way it's supposed to.

And yes, not drinking enough can contribute to dry skin.

But dry skin can also come from aging itself, the weather, hot showers, sun exposure and other things.

 So, I'm not looking at my water bottle like it's an anti-aging treatment.

I'm looking at it as one basic thing my body needs that I haven't been very good at giving it.

That feels more honest to me.

Another thing that caught my attention was learning that thirst may become less reliable as we get older.

That bothered me a little because I've always been one of those people who thinks, “I'll drink something when I'm thirsty.”

Well, what happens if my body gets worse at reminding me?

Apparently, some of us can become less aware of thirst as we age.

I didn't love learning that.

Because now I can't even use, “Well, I wasn't thirsty,” as my excuse.

This is exactly why drinking water has become more of a conscious effort for me.

I have to think about it.

I have to put it where I can see it.

I have to actually pick the glass up and drink it instead of carrying it around the house like an accessory.

I'm trying.

And I mean that literally.

I'm not waking up every morning excited about hydration.

Some days I drink plenty.

Other days I realize late in the afternoon that coffee and a few sips of water have been doing all the work.

But I'm more aware now.

And for me, awareness usually comes before change.

Then came the electrolyte question.

Because once I accepted that I needed to drink more water, naturally my next thought was:

“Is there a shortcut?”

That's when I started looking into electrolyte powders.

They're everywhere.

Little packets you pour into your water promising hydration and all kinds of other benefits.

So, I started wondering whether putting electrolytes in my water would somehow make the water work harder.

Maybe I could drink less water if it had electrolytes in it.

Please understand how badly I wanted this to be true.

I wanted somebody to tell me that sixteen ounces of electrolyte water had the hydration power of an entire pitcher.

Unfortunately, water math doesn't work that way.

What I learned is that electrolytes are minerals our bodies already use, including things like sodium and potassium.

We need them.

They help with fluid balance, muscles and nerves, and we lose some of them when we sweat.

So, electrolyte powders aren't nonsense.

There are times when they can be helpful.

If I'm sweating heavily, exercising for a long time, spending a lot of time in serious heat or losing fluids because I'm sick, replacing fluids and electrolytes can make sense.

What surprised me was learning that I probably don't need an electrolyte packet every ordinary day just because I'm trying to drink more water.

If I'm eating normally and going about my regular day, food and drinks already give my body electrolytes.

Plain water still works.

I had to laugh at myself because I was basically trying to find a way to make drinking water more complicated so I could avoid drinking water.

Very on brand for me.

And electrolyte packets aren't all the same either.

Some can contain quite a bit of sodium.

Some have sugar or sweeteners.

So, I've realized that I need to look at what's actually in the packet instead of assuming that because the word "electrolyte" is on the front, it automatically means healthier.

More isn't always more useful.

There was another distinction I didn't know before researching this.

If someone is losing a lot of fluid from severe diarrhea, a real oral rehydration solution is different from grabbing an ordinary sports drink.

The CDC specifically makes that distinction because proper rehydration solutions are made with a certain balance of fluid and electrolytes for that situation.

That's the kind of information I actually want to know.

Not, "Buy this powder because wellness."

Tell me when something is useful.

Tell me when I'm probably wasting my money.

I can work with that.

Then I got to the other question that always comes up when we talk about water.

How much am I actually supposed to drink?

This is where health information usually loses me because suddenly everybody starts throwing cups, ounces and liters around.

I saw the general recommendation for women of around 2.7 liters of total water a day and immediately thought, “Absolutely not.”

Then I kept reading.

That amount isn't supposed to mean 2.7 liters of plain water on top of everything else.

This number includes water from other drinks and even some of the food we eat.

The National Academies estimates that women get roughly 2.2 liters, or about nine cups, through beverages, with additional water coming from food.

And our actual needs can change depending on activity, heat and other circumstances.

Now that sounds a lot less frightening.

Fruit counts toward our fluid intake.

Vegetables contain water.

Other beverages contain water.

Even coffee contributes fluid.

I wish somebody had explained hydration to me that way years ago instead of making it sound like I needed to walk around holding a gallon jug all day.

I'm also trying not to turn this into another thing I have to be perfect at.

That's important to me.

Because we women can take something that's supposed to be good for us and turn it into another measurement of whether we're doing life correctly.

Did I drink enough water?

Did I eat enough protein?

Did I walk enough?

Did I sleep enough?

Did I take my vitamins?

Did I stretch?

Before long, taking care of yourself starts sounding like you need a clipboard and a performance review.

I don't want that.

I just want to get better at noticing what my body needs.

Right now, one of those things is water.

So I'm making an effort.

Not a dramatic one.

I'm not announcing my hydration era.

I'm not buying a water bottle the size of a toddler.

I'm just drinking more.

I'm keeping water close enough that I remember it exists.

I'm drinking some with meals.

I'm paying attention on hot days.

I'm trying to notice when I've gone half the day barely drinking anything.

And if I want to add an electrolyte packet sometimes, I can.

I just know now that it's not a replacement for water.

The packet goes in the water.

I still have to drink the water.

I know.

I was disappointed too.

Maybe that's one of the stranger things I've noticed about getting older.

I'm interested in taking care of myself in ways I wasn't before.

Not because I'm afraid of aging.

And not because I think I can control everything that happens to my body if I just drink enough water and eat enough vegetables.

I can't.

None of us can.

But I can pay attention.

I can stop ignoring the little things because I think they don't matter.

And I can learn something at this age without beating myself up because I didn't learn it earlier.

I haven't spent my life being a woman who drinks enough water.

That's just the truth.

But that doesn't mean I have to keep being her.

Today I can fill the glass.

I can drink it.

I can forget about the glass for an hour, find it sitting somewhere ridiculous, and drink some more.

That's probably what this will look like for me.

No perfect routine.

No gallon challenge.

No pretending I've suddenly fallen in love with plain water.

Just me, getting older, paying closer attention to this body I've been living in all these years and making a little more effort to take care of her.

One glass at a time.

And yes, I'm still counting those ice years.

#EvolvingWomanhood

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