“You are severely dehydrated” is the only thing I heard my doctor say as she was explaining my diagnosis of bronchitis. As she continued to talk about my symptoms, I was still fixated on the thought of being dehydrated and dry.
My mind was racing through the day before with snapshots of every liquid I drank. I thought I drank more water than coffee and tea. Not.
“How did I get so dry?” I guess I asked the question out loud because my doctor answered.
She gave me the basics, like our body is mostly water, up to 65 percent. To make sure you are hydrated, she said, the general rule is to drink eight, 8-ounce servings of water a day. Actually, it’s more like 2.2 liters or 74 ounces. But eight times eight is easier to remember.
I guess my concern was showing on my face, so her tone softened. She told me I wasn’t a failure and that most people drink less in the winter. Do we sweat in the winter, I asked? Yes, and especially if we have hot flashes (which I do but, that’s another blog).
And, the big problem about winter is that we don’t always feel thirsty, which is a natural reminder that we need to drink water. She made me feel a lot better about being dehydrated, like it wasn’t all my fault.
I know that I can sometimes get discouraged by the magnitude of the task and end up doing nothing.
But, on the drive home with a bottle of water in hand, I began to feel overwhelmed at the thought of not taking in enough water each day. I know that I can sometimes get discouraged by the magnitude of the task and end up doing nothing.
We cannot live without water. So, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I have asked a few friends to take the Samaritan woman “Give me a drink” challenge with me (John 4:13-15).
For 30 days we will:
- Assess where we are each day. How much water do you drink now? Add 8 ounces to it until you make it to eight glasses.
- Choose a time of day to record how many ounces of water you have had.
- At the end of the 30 days, celebrate!
Will you join me?
Valora K Starr is director of discipleship. She oversees the program Raising Up Healthy Women and Girls and so is concerned that all women and girls drink enough water to stay healthy.
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I learned a lot about the importance of drinking enough water. Coffee doesn’t count as it can cause more dehydration according to the doctor who visited me in the hospital. I woke up not feeling well, ate a small breakfast and shortly felt so bad that I had to quit taking laundry out of the dryer. I rested, ate lunch, worked on a quilt ( for Lutheran World Relief) , and soon collapsed. BP tanked and pulse went crazy( I have a heart condition). EMS rushed me to ER. It was ascertained after many tests that I had suffered a vagal reaction due to dehydration. A vagal reaction can occur sometimes when a person hears shocking news, sees blood, has dehydration, etc. My doctor said that older people don’t experience thirst much. Winter is especially bad because the heated homes are also dry and older folks truly don’t feel thirsty. So drink lots of water.
I’m responding to the blog, “Are you drinking enough water each day?” My revelation came when an adult daughter, put me on a diet of five small meals a day (as I’d slowed my metabolism to a crawl). She advised me to drink more water (as I had dark circles under my eyes and was often constipated). She gave me an exercise routine (as I wasn’t staying in shape and had gained weight due to my sedentary job). She was right. In six weeks, I looked younger, felt energized, and lost 10 pounds. Very empowering. To cap it off, I read a book that declared, “you’re not sick, you’re thirsty.” Being a natural-born teacher, I began to preach that simple message. My daughter and I even taught a community-education class about it. The book connected the dots for me. I’d grown up in the 50’s. No water bottles then. I quickly learned to drink room-temperature, filtered water. Here’s the “not-one-size-fits-all” formula for how much water–divide your weight by two. That’s the number of ounces you need to drink each day for your body. It doesn’t matter if we have clean water in abundance if we don’t drink it.
In an act of serendipity, I learned about The Water Main today in an email. Go to https://www.americanpublicmedia.org/water/ where you’ll see that The Water Main “aims to bring people together, move conversations forward and create meaningful connections that help sustain clean, abundant water for all.”
And right now, The Water Main wants to know how water and faith intersect in your life. You can complete an online form answering guided questions at https://www.publicinsightnetwork.org/source/en/watermain/insight/72dc74bac9c1/how-do-water-and-faith-intersect-in-your-life. Seems to me Lutheran women will have a lot to share, don’t you think?
Your blog today, Valora, made me think about the action taken at the Tenth Triennial Convention (2017) regarding clean water. For our readers’ information, here’s the language that was adopted at the convention:
“RESOLVED that Women of the ELCA and congregational units, individuals and churches affirm this need [for clean and potable water] and be encouraged to act upon it by raising awareness and/or offering tangible support to the people of Flint, Michigan, and
Be it further resolved that synodical women’s organization presidents will report to the 2019 Conference of Presidents the actions taken.”
While the action related specifically to Flint, Mich., I’ve been encouraging women to consider what the needs are in their communities around clean water. Unsafe lead levels in tap water are not limited to Flint; they exist in many places around the country. Let’s address this issue in all our communities.