Regular hydration. Step One to becoming your healthier better self.

As the all-round water baby this Healthy Head Honcho is, I have a hydrating drink in hand all the time. My favourite way to hydrate is to drink really warm almost hot water, regularly. I call this ‘first breakfast’. This is my way of enjoying healthy living, with super hydration. Likewise by incorporating delicious and super hydrating healthy habits you can become your healthier better self.

Regularly hydrate

If you can aim to enjoy the diverse varieties of hydration listed below as part of the healthy drinks in a healthier diet, you will find the following short and long term benefits:

1. Clearer skin: fewer clogged pores, as the body breathes better when hydrated.
2. An energised mind, a clear head with reduced brain fog.
3. Efficient internal workings; digestion, mineral absorption, assisting your organs with their key activities.

Here’s our best drinks list for hydration with better options listed above the next best option. Let’s aim for our healthier better self:

1. Filtered water:
   • Tap water, that has been boiled, cooled and past through a filter, to remove chemicals and impurities. You can prepare and filter your own water in this way. There are clay pot solutions with filters you can get to help with this at home, or you can attach a filter to your tap.
2. Bottled water:
   • Depends on what water was bottled, and whether any of the plastic has leeched into the water (microplastics). Don’t keep your bottles of drinking water in a hot car or in the sun. It increases the chances of weakening the plastic, so that microplastics do end up in your water, and then in you.
3. Tap water:
   • Generally room temperature, or pipe temperature rather – straight from the tap. The chemicals and processes added to tap water differ by municipality and region. You might not be use to another regions tap water, which is why travelers in general are asked to stick to bottled water.
4. Warm water:
   • Sometimes this is easier to swallow than cold.
5. Cold water:
   • Delicious if you are prepared for it.
6. Herbal Infusions:
   • Adding in either dried or fresh herbs such as thyme, mint, rosemary, bayleaf or even the zest of lemon or oranges, changes the taste of your water filled glass – making a more pleasant way to take in this life giving liquid.
7. Fruit Infusions:
   • Adding in slices of lemon, cucumber, apple or pear, even a segment of orange or a few fresh berries can make a delicious and refreshing change to your cooling drink. I love the idea of first drinking my fruit salad, and then snacking on what’s left.
8. Spiced Infusions or Spiced Teas:
   • If you use pure spices in your water, such as our blended ranged of Spiced Teas, you can get the multitude of benefits from those spices being ingested.
9. Acidic Additions:
   • Lemon juice or pickle juice or vinegars of any kind – such as apple cider vinegar. Studies have shown that these drinks affect, in a positive way, how the carbohydrates in your next meal are processed. So start loving some pickle juice – just remember that acidic drinks can affect the enamel of your teeth, so mind the timing of these drinks, and brush those pearly whites and clean your tongue well before bedtime, to ensure your teeth and mouth have enough time to repair and strengthen no matter what you’ve ingested during the day.

Let’s not forget the ICE!

Sunny South Africa, we’re a pretty hot place. Where I’m from, it rains all the time, and hits the ground that’s so warm it’s immediately turned into steam – breathing there is like breathing in water – which I love because I’m such a water baby. Pity about the hair in that weather. Very different to the inland, where its just hot! But I can have perfect hair days. Lol. So add ice cubes to your drink, make sure you enjoy it!! Try to change your preferences from heavier caloric drinks to light refreshing ones!! This summer – let’s adopt this change. Love your drinks!!

Drinks that you can add Milk / Milk Alternatives and Sweetening Alternatives to:

1. Rooibos Tea: This is a form of herbal infusion. Made from a plant native to South Africa’s western Cape region – the Aspalathus linearis plant. Rooibos gives such a delightful florally taste, and sometimes the brand grown in even slightly different regions taste different. I add lemon to mine, and sometimes spice to get in those anti-inflammation benefits amped. Hot or cold – I love Rooibos.
2. Teas: Green Teas, Black Teas and also Matcha: Camellia sinensis plant: Teas contain small amounts of caffeine, which can trigger mild responses in your body, perhaps slightly dehydrating. However if you have other more pure forms of water also in your system, this should not be a problem. Also the caffeine founds in teas and matcha are different to the caffeines found in coffee, and they have other benefits. This is my go to drink, first thing in the morning – even though I’ve always been a version of the “Energiser Bunny”, I still love having something that provides clean energy and greens at the absolute start of my morning. Just after 1st Breakfast, hot water.
3. Coffees: Despite caffeine being slightly dehydrating, I feel it has a purpose that can be used optimally. Since I limit my caffeine intake, by drinking the more natural alternatives, I feel the smallest hint of caffeine in my system. I use coffee for my purpose. I use this to my advantage. If I plan a workout for the afternoon, and need an energy kick to start of the workout I will drink a small black coffee. And if I’m being 100% honest, I add a spice blend to my coffee – giving it an Arabic Turkish vibe, including the grounds at the end. No need for sweeteners with this addition.

A note on the using Milk / Milk Alternatives in your drinks.

It increases calories. Hence it turns a 0 Calorie Drink, into a Calorie containing Meal. Also your body treats milk and milk alternatives as a food not as pure hydration – and releases different chemicals to manage this. So – my preference, have all your favourite drinks without additions first, and then see if you really feel like the one with milk. For a Future Post, I will expand on this.

A note on using Sweeteners in your drinks.

A note on using Sweeteners in your drinks: It increases calories or chemical quantities in your body. Consequently it turns a Cleansing Drink, into a Something Else, perhaps a Meal or perhaps a Chemical Concoction. For a Future Post, I will expand on this.

Eating hydration, to become your healthier better self.

I believe that the more hydration you have the better. I apply this logic even to my animals – wetting their food, so the dry pellets don’t suck all the moisture out of them in the digestion process.

Clean, washed raw vegetables and fruits, can make you feel full on less, as they are full of water and then nutrition in the forms of fiber, minerals and vitamins.

In addition, foods like Chia Maria (you hydrate the seeds in preparation), add moisture into your system as well as nutrition, making you feel full with less calories, if you choose the liquids added carefully. Its why your system feels great once you’ve made this a regular addition to your meal plans.

Let’s talk juices

For the above items, I’ve shared options that are 75% pure water. For these you’re adding something like fruit flavours or a tea bag in order to impart flavours. But… there is also the exciting world of juices and those also offer hydration. Again, I’m listing our better choices higher than the next best choice.

• Fresh vegetable juices with pulp. You can strain out the pulp, but be sure to incorporate it in your foods like yoghurts or humus in order do get that fibrous benefits. My favourite veggie juices recipe is half a bushel of celery juice with a stick of ginger and half an apple. Remember that veggies are sometimes hard to juice. Give your juicer a break every 20 seconds or so, and add water into the mix, and cut the vegetables into small pieces even before you get started.
• Fresh fruit juices with pulp. Yum. Add water to the blender. Remember fresh fruit has naturally occurring sugars, and by blending it into a juice, you are remove half of the digestion effort for your body.

A note on ingredients. The more local and organic the better. Take care to clean organic ingredients well, as insects also love clean, chemical free fruit and vegetables. You want the veggie that an insect has bitten into, he’s tested it out, and his bite confirms – no life killing chemicals here. Clean and slice all veggies upfront, so you can see the state of the veggies, inside and outside.

What to stay away from in order to become your healthier better self?

• Drinks with a long list of ingredients you cannot pronounce.
• Juices with added preservatives.
• Drinks with added sugars.
• Drinks with artificial sweeteners and flavourants.
  • Do the ant test. The experiment where you pour some artificially sweetened drinks in a saucer, and leave it close to an ant hill. See if the ants even come close vs something that has old fashioned sugar in it. The ants steer clear of that stuff, makes you wonder what they know. For a Future Post – will share a video, showing you this.
• Carbonated drinks. Cold drinks – Colas.
  • Want to stop your kids from drinking colas? Do the piece of meat on a straw inserted in cola experiment. It will take half an hour to cook that piece of meat, and you can have the discussion with your child on whether something that can cook raw meat is really good for their systems. For a Future Post – will share a video, showing you this.
• Long life fruit juices filled with sugars.
  • Does your waistline need more sugar?
• Things listed as energy drinks, with caffeine.
  • Rather have a single coffee. Does your heart really need the caffeine of 10 coffees at once?

How do you know that you are getting the benefits of being hydrated properly?

You need to know the colour of your urine. Not quite the purpose of this article, but basically – if its super colourful (very yellow), you need to drink more water i.e. H20. Your urine should be almost clear. That would indicate a healthy urine colour.

Side Note: Reuse and Recycle

I have a dedicated jam-jar (the ones use to store pickles in) which I love to drink from. It’s hardened glass won’t shatter like other glass dealing with temperature changing liquids. Normal, even expensive, juice serving tumblers are not made to deal with hot and boiling water. They will shatter, and broken glass is no joke.

Jam-Jars or Pickle Jars are great to re-use in this manner, because very hot water is used in the pickling process to disinfect this glass, so that the pickles, stay pickles. The method to best achieve perfect warm water first, is to pour room temperature water first into the jam-jar, and then to top with hot water until you achieve the temperature of water you desire. Other benefits of using a Jam-Jar, if I leave it outside, which sometimes happens, it’s not the end of the world versus if I left something more expensive to damage outside. Wallet hurt! Ouch!

Check out the rest of our posts here.

For additional information on the benefits of being hydrated, why not have a gander at these resources below:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/how-much-water-should-you-drink

https://www.cdc.gov/healthy-weight-growth/water-healthy-drinks/index.html

This is a part of our Quick Guide to becoming healthier!

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