Hydration - Are you drinking enough?

Next in the series of posts is my hot button - HYDRATION!  I am one of those people that just doesn't like water.  I know, it's bizarre but I have met a few people that don't like it either, but it's rare.  I'm a work in progress, so I'm trying.

Here are a few things that D and I drink.  Somethings are daily and some are maybe once a week or even a few sips every day.  Electrolytes are at the top of our daily beverages as well as iced coffees (summertime!).  I love sparkling flavored water and mineral waters.  As my splurge, I will have coconut water.  This one happens to be chocolate, I was encouraged to try it and it tastes just like chocolate milk. 

We can't forget that we do get some water from our foods as well.  More so from unprocessed whole foods.  I just made this smoothie bowl which has blue/green algae, avocado and vanilla protein powder.  Not only am I getting fats and proteins but I am getting some hydration in as well.  I usually have consumed coffee in the morning, which depending on your body, can be a diuretic.  What does that mean, isn't coffee made with water?!  Yes, it is, but caffeine can negate the benefit of water and can deplete your hydration levels.  It's best to add more water to your daily consumption based on your coffee or caffeine consumption.

What are the benefits of drinking the proper amount of water for you and what is the proper amount?

Water is the most important nutrient in the body making up approximately 55 to 60% of our total mass.  We can go for weeks without food but only days without water.

Benefits include:

delivering oxygen

transporting nutrients

easier breathing

absorbs shock

regulates body temperature

removes wastes

aids in healing

We produce 8% through metabolic processes and we need to consume 92% through drinking and eating.  That is a significant amount if you ask me!  Amy Kubal wrote a great article that you can read here from Robb Wolf's site.

DEHYDRATION!!

It's bigger than what you think.  You could be dehydrated right now.  I know you are saying you aren't thirsty, so you're not dehydrated, right?!  Not so fast.  Remember above, we need to consume 92% from food and beverages.  I barely drink right now, so I rely on food.  That's a lot of food to consume for that big percentage.  I'm not thirsty right now, but I bet I'm dehydrated.

If we are dehydrated it can cause fatigue.  So if you are sleepy right now reading this, go have some water and let me know how you feel after.  It can cause health problems such as digestive issues, cardiovascular, immune and musculoskeletal.  So basically every part of your body can have an issue by just not drinking enough water!  So, what am I doing right now?

DRINKING WATER!

I have a Berkey water filtration system, so I know my water is good for me.  Stay away from bottled water as the plastics can leach into the water.  If you want bottled than stick to glass or invest in a good quality non-plastic bottle (NO STRAW EITHER, unless its metal)

I also like to drink out of random glasses, mugs and jugs! Ha ha!

So what are the proper guidelines?  As a base, the amount you should consume in ounces is your body weight (in lbs) divided by 2.  I should be drinking about 60 ounces.  I roughly weigh 120 lbs.  Now you might be better off with a little more or a little less depending on your activities and the other beverages (non-caffeinated) you drink.  You can click here to take you to a handy calculator to see what the proper ratio could be for you.  If you would like to see when you should take in more water, you can read that here.

This isn't a long post but just a reminder to drink more water.  Sip it throughout the day, still, drink your coffee or tea and then get back to the water.

I am on day 3 of drinking more and I am noticing digestive improvements!  Yay!  I'm also generally feeling pretty good.  I drink mine with a couple pinches of Himalayan sea salt.  Getting those minerals in too!

How are you making sure you are drinking enough water?  What tips would you give to someone who is less than excited to drink it?

Pancake fail, temperature drop and meditation

I have been able to do a lot more reading!  YES!  That's two-fold.  First reading, just something that I have enjoyed doing in the past.  Second, that I can read without falling asleep almost instantly.  I know I am still a long way from completely being in remission from Hashimoto's and I say say remission since you can never be cured of it.  In the past any time I picked up a book I would get drowsy or I could really comprehend what I was reading and had to go over the sentence, paragraph or page over again.  Completely frustrating as you may know!  So this is huge anyway since I will be starting classes in September (NTC - Nutritional Therapy) and need to have my brain!  I did purchase all my books and hope to read a majority of them before that time.

Currently I am reading Izabella Wentz's book The Root Cause.

It's been eye opening and so factual and happy that I am doing most of the things in the book and thinking of the things that are keeping my symptoms around.  Like a broken tooth (maybe?), the spot on my leg I just had biopsied.  This books really gets you thinking on how your Hashimoto's started, why it could be getting worse and what you need to do to heal yourself so you can manage the autoimmune disease.  I have mentioned for me there are certain things that I need to keep in check and sometimes it's harder than others to manage them.

Now to my pancake fail and that I will be trying again this week.  I think my problem with the gelatin egg was that I was doing too many other things and I let it sit too long (it was a blob!) so I couldn't get it to incorporate well and the pancakes turned into a gooey mess!  The mix was super chunky.  When I post this it will be Thursday and it's breakfast for dinner night and I will try out my recipe again and hopefully have success.

Except they were gooey and almost translucent, okay yeah I had one goop apart too!  UGH!!

I feel like I'm all over the place but this is the top things that are happening right now!  I changed my thyroid meds recently as I mentioned earlier from Armour to a natural thyroid and my body temp has been low, but I feel hot as hell!  I am running between 94.6 and 96.8 on an average.  I know this is a sign of my thyroid not being too happy but I know I need to wait it out and see the adjustments.  I'm cooler in the morning and then higher in the afternoon and then go back down in the evening, typically.  I'm still tracking it and will for a while.

Stress management and meditation!  This is so important to mine and everyone's health and it's the thing I have had a problem with doing the most of!  I mean I struggle with it.  It's nothing that takes a long time - 5, 10 maybe more minutes.  This is not a lot and yet I find I can't even do it.  I feel like I need to be doing all the there things and I don't.  I have the mind set that I need to do all the things during the morning and day and at night when I get home I don't want to do anything or go anywhere.  Probably why I don't like to go to the gym after work and it's just insanely crowded (more on weekly workouts soon).

I think I'm nailing it this week, like a boss.  I'm not setting any time goal.  If it's before bed and I can do 5 minutes I will do that.  I was at the doctor's office waiting and I took the time to meditate while I sat there on the table.  I mean come on!  This can be done anywhere!  I don't have to be at home on some yoga pillow.  If I have a few minutes at work I am going to do that there as well.  I think taking those breaks at work will be extremely helpful.  So much going through my head right now and I know meditation is the way to go.  Not only will it help keep my stress level down but also help me shuffle through my thoughts and make clear decisions on things to do and how to plan.

Father's Day & A book review

Father's Day 

What a great day it has been!  I got up early - no surprise there.  Nostrand had been bugging me for hours to get up and feed her.  The pups were snuggled in bed with me and D.  It was cozy, but I couldn't lay there any longer.  I got to feed the cat and let the pups outside before I fed them too.  Once they were taken care of, I changed, stretched and headed out for my usual Sunday run of 6 miles.

It was windy and a bit humid so I got super sweaty.  Unfortunately the run pretty much sucked.  I take it pretty easy anyway but I had to take 2 very short walk breaks.  I'm going to just say that I probably didn't need to drink 2 glasses of wine last night at dinner.

Yeah, sweaty and this is how I felt about this run.  They all can't be great, right?!  Damn I wish they were and my pace was 3 minutes faster like it use to be.  Not that I have given up hope!  So, I went inside and D got up.  I did a mobile Starbuck's order.  I got a venti iced coffee with coconut milk and D a grande iced caramel macchiato.

It was really good and took me the morning to drink it.  I am happy to say that I have not had any adverse reactions to coffee since adding it back into my rotation.  I do try to stick with organic coffee when I can and try to limit it to only on the weekend when possible.  It's just sometimes it just tastes really good.  I had my now typical breakfast that I won't bore you with a picture of, I didn't take one either.  Today was 2 scoops of protein powder mixed with water to make a thick pudding, a banana, 1/2 tbs hemp hearts and cashew/coconut butter blend.  Again, I have successfully introduced these things into my rotation.  I am though questioning the cashew butter just a bit and only have a tablespoon left.  So n=1, I will take it out and not open another jar for a week or so to see how my skin looks.  This is my biggest indicator that something isn't always right.  If I'm breaking out then I am over doing something.  I also didn't have dairy today, but yesterday I did.  Again, trying to not go more than 3 days per week with dairy.  When I do have it, it's high quality, grass fed yogurt with 5 grams of sugar or less.  Cheese on the other hand makes my stomach grumbly and that I am not a fan of.

My sister and her kids met myself and my dad and his wife at the club for brunch and it was fabulous!  Not just the company, but brunch too!

The only thing that could have been is if this was real bacon and not turkey bacon!  LOL - all good!

Dad and I!

Not sure what D and I are going to do tonight yet.  Whatever he wants though, it is his day!

My other fabulous thing from this is week is, I read a book!  Start to finish in only a couple days.  Big deal you say, really it is!  Prior to getting some healing done anything I even started to read would put me to sleep instantly.  This has gone on FOR YEARS!  So yeah, this is a huge deal!

Well, what did you read, you may be asking.  I read Elle Russ's book The Paleo Thyroid Solution.

My overall thoughts about this book are fabulous.  There is some great information in there about the tests that you should be looking to get if you suspect you have a thyroid issue and even if you currently have a thyroid problem but not getting the right tests done or possibly not on the right medication.  The types of medication opened my eyes a little more as well.  While I did my own research for about 6 months prior to going on Armour Thyroid, I have decided to ask my endocrinologist about switching my medication to WP Thyroid since it has less inactive ingredients in it and I don't believe I'm optimized on my current medication.  Elle also explains in very simple terms what is happening to the thyroid, processes and not reacting, and what happens when the pituitary gland and the thyroid are not communicating.  I know everyone out there with a thyroid problem has met a number of doctors who just won't listen and that it takes years to finally get a proper diagnosis and the maybe a few more years to get the right medications.  Elle, like many of us in the AIP/Hashimoto community have done this as well.  We are more than thankful for the Facebook communities that are there to listen and help us on our journeys.  I only have one downfall to this book (but it's her story so I love it too!) is that she focuses on Reverse T3 issues, which I don't have.  So, I think this would be a great book for someone who has this particular issue.  Reading this book has made me curious to read Isabella Wentz's books on thyroid/Hashimoto's.  I have read from so many how this book was a huge game changer for them as well.

Overall this is a fabulous book that I would encourage those with a thyroid issue to read for sure.  Since knowledge is power and anyone with thyroid problems know that symptoms can swing in many ways and we are in constant check to make sure that we keep our flares to a minimum and know what to do if we get into one and how to try to avoid them as well.

I'm looking to gain more knowledge and am so looking forward to becoming an NTC and helping those out there that can't get the help they need.

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Weekend Recap

Ah, the long weekend!  

What isn't there not to love?!  They can be lazy or productive or both!  They usually end with wine!

I did forget to go to a birthday party though!  Oops! I was so busy Saturday that I totally forgot.  I got up my usual time which is generally between 7 and 7:30.  I did 45 minutes of cardio then went out for coffee and made breakfast.  Weekends it seems I like to get all my workouts in at home, so I will continue that until I prefer to go to the gym.  I did some upper body in the weight room (basement).  I need to get a few more weights then I think I will be all set.  The adjustable weights would be great!  For right now at least. I like the look of these!

Saturday morning cuteness right here!  How can you not love a kitty cuddled up in a blanket?!  Ok, if you are a dog lover than this isn't the cutest.  But, I post about the pups all over the place! 

Nostrand in her chair and blankets

Week 3 of project walkway and I finally finished it!  Yes, I did this all by myself.  No help, except for bringing in the pea gravel because my back just couldn't take anymore lifting.  I moved enough bags of sand from Home Depot to the car then to the backyard.

For dinner we went to Mt. Chalet - right across the street.  We went there all sweaty and sat outside.  Me sweaty from my morning workout and then my walkway and D from riding.  Their burgers are just so good!  Piedmontese burger with bacon, coleslaw and guacamole!  Guacamole on everything!  What can be better?!

I wanted a treat and a cold hard cider sounded so good.  It had a hint of cherry, yum!  Zombie Killer - not my favorite name but worth it!  It was cold and more sugar than I have had in a while, I didn't even drink it all.

Sunday morning I wanted a smoothie bowl.  This isn't the prettiest or most elaborate one by far - there are so many out there.  I stumbled on Earthy Andy, check out her site - everything is so bright and delicious looking.  My smoothie bowl has a whole banana -which is more than I should be eating in a single day, but I only eat fruit once or twice a week.  I added Maple Hill Creamery plain greek yogurt to my shake mix and topped it with a coconut/peanut butter mix.

Sunday night some storms came in, though not nearly what they were suppose to be.  None the less Jack hates any loud noises and was just shaking.  So we wrapped him in his thunder shirt which helps and gave him his duck for comfort.  It definitely helped.

There really isn't too much more to the weekend -Monday was pretty much the same even though it was the holiday.  I worked out at home, D went riding and we headed to my dad's for dinner by the pool.

Some things I am working on that I will be writing about soon.

Beautycounter - I'm a consulant now.  Visit my page to learn more. http://www.beautycounter.com/heathermattice

Nutritional Therapy  - going to start down that path in September!

Last "official" appointment with Dr. Brett Allen and lab results.

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