PSSST! Eat More Water.

The road to wellness is an uphill climb, and the road to un-wellness is a slippery slope, made slipperier by pork fat and ice cream. It doesn’t take much to get off course: An injury, an illness, a lot of late nights at work or up with baby, any kind of stress really. Conversely, too much fun can also cause problems. Skipping the gym for happy hour too frequently or going on a vacation can screw things up too. Anything that gets you out of your routine or causes you to be extra tired is a “really good” excuse to eat badly and avoid exercise.

Then there are the seasonal temptations: Holiday Season, Fondue Season, Cinnamon and/or Chocolate Heart Season, Girl Scout Cookie Season, Jelly Bean Season, Wedding Season, BBQ Season, and Halloween. The effects of many of these are easy to hide during Sweater Season, but then, before you’re ready: BIKINI SEASON.

But if we start now, maybe there’s hope! In my house, (which is not an actual house) it’s time to rededicate ourselves to a healthy lifestyle. Or, as my adoring husband said just a few days ago “We need to go on a diet.” I believe my response was “But we JUST got the Girl Scout cookies!” And also, I don’t want to go on a diet. I do, however, want to eat better and get back to the gym. *Daintily nibbles a Thin Mint.*

My guide will be a fascinating book I read last fall, called: The Water Secret: The Cellular Breakthrough to Look and Feel 10 Years Younger. It was written by Dr. Howard Murad. (Yes, THAT Dr. Murad.) The main premise is: “The key to vibrant health from the inside out lies in maintaining strong cells that can retain water the way younger cells do.” Ooh! I want to be VIBRANT! “When our cells are not fully hydrated, they deteriorate and cannot function at their peak level. This leads to the tissue damage we refer to as aging.” As we get older, we get more and more dehydrated, as my dermatologist demonstrated by pinching the skin on the back of my hand, in comparison to pinching the skin on the back of her hand. Her skin took (creepily) longer to bounce back. I’m fairly certain I didn’t appropriately hide my horror. Dehydration not only has the potential to make us look like The Cryptkeeper, but it makes us tired and susceptible to disease as well.

Great! Now we know the secret! But how do we get the water to get back into our cells and stay there? By EATING water as opposed to just drinking it. In fact, Dr. Murad says that drinking eight glasses of water a day is a sham (his words) and will just make you pee a lot (not his exact words.) Instead, he wants us to cram our diets with foods that have a lot of water in them— fruits and vegetables. When you drink water, it goes through your system quickly. When you eat water in the form of produce, it stays in your system longer which allows your body to put it to better use. Plus, fruits and vegetables are high in fiber, nature’s broom, and vitamins, nature’s vitamins!

The book goes into a lot more detail about all the things you can do/eat to hydrate yourself and strengthen your cell walls. It’s more than just eating more fruits and veggies, even though that’s really important. It explains the difference between the good water in your cells and the bad water outside your cells, which makes you bloated. It also has get-off-your-ass facts like: The difference between a 40 year old that looks 60 and a 60 year old that looks 40 is maintenance. One of the book’s strengths is that it’s really inspiring, both in a “You can do it!” way, and in a “Seriously, you should take better care of yourself” way. It’s not crazy or extreme or starve-y. It’s not a diet book, although there are examples of meal plans and some recipes. Of course, exercise is part of it as well, since lean tissue holds more water than fat. Dr. Murad explains how getting fit and hydrated will rev up your metabolism.

Personally, I’ve been recovering from an injury for the last 8 weeks or so, and haven't been working out. I've also been indulging in the sweets a little (A LOT), plus take-out when I was too incapacitated to cook. It's definitely time to clean up my diet. And though I'm still in physical therapy, I'm finally at a point where I’m allowed to hit the gym a little. For the rest of March, I’m going to try to work out once per week. In April, I’ll try to go two times per week, and then in May, three times per week. (Then I’ll just try to keep that up.) I encourage all of you to incrementally boost your physical activity too, assuming you could use a boost. Otherwise, keep up the good work!

We all know people (picture them jogging in place) who are like “I can’t live without my workouts!” and “Just a tiny slice of pie for me, please! ” And while they can somewhat annoying, let’s try (again) to be just a little bit more like them. If only so they don’t look better than us.