Pretty recently, I learned more about the benefits of drinking more water and how it impacts your health. Because of these benefits, I really upped my water intake for awhile, using my strategies on how to drink more water and stay hydrated.
But, life gets busy and it’s easy to lose track of prioritizing your body. Because of this I kind of fell off the way of drinking a ton of water everyday.
Don’t get me wrong I was still drinking water, just not as much as I should’ve been.
However, recently I’ve gotten back on track and let me just say the changes I’ve noticed have been incredible. And, they’re almost instant (which is extremely nice if you’re someone who doesn’t like waiting around for results).
So what are some of the changes I’ve noticed?
My thinking is less foggy
You know the feeling you get by the middle of the day when your eyes can barely focus and your thinking gets insanely cloudy? That’s how I used to feel almost everyday.
It really isn’t a great feeling and it prevents you from wanting to do anything but shut your eyes and fall asleep.
Having felt like this all the time I just assumed it was from working during the day and just normal tiredness in my mind. But really, it’s not.
Since I started drinking more water these past few weeks I hardly ever feel like this at all. My thinking is sharp all throughout the day and I can be so much more productive.
I can move from one task to the next without feeling exhausted and having a headache forming.
I’m certain this change is from being hydrated because even if I don’t drink enough water for just a day, I’ll go right back to this feeling, dry eyes and a cloudy mind.
Less headaches
Much like the tired cloudy mind feeling, I also used to be someone who got headaches almost everyday.
Having headaches would prevent me from being productive and enjoying my day because my head hurt. All I’d want to do is sleep!
Again, I would blame this on staring at my laptop, working, or being in school.
Of course, these still could be contributing factors but yet again this wasn’t the case.
It was until I actually became hydrated that I realized my headaches were actually coming from being dehydrated.
You’d think this would’ve been obvious to me but here’s the thing, I thought I was drinking a lot of water. I’d take an occasional sip here and there and be like okay I’m hydrated now. But that’s not how it works.
You really have to go above and beyond with your water drinking to get all of the benefits from it.
It’s wasn’t until now, when I’m finally truly hydrated that I realized that.
More energy
Before I started drinking enough water, by the time I got to going to the gym by the end of the day I would have almost no energy.
It was crazy, I used to walk into the gym ready to take a nap, not workout. I don’t know how I ever had a good workout when I was so tired like this.
THe craziest part is I thought my tiredness was maybe from not sleeping enough, even though I’d slept for 8 hours, or maybe not eating enough, even though I had already eaten.
I would’ve never thought this tiredness would’ve been from my dehydration.
You never really think that water can give you energy, since no one ever really talks about it. But water is so essential to every part of your body functioning that it makes perfect sense why you need it.
And once my muscles were more hydrated, they would have much more energy going into the gym.
Better performance in the gym
Like I said before, a lot of times I used to find myself walking in the gym feeling so tired as soon as I got there. Before I even started working out!
Now that I’m hydrated though, I feel more ready than ever to work out. I have so much more energy going into the gym, it’s life changing.
This increased energy not only increased my desire to go to the gym, it also increased my performance in the gym!
Since I started properly hydrating, all of my lifts have gone up. I can lift heavier and train harder than ever without feeling exhausted.
I can more easily push myself to failure and push much more weight. I actually find myself wanting to stay in the gym longer because I have way more energy than I used to.
All of this is because water is essential for delivering nutrients to your muscles. It’s what carries protein and glycogen structures to your muscles to use as energy.
As a result of drinking more water, your muscles will get more nutrients, perform better, and grow more.
On top of all of that, I was always someone who would get dizzy and nauseous during my workouts. This would usually happen between my sets and I’d feel like I was on the verge of passing out.
I still feel like this occasionally, but much less often then I used to. I can definitely say that being hydrated has improved this dramatically.
My muscles look fuller
When I say water is going to make your muscles look bigger and better, they’re going to look bigger and better.
Recently I had a leg day and on that day I drank so much water. I was seriously so hydrated. I had such a nice lift but that’s not all. When I got back from the gym, my legs looked HUGE.
I’m telling you my legs looked so much bigger and I was trying so hard to figure out how they got so big so quickly. The answer was simple, I was finally hydrated!
I didn’t know being hydrated could have such an impact on not only the way my muscles performed, but also the way they looked. I mean it makes sense though, since our bodies are made up of mostly water.
This is because, when your muscles are dehydrated, it’s almost as if they shrivel up like raisins. But when you hydrate them, they turn into grapes!
This isn’t actually what happens but that’s how I like to think of it. I want my muscles to be grapes; nicely full and hydrated.
So yes, drink lots of water to fill up your muscles and make them look as big as they should. If you feel like your muscles aren’t as big as they should be, it’s likely because they’re low on water, not on muscle.
I can’t wait to see the other changes I notice…
These are just the improvements I’ve noticed so far, and so far they’ve been huge for me!
I feel so much better just from the short term improvements, I can’t wait to see what the long term improvements will be!
I’ll be sure to keep tracking how my life changes from staying hydrated and hopefully you do, too.