The Great Water Experiment

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Mine has been fantastic. It included some good food.

Our chef made gluten free mocha chocolate cookies and they were INSANE.

Sunday brunch of a hash with sweet potatoes, eggs, spinach, and fancy cheese from my fruit and cheese of the month club. Good cheese takes the eggs to another level. This month is a citrus ginger, although those notes are very subtle. It’s a fairly strong cheese that almost reminds me of aged gouda.

It included time reconnecting with old friends. This is seriously the best.

It included some awesome times pounding the pavement. Friday night I dragged myself away from Netflix to hit the street in drizzly conditions and I shocked myself when the 4 miles felt fantastic, because I had such low energy. I’ll take it!

Saturday morning was my rest day so I took a little walk while listing to gastroenterolgy podcasts. Look what I found—such a cute idea!

And this morning after a glorious long night of sleep, I did my 5 mile training run which felt good! I’ve gotten spontaneously faster, which is awesome. I didn’t have my watch on pace and just ran what was comfortable. Comfortable seems to have gotten faster, so it looks like my speed work is paying off!

And finally, my weekend included a Stanford baseball game! I legitimately thought I would go to every single game when I was in college, but sadly it’s my senior year and this is the first one I’ve been to! This is definitely going to become a regular thing The weather was warm and sunny, and we won our opening game!

Now, onto the great water experiment. A few weeks ago, I learned that many people (often women) have electrolyte balance issues. They drink lots of water, but still feel thirsty and dehydrated because “plain” water doesn’t have the necessary electrolytes to be absorbed in the bloodstream. This hit a chord with me. I feel like I’m ALWAYS thirsty, and always drinking. These past few months, I felt like my water balance issue was especially getting out of hand, as I was up almost every night. I figured, in the spirit of science, why not conduct a little experiment?

In class, the recommendation we were given was to add a little salt to drinking water. I was a little worried about doing this because a) I have no measuring spoons and b) I tried it one morning and had a mini flare (almost 100% unrelated, but I wanted to be safe). Ever since my ridiculously hot and humid 10 miler in Hawaii with Smartwater, I’ve been a big believer in the effect of the electrolytes in it. For my experiment, I decided that for 3 days, I would drink nothing but Smartwater. These 3 days included teaching 2 spin classes, which I normally get dehydrated from, and one normal day.

The difference was dramatic and immediate. I felt SO much better. Often times, I feel really dehydrated mid-morning after my morning workout, but this wasn’t the case at all. I felt like the water I was drinking was FINALLY going where it was supposed to go, and actually being absorbed. The morning after the first day, I woke up in the morning without a bursting bladder, and to me that was the most dramatic and definitive thing.

Unfortunately, drinking nothing but bottled water can be quite an expensive habit, so I may try adding salt again, or may choose smartwater as my sipping water throughout the day and after workouts, and drink regular water at meals and things like that.

The conclusion? I 100% stand behind the importance of electrolytes in water. If you feel like you’re constantly dehydrated despite constantly drinking, I highly recommend trying this!