I am not talking about getting caught out in the rain, or standing in a shower, no I am talking about hydration, or more importantly dehydration. I have always tried to drink the recommended amount, which here in the UK is about 1 to 2 litres in winter rising to 2+ litres in the summer, but this is just a rough guide, and because I drink around 2 litres every day I must be on the safe side, well no.

After I switched to a LCHF diet and lost a lot of weight in a fairly short period I decided that the last 60 lbs. would be lost more gradually over about twelve months, and I was losing around 11/2 lbs. per week so I was well on target, but then it suddenly stopped. Several other things started to change around the same time, for me the worst was getting constipation again, something that had not happened since I stopped eating any wheat products, and eating more of a plant based diet. The first thing I think about when it comes to constipation and hard stools is a lack of fibre, and not getting enough exercise, and with my leg problem exercise is something I am not getting enough of, so problem solved or is it?

Two other problems I was suffering were a general lack of energy, and headaches, again something I had not been having problems with since I changed my diet. The other problem that goes with a lack of energy and a headache is your ability to be able to concentrate on a task. I tried to back track to see if I had changed anything subconsciously but all I came up with was that I was eating a few more roasted almonds as I keep a bowl on my desk, but my basic diet had not changed. Diet wise the only changes I have made are to increase the amount of Turmeric I use and also I have started using Cumin as an antioxidant, but that can only improve things not cause complications.

Sometimes it’s easy to miss the obvious because if it was not my diet causing my problems what was it, and the answer was temperature, the weather had got warmer and it had made quite a big temperature change in my work room with my equipment on, especially my flat screen monitors. All I needed to do was up my water intake to a minimum of 3 litres a day and in a couple of days everything was back to normal. What threw me was the fact that I didn’t feel thirsty, but the rise in temperature, combined with eating more almonds, which are dry so they are taking water from your body. It doesn’t take a lot to cause problems, so if you start feeling tired or you are getting headaches drink a glass of water and wait fifteen minutes and see how you feel, chances are you will feel better. What I do now is have a 1 pint glass of water with me and drink it over about an hour; you don’t want to gulp down too much at once as it just dilutes your body’s electrolyte. So you are better to drink more than you need rather than not enough, and even a gallon a day is not too much.

Wishing you the best of health until next time