Do you know how to detect dehydration?

 
We hope you are finding new ways to quench your thirst and stay hydrated. If you've been following along with our Drink Up! mini resolution, then you know we are suggesting drinking 8 cups of water a day AND we are encouraging folks to check their urine for hydration status! Here is that chart again in case you need it.

But are there other ways to detect dehydration?
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​Dehydration Devices

 
Wearable devices which detect hydration levels are rapidly entering the market. Here are a few:

1. This watch is strictly for measuring hydration status, it can be paired with an app for logging your water consumption: Hydrostasis GECAᵀᴹ Watch
   
   
2. Have an Apple watch? Try one of these hydration detecting bands : Thirsty work: Living with a hydration tracking strap for Apple Watch - Wareable. Bonus? It also measures your body composition
   
   
3. This arm band (https://hdroptech.com/ ) can be used during exercise but also adds a spot check option using a finger reading.
   
   
4. Sweaty workouts? Don’t want another band? Maybe consider this patch that can read your electrolytes and determine your refilling needs.

 
That’s all for now. Next week, we’ll recap our Motivated Mondays progress thus far. Feel free to email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele at [email protected] with your individual questions.

Aging and Dehydration
 
Welcome to Week 2 of our resolution to drink up! This week, we would like to start with why we are more susceptible to dehydration as we age and share strategies to drink more water.
 
Evolutionarily speaking, the human body has been considered its own portable water supply. 80% of the human total body water is carried in our muscles. And as mentioned last week, 80% of our brain is composed of water, much of which is found in specific types of cells called astrocytes. In essence, our body creates water cisterns or reserves upon which to rely in times of scarcity (i.e., reduced water consumption).
 
Our water reserves also function as thirst centers, informing the brain to drink up. But as we age, the number of astrocytes in our brains reduces, limiting the availability of water to support brain function. In other words, smaller reserves/thirst centers = less signaling to the brain. The icing on the cake? As we age, these signals to our brains register smaller amounts of water as “enough,” further limiting our thirst receptors.
 
Furthermore, age-related reductions in muscle mass mean a smaller water reservoir from which the body can rely on when consumption is inadequate. This loss of muscle mass is exacerbated by inactivity and low protein consumption.
 
The bottom line is older adults are unlikely to feel thirsty even when they are dehydrated. This is why understanding your own urine (color and smell) is so important! Your urine will let you know if you need fluids before your brain will.
 

Creative Ways to Drink More Water
 
How can you drink more water? Here are some tips:
 
If you find water boring, make it fancy:

• Infuse it with fresh fruit (lemons, raspberries, cucumbers) or herbs (mint/basil).
• Put it on ice. Make ice cubes out of blended fruit and add the cubes to your water.
• Add water enhancers like flavored powders and capsules like Cure. But be sure to read labels for weird ingredients, additives or high sugar content—no sense making a good thing bad!
• Make it bubbly. Carbonated water works too! Just read the labels for sweeteners and additives if you are buying the flavored variety.
• Add antioxidants. When made fresh, unsweetened iced tea (green or black) not only tastes refreshing when it hydrates but also adds antioxidants. Bottled, canned and powdered teas lose their antioxidant potency.
• Chill out. Herbal teas (e.g., chamomile, Sleepy Time) can be served hot or cold and function to relax you.
• Get hot. While relaxing in the air conditioning, a steaming hot cup of broth does the trick quite nicely.

 
Consciously make it part of your day:

• Set a timer. Some people simply forget to drink water throughout the day. Setting timers or alarms on your smart phone can help you remember to grab some fluids.
  
  

• Log it in your diary. Keeping track of your daily water consumption (as we are here) can help you connect your symptoms with the amount of water you have consumed so you may determine your ideal daily allotment range
  
  
• Take it with you. If it’s at home, you can’t drink it! Invest in a fun, BPA-free bottle to stay with you when you are on the go. Here are some smart water bottles that remind you to drink water.

 
Or you can even eat your water!
 
Roughly 16% of our daily water intake comes from food.  Choosing foods higher in water content can be a better option when trying to stay hydrated. Some options include:

• Celery
• Watermelon
• Cucumber
• Melon
• Berries
• Iceberg lettuce
• Citrus fruits
• Tomatoes

 
That’s all for now. See you next week for an interesting look at signs of dehydration. Feel free to email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele at [email protected] with your individual questions.

​Introducing Your NEW Mini Resolution: Drink Up!
 
We hope you had a nice weekend! What will we resolve to do this month? This month, we have hydration on tap—no pun intended!

The specifics of our resolution can be found below (scroll down past the blue box!). But first, let's discuss hydration and brain health.

June's Mini Resolution Specifics

For our purposes this month we will be looking to consume and log 8 cups of water a day, and we also want you to become familiar with the color and odor of your urine, because it is a good indicator of hydration status.
 
A well-hydrated individual’s urine is ideally the color of lemonade or light beer with a slight odor. If it is darker than suggested or if it has an overly strong odor or one isn’t urinating with some degree of frequency, dehydration may have set in. (Alternatively, if you want to be more scientific, you can purchase urine sticks and review color changes in specific gravity section on the chart provided—this is NOT for everyone!)
 
Here is a link to understanding the color of your urine.

If your urine is consistently darker than you think it should be, here are a few reasons that may explain why.
 
Keep in mind, urine can also be red, brown, purple or green for reasons NOT related to hydration (foods, supplements, medications, infections, etc.). If in doubt, try contacting your concierge physician for guidance.
 
By the way, you CAN over-hydrate! This is why becoming familiar with your urine is so important!
 
Below is your logging calendar. Notice we continue to log sleep, exercise and meals with added sugar! Remember, these resolutions build habits that, if maintained throughout the year, contribute to optimized lifestyle actions that are beneficial for building brawny brains.

Feel free to email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele at [email protected] with your individual questions.

Fitness Tracker Benefits & Considerations
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At this point in your exercise journey, you may be considering a fitness tracker but perhaps you are confused about which is the best option for you. Your decision will depend on your personal activity and what features are important to you. Below are a few considerations to contemplate before heading to the mall or firing up the computer to make your fitness tracker purchase:
 

• 24/7 heartrate tracking—this provides valuable information about your heartrate not only during exercise (i.e. how hard are you working?) but also at rest, which can then be reviewed with your physician. For example, an elevated resting heart rate can indicate dehydration, inadequate sleep, changes in certain medications, too much caffeine intake, and excessive stress.
  
  Some of the newer techie versions even provide heartrate variability (HRV) data, which is a metric with growing interest because it’s a measure of how quickly your body recovers from stress.
  
  
• Sleep tracking—many devices have the added feature of tracking your sleep. They can provide information about your tosses and turns, wakefulness and sleep quality. Critically, it will also tell you how much sleep you actually get because time spent in a bed doesn’t necessarily equate with the number of hours slept. A bonus feature is when you don’t have to tell it you are heading to bed, it just “knows” when you have hit the hay.
  
  
• Steps—daily steps are considered an important metric for maintaining health. Note that some devices aren’t sensitive enough to weed out activities like knitting or typing from actual steps, so do your due diligence with your research and read the reviews. Also, most phones track steps, but then you miss out on the data when you aren’t in possession of your phone and, as mentioned, the number of overall daily steps is an important metric.
  
  

• Calories—a word of caution: if you are trying to lose or gain weight, then do not rely solely on fitness trackers! They can over or underestimate your daily expenditure by as much as 1,000 calories. Trust us, we were crazy enough to try wearing four devices at once for the purpose of comparison.
  
  
• GPS—if your physical activities take you outdoors, the GPS feature may be good to have, not just for directionality but also for speed and elevation. Typically, you can download your workout to an app or website to see the 3D map of your activity (pretty cool stuff!). 
  
  
• Time recording—something to consider, for example, if you swim, you may wish to record laps. If you run, you may wish to record splits. Or if you do HIIT (high-intensity interval training), you may wish to have an interval counter.
  
  
• Waterproof—of course, this is a good feature if you’re into water sports or tend to sweat excessively.
  
  
• Battery Life—it’s a bummer when you realize your tracker is out of juice and your data wasn’t captured. But keep in mind, longer battery life usually comes at a higher price.
  
  
• Body placement—in addition to the wristwatch fitness trackers, there are also alternative versions such as bicep bands, clothing clips, and rings available on the market. The original fitness trackers were a chest strap connected to a watch (and later versions to an app on your phone). These are still available and provide the most accurate exercise feedback but are not practical for 24/7 use.
  
  
• Smartwatch—do you want to leave the phone at home? Have one device for fitness and also for calls, texts, wireless payments and emails? If so, then a smartwatch may be a good option for you.
  
  
• Teams, apps, logging, etc.—many fitness trackers will connect to an app or website. What will you do with this information? If you want to compete against other people for motivation, join a team for support, or track or log your progress, then it’s a good idea to preview different fitness trackers’ options and app or website interfaces.
  
  In the Settings tab on your smart phone, you can see which devices sync with our app, CCP Motivate!
  
  
• Cost—more features and longer battery life come at a higher price. An entry-level tracker can cost about $70, whereas a fancier version can run as high as $1,500. A more recent entry into the market, Whoop, gives you the device for free but charges a monthly membership fee for the data and the app. This is an interesting option if you just want to try something on for size for a while.

 
We hope this information will help you narrow down your for those of you looking to purchase a fitness tracker. If you’d like some more guidance, feel free to contact your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele at [email protected].
 
We’ll see you next week when we kick off with a new mini resolution. Until then, have a great week!