Healthy Holidays: Staying Hydrated

Three challenges we face to staying hydrated during the holidays are being on the go, sitting more than usual, and drinking alcohol. Listen in for practical tips to staving off dehydration during this fun, busy, and sometimes unpredictable weeks.

Take Aways

• Keep a water bottle with you and stock your car
• Recognize when you're feeling faint, hungry, or on edge. 
• Question hunger if you've eaten in the last hour. You may just be thirsty.
• While cozying up to a movie, keep water close by
• If drinking alcohol follow these tips: eat food before drinking, limit how much you drink, stick to light colored drinks, drink water while you drink the alcoholic beverage. See these articles: ThirstyWork and Healthline

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Transcript

Episode 84: Healthy Holidays: Staying Hydrated

[00:00:00] Hello, this is the Living Well with PMDD podcast. I'm your host, Heidi Bradford, certified life coach, mom of five and PMDD Survivor. Happy to have you here. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered health advice.

Welcome back. Today we're going to talk about staying hydrated over the holidays. I'm going to give you three tips, maybe even some more than that, but quick tips on ways to stay hydrated while you do everything you do this holiday season.

The challenge we face over the holidays that make it hard to stay hydrated are kind of threefold.

One is we're on the go a lot. For some of us, right? Or maybe [00:01:00] everybody to some extent. The second challenge is we're sitting more than usual. We're sitting down watching those cozy movies. And third might be drinking alcohol or consuming more sugary drinks than normal. Okay, so how do we still enjoy the holidays, still get the things done we want to get done without getting dehydrated.

The first thing I wanna say is to know yourself, to recognize when you are feeling somewhat faint or you are feeling hungry, or you're feeling maybe even on edge. Those can be little signals to you that you need some water. I especially notice the [00:02:00] hunger. And if you've eaten recently or if you've had a really good meal and it's been less than an hour, then you can

question that a little bit. Like, am I really hungry or could this just be that I'm thirsty? Keep that in mind.

With, on being on the go. You're Christmas shopping, you're taking your kids here and there, you're going ice skating, you are making treats, you're attending concerts, you're going to a Christmas party, you're traveling, you're packing for your trip. All of that can seem so prevalent in your mind that you just forget to drink water. It's not like you're intentionally not, uh, taking care of your body in that way. So my tip for you is to keep a water bottle with you. If there's one you [00:03:00] love, I know people that have these cute holiday tumblers keep it with you. It's can bring you some holiday cheer along the way too.

I'd also say stock up. You can get a 40 count of those disposable water bottles at Walmart or wherever you shop.

Just grab a bunch, throw 'em in the back of your van, your truck, your vehicle, and when you are out and about, if you notice that you're hungry or thirsty as you are shopping, or maybe just as you're driving when you get to your destination go get a water bottle out of the back of your car and take it in with you.

Hydration is so important for our organs to work properly and for our bowels to work properly. They need water.

Okay? Second challenge, sitting more than usual, whether it's you're on a plane, you are in a vehicle, [00:04:00] you are watching cozy Christmas shows. Um, maybe you're doing a Lord of the Rings marathon or a Harry Potter marathon, or a classic Christmas movie marathon.

That sounds delightful to me. Whatever it is, have water with you, whether it's that cute, um, Tumblr you have, or just a mug, or a water bottle. Have it with you. Keep it there by your couch. Take sips of it. I notice that I drink more when I have a straw. Right now i'm mostly drinking from the disposable water bottles, so I probably don't drink enough or drink as much as I could or that would be good for me, but at least I'm doing what I can and that's the point. I really could go get a cute holiday Tumblr, I just [00:05:00] haven't. I would probably drink more from that with through a straw.

And third challenge is if you are drinking alcohol or other sugary drinks. I am gonna focus on alcohol because alcohol can dehydrate you. It is actually a diuretic. It causes your body to remove fluids from your body through your renal system or rental system, R-E-N-A-L. That system includes your kidneys, your ureters. Which I don't even know what that is. It also includes your bladder. Drinking alcohol causes your body to remove fluids from those places much quick at a much quicker rate than other liquids. So how do we deal with this? How do we, um, combat or balance any alcohol consumption. [00:06:00] I really liked an article@thirstywork.com that was about helping you avoid dehydration

when drinking alcohol. They give five tips. Eat plenty of food before drinking alcohol. Limit how much alcohol you drink. Stick to light colored drinks. Apparently dark ones have extra chemicals added, and it makes it so it takes longer to get the alcohol out of your system. Fourth, choose a lower alcohol content drink, and fifth, drink more water.

Along these same lines, I really liked it was at Healthline, the article@healthline.com. They said to eat food while you're having alcohol. Um, you can also drink electrolyte drinks, like sports [00:07:00] drinks. Think Gatorade, Powerade, the little packets you can get. Also do some light exercise, sleep, and don't have alcohol the next day.

Particularly the next morning. These can be used to help prevent dehydration, but also if you recognize you have a hangover, do these things. Have some food, do some light exercise, sleep, don't consume more alcohol.

One of the calculations they said, if you really wanna try to not get dehydrated, is for every 16, oh no, sorry, for every like a 12 ounce beer, drink 16 ounces of water, whether it's alternating or you drink the 16 ounces of water beforehand or after. That's a ratio that Healthline says will help.

Um, [00:08:00] if you're having liquor, four to six ounces of liquor to 16 ounces of water. Okay?

I want you to enjoy the holidays, but I also don't want you to like, I don't want you to faint. I don't want you to overeat because you're actually thirsty. I don't want you to end up in the hospital because of dehydration, because you were just going, going, going.

So take this seriously. Get a water bottle. It can be your new best friend for the next three weeks, and, um, we will talk to you next week. I will have the favorites, my top three client favorites of weight loss tools for 2025. So talk to you then. Bye.

Thanks so much for listening to the Living Well with PMDD podcast. To learn more about [00:09:00] life coaching with me, visit my website Heidi, H-E-I-D-I, bradford coaching.com. Until next time, keep hoping, keep loving, and remember that you are not alone.