The Wonders of Water

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Anyone who's picked up a women's magazine or read an online health article is aware that water is good for us. (And if you're breastfeeding, it's essential!) But how many of us still spend our days sipping diet sodas, coffee drinks, juices, and alcoholic drinks when we know that the healthiest beverage around is good old water? Lots of us! We're guilty, too. While we faithfully drink water during our workouts, Amy loves a Rockstar energy drink and Deborah goes positively weak at the knees for a can of Diet Dr. Pepper.

Chances are you've got a pet beverage that you can't live without, too. Is coffee a must-have every morning? Do you need that sweet jolt of diet cola every afternoon? Do you enjoy a creamy, cold coffee drink with your girlfriends? Is a glass of wine a daily treat with dinner?

Why Water Is Your Weight-Loss Friend

No matter what your liquid weakness is, here are just a few reasons why now is the time to review your food journal and find ways to incorporate more water into your diet.

• The human body is composed of approximately 60 percent water.
• Lean muscle tissue contains about 75 percent water. Your workouts are designed to increase your body's lean muscle, but muscle needs water to grow, so drink up!
• Water carries nutrients throughout your body and flushes toxins from your liver and kidneys.
• Water keeps you from feeling hungry. In his book Your Body's Many Cries for Water, physician F. Batmanghelidj, says that hunger pains are frequently a body's response to lack of water, not a need for food.
• The more water you drink, the higher your metabolism rises. A 2003 German study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism showed that within 10 minutes of drinking two cups (16 oz.) of water, women's metabolism of fat tissue increased by 30 percent!
• According to the same study, if a person drinks 64 ounces of water a day for a year, she'd lose an extra 5 pounds simply by drinking more water.
• Water makes your skin look fabulous. Dehydrated skin appears ashen and wrinkly. Drinking water plumps up skin cells, giving you that healthy glow and dewy appearance.
• Your brain is 74 percent water. When it's dehydrated due to caffeinated drinks, alcohol, or just lack of water, it not only hurts, it doesn't function properly either. That tired, fuzzy feeling can lead to poor decision making … like forgetting to update your food journal or having the second serving of mashed potatoes!