Why Water is Non-Negotiable While Dieting

This is very important, you can't just skim past this, you can't assume I'm going to tell you what you have already heard from 100 different sources. Water is so important on the Dukan Diet, and I will tell you why. So focus, this stuff is important!

Are you focusing?

I was a terrible water drinker. I would probably drink a glass of water every 2 days, sometimes more. I would drink pop or milk (barely of either) but never a glass of water.
I wouldn't realise I was thirsty? Idk, at one point the feeling just escapes you.

You hear people urging you all the time, I have heard every single reason, every source telling me to drink water. When I would think about it I would make a solid effort for a couple hours, just drown myself in water. But never a consistent effort.

This diet is actually really harmfull if you don't drink A LOT of water.

For the first 3 months of the diet, I continued with my bad habit of not drinking enough water, as would Prawn. & then we started noticing problems.

Prawn noticed it first, sicne he had lost more weight than I had at that point. It was around the 40 lbs lost point I think, maybe 50 lbs. Anyways, so when he stood up he would get really light headed. After seeing a doctor we learned that his blood pressure would drop really drastically when he would stand up.

One day I got a call at work, he had stood up and almost fainted. He couldn't concentrate. WHen I went to pick him up I was really shocked to see that he was acting basically drunk. He was slurring his words, getting distracted halfway through his sentences. It was really strange.
Turns out he was dehydrated.

I don't know what it is about this diet, but you get dehydrated really easily. I always feel and have felt thirsty on this diet, my lips are always cracked, I had to invest in Burts Bees and apply it constantly all day.

So I started (after Prawns incident) to drink a TON of water every day and I feel so much better. I wake up and drink 2 full glasses (with my vitamins) before I do anything. Just saturate myself in water. It's a habit you really need to pick up.

But WHY Do I Need A Lot Of Water?

So this is why, especially on a diet like this, you need to drink a ton of water. I am not a doctor, but I'll explain it as well as I can from the information given to me by Prawns Dr:

So on this diet, you are losing weight, you are cleansing your body from all this crap that was once burdening it. This crap is now loose around your body and needs to be filtered out by your kidneys. But because there is so much of it you really need to just drown your body in fluids to make sure everything can be filtered and booted out of your body, or else it gets in your bloodstream and what happened to Prawn (where your brain basically shuts down) will happen to you.

Like I said, not a doctor, but that's the gist of it.

How Can I Guarantee I Drink Enough Water?

For some people it helps to set up a counter, where you track the amount of water you are drinking to make sure you don't forget or realise if you haven't been drinking enough water.
If you are anything like me, that will work for a couple days and you will be back to your bad habit.

What works for me is always making sure I have a bottle or mug of water with me and then just drinking it. I do the 2 glasses in the morning and then at work I always mkae sure my mug is full and I'm drinking water.
There is a lul in the day: drink a glass of water, you are eating dinner, drink a glass of water, you are watching tv: drink a glass of water.

How Much Water Should I Drink?

I can't really answer this question. People say 8 glasses. I drink more than that. To make sure I drink enough I usually drink until I'm super full and bloated-ey. Just drink until you are not thirsty anymore, listen to your body. But if you need a definite number, try 8 glasses. Sure. And if you feel thirsty or like it isn't enough just add one more a day until you feel comfortable with the amount of water you are drinking.

But You Don't Understand... I Reeeaaaally Hate Drinking Water!

I know the taste of water isn't what most people love... but you really have to force it.

Dr Dukan counts 'water' as any fuilds allowed on the diet, so minteral water, diet pop, skim milk (I have a post that talks specifically about these liquids). So you don't necessarily have to be only drinking water.
I have cut back on my pop consumption really drasticcally... but I'll tell you, there were a couple months where I would drink over 2L of diet pop between 6pm and 10pm. All to myself.

So, you aren't stranded with only water, to get yourself in the habit of drinking a ton of fuilds, feel free to drink some other stuff. But I'll let you know... diet pop is bad for your health, even though it isn't bad for your waistline.

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I know this is a really long post and I thank you for reading it through. Take my water-advice very seriously. In fact, go drink a big glass of water right now. Like now.

Xo