The easiest wellbeing habit for perimenopause
It’s so easy and simple we all should do it.
But we don’t.
Life is busy, it feels like we’ve hardly got time to think let alone take a drink of water.
We might be mainlining coffee and winding down with wine but what really really helps us is to drink more water.
Not gallons.
But often the afternoon slump is dehydration.
Drinking water supports the function of every organ in our body.
It supports our blood flow, our digestive function, our detoxification pathways (always useful as a perimenopausal woman with fluctuating hormones).
It helps our energy, focus and affects how hungry we feel.
But it’s easy to forget.
To feel the ‘need’ for a cup of tea. Or a glass of wine. Or something sweet as a ‘pick me up’.
So here’s a simple way to increase your water intake.
Place a glass by the side of your bed.
Drink the whole glass before you get up and on with your day.
And then another while you boil the kettle/make breakfast.
Have a bottle of water with you during the day and have a sip before you go to a meeting, or make a cuppa, or make a phonecall/see a client.
Add a slice of cucumber, some mint leaves or a slice of lemon to make it more refreshing.
Make drinking water a habit to focus on for a week and you’ll notice the difference.
Just don’t drink too much. That’s not good either.
Find your own personal happy medium. Build it up.
I had a client in early 2021 who struggled with her pelvic floor health, which had led to her drinking less water because she was worried about leaking when she walked or stood up from a chair at work. She also felt that she always had to get up in the night to use the toilet.
But this meant she had energy slumps mid-afternoon and in the evening and tended to crave sweet snacks and feel she needed tea or coffee to keep her going.
So we nudged towards drinking an extra glass of water in the morning and a small glass before bed. And a herbal tea instead of a wind-down-wine in the evening.
After just a week she felt the effects - less of an afternoon slump, better sleep, and fewer sugar cravings. Over time we worked on her pelvic floor health and increasing exercise and added in more water as she gained more confidence in her bladder and pelvic floor. We started with water though, and it made a big different.
I start the day with a glass of water by my bed, then another while I wait for the kettle to boil, then I have a mug of hot water with lemon and grated ginger, and then I’ll have another glass of water with my multivitamins stirred in. Nearly a litre before the rest of the family has awoken!