Nurturing November Day 6. Hydration

First I’d like to thank everyone who read and responded to my question on exercise yesterday. I got lots of good advice that I’ll try to use. (Especially integrating dance) For now, walking is my best exercise so far . I am so grateful that I live in a beautiful area and that I have some company with my dog, a beautiful rescued black lab.

With the talk of exercise yesterday, it seems only natural to talk about hydration today. “They” say we all need to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. I think we all have to experiment with how much our body needs to feel good and be healthy. That is a part of nurturing ourselves.

Ever since I had my stroke, my blood pressure has been on the low side. I have found that if I drink between 60 and 68 ounces a day I can keep my blood pressure at a good level, not experience dizziness of extremely low blood pressure and feel better overall. I have a glass bottle (holds 60 oz.) that I fill each morning and put it in the refrigerator. I take my medicine first thing in the morning with an additional 8 ounces. Though out the day I take from the bottle. This ensures that I drink the minimum that I set for myself. For me, this seems to work.

Besides the water, I drink decaf coffee in the morning and a glass of wine in the evening. According my Nutritionist these don’t count as hydration. I suspect that these don’t count as hydration because they are not “pure” like water; they contain other things like a little caffeine and alcohol. However I consider these beverages as a nurturing hydration. I guess you could say, I think about water as nourishment and the other things I drink as nurturing.

Drinking decaf coffee gets my day started. I look at my emails and read the tweets from the people with aphasia and who have a stroke during my morning coffee. I often do some cognitive exercises, with the Elevate app, and during the Ultimate Blog Challenge I read new blogs of the day.

My day ends with having wine during dinner with my husband as we share what happened during the day. I don’t get to talk to people during the day except when I have zooms with my aphasia friends so this time with my husband is precious.

now that the weather here is getting cold, I will probably add a cup of tea to my nurturing hydration routine in the afternoon after my rest period. Many of the bloggers I follow discuss tea as a part of their day and I will look forward to trying new teas.

Until we meet again, I hope you can sit down and really just enjoy your favorite beverage and nurture yourself.

What is your favorite beverage for nurturing yourself?