If you know me, you are aware that I tell everyone and their dog to drink more water. How much? Take you weight in pounds and divide by two. That’s how many ounces you should be drinking if you are 100 – 250 lbs.

When people follow this advice, they complain that they are beating a path to the bathroom and it’s very inconvenient. Yep, it is. That will decrease however, after a few weeks as you body learns to use the water instead of getting rid of it because it thinks it doesn’t need it. Plus, your bladder will even get bigger. However, you will be finding a bathroom more frequently than before and this will go on for the rest of your life.

Inconvenient?  Yep.

So your decision here is to pick your inconvenience, between finding a bathroom more often, or at least three (if not more) of the inconveniences from the effects of chronic dehydration listed below:

• Broken thirst mechanism. When you are dehydrated, your body has to extract its water from food, so when you’re thirsty, it tells you to eat more food, which can (and usually does) make you fatter.
• A slower metabolism. Even mild dehydration can slow your metabolism – especially your fat burning metabolism.
• Daytime fatigue. Dehydration is the #1 culprit of that “afternoon lull.”
• Joint pain. This includes back, neck, knees, hips, shoulders, you name it. Dehydrated cartilage and vertebral discs don’t move properly or provide proper padding.
• Declining memory and mental acuity. Even a 2% drop in body water can trigger short term memory loss and decreased brain function, which makes you work less efficiently and creates more difficulty in making good decisions – like eating better foods!
• Colon cancer. Hydrated people have a 45% lower risk.
• Breast cancer. Hydrated people have a 79% lower risk.
• Bladder cancer. Hydrated people have a 50% lower risk.
• Constipation. If your internal tissues are dry, so is your poop.
• Acne. When you are dehydrated, your skin (and all other organs) is much more healthy and therefore clear.
• Heart attacks and strokes. Blood clots and clogged arteries are much more likely when dehydrated.
• Headaches. When you are dehydrated, your brain shrinks, giving you a headache.
• Frequent illness. The immune system runs on water as it’s main defense source. Viruses and bacteria love dehydrated people!
• Stubborn body fat. hydrated people have well functioning livers that are freed up to burn off all kinds of body fat. Hydrated people are also more detoxed, which makes fat cells easier to liberate so they can be burned off.

These are just a few of the many inconveniences that go along with being dehydrated. If I were to list them all, it would be too inconvenient to read the entire post, because it would be a book! You are 70% water. Doesn’t it make sense to drink a gob of it?

So the choice is yours: more bathroom breaks, or 3 or more of the inconveniences above. You pick.