mouthwatering
It was Saturday 17th April 2021, and I was back in the water, after a year without swimming. I grew up swimming…lots. As a kid my dad would take me twice a day, morning and night. It has always been an important part of my life. Having been denied public pools realised just how much I love it. Back in the water and I’m instantly transported back to my childhood.
When I’m swimming there is nothing else, I can do, my mind is connected to my body as I focus all of my attention on my breath and movement of reaching one arm forward and rolling one side to another, pulling the water to glide forward. It’s so simple, a couple of lengths and poetry in motion.
Being in this place feels like rest. It occurs to me part of this is about focus, but it’s super enhanced by the feeling of the water surrounding me, I am more aware of my senses and in tune with all there is in that moment.
Sink or swim, being here has to be as mindful as it can get.
I was reminded of how we often forget the simple things even if they have a profound impact on how we think and feel. We come from water, were mostly made of it, it’s a key element, essential for life! It spurred me to think more holistically about my relationship with water.
Every cell and tissue in the body requires water to function, everyone knows that. But how much attention do we pay? The body contains between 60-70%, and the brain even more. Every chemical process in the body relies on water, water is involved in every chemical reaction occurring in the brain. It regulates body temperature, lubricates joints, delivers oxygen, gets rid of waste, protects and supports our structure, helps absorb nutrients, boost skin health, maintains blood pressure, assists with digestion and aids optimal weight.
Water is life; we need it to survive, more than that we need it to thrive! But water is SO much more than that.
Water is lucid, clearing, healing and resilient.
What is Lucid? (expresses clearly / bright / clear reasoning)
Water improves our mental performance, mood and feelings of positivity.
The facts:
A UK study showed those who drank around 3 cups of water before completing a test had significantly faster reaction times.
In a random control trial 64 young adults were assigned to four groups. Following an overnight fast for 12 hours they received 100, 200, or 500 mL of water or no water.
Any amount of water relived thirst, improved working memory, reduced anger, fatigue and total mood disturbance, however drinking 500ml of water was required to cause significant improvements in working memory. Even a 2% loss of water weight impairs cognition.
It seems that drinking approximately 2.5L is the amount required to optimise mood, calmness and experience positive emotions.
Clearing
Water based therapies such as alternating between hot and cold improves detoxification processes and promotes circulation of blood and lymph.
When you expose yourself to cold water your body constricts to reserve heat, energy is pushed to the bodies core to protect organs, this is known as vasoconstriction. When you then expose yourself to hot water the body dilates, and your blood vessels expand.
Moving between these 2 extremes helps to improve tone of the blood vessels, like a workout for the vascular system and as a result you can improve your ability to get blood where it is needed. The same applies to the lymphatic system, alternating between hot and cold helps to move waste out of the skin more efficiently. You feel more vibrant. In addition, you open up your lungs, improve respiration and oxygenation.
Cold water exposure has shown cardiovascular benefits too; a study of winter cold-water swimmers compared to a group of physically active, but cold un-adapted individuals. The cold adapted group showed 44% lower plasma homocysteine levels and improve cholesterol markers.
Cold adaption also enhances the activity of the antioxidant system and protects against oxidative damage.
Healing
Cold water immersion is also a well-known tool to promote recovery in athletes, reduce soreness, muscle fatigue inflammation and oxidative stress. Beneficial in the short term, however there is a case to say long term this may dampen adaptation and muscle proliferation.
Pain and fatigue are signs of muscle damage, a part of adaptation. This low-level damage from exercise also increases our antioxidant capability and hormesis. This is the pain pleasure principle.
Both cold water exposure and exercise make us stronger. Exposure to mild stressors increase our tolerance to daily stressors.
When we get too hot, we can’t perform as well, being too hot impacts our physiology our enzymes don’t work well. Under normal conditions the body controls our temperature tightly through mechanism called homeostasis. Proper cooling of the body can improve exercise performance. Passing heat out of the body and cooling quickly via the face, palms of hands or bottoms of your feet using water can help improve training.
Water therapy has also been shown to improve osteoarthritis and reduce joint pain and fibromyalgia pain.
Resilient
Intermittent cold triggers can have strong preconditioning effects and protect against different toxic factors including infection. The acute stress that is initiated via the cold water causes a shock that improves cellular resilience.
At a cellular level, the stressor activates endogenous antioxidant capacity, meaning the body produces more of its own antioxidants to balance the stressor.
Efficiency
Cold water therapy also increases the development of brown fat tissue and the browning of white fat tissue. Brown fat tissues are much more metabolic active, that means we can use it much more easily for fuel, therefore reducing our fat stores and improving metabolic rate. It may also change the gut microboes that are associated with browning of fat tissues helping to increase energy expenditure and improve insulin sensitivity.
Darwin considered ‘adaptation to the conditions of existence’ as the most powerful driving force of evolution. Our ancestors had to cope with acute stressors to survive (food, water, warmth). Today we face multi stressors from our environment, on-going and pull on our energy demand and resilience. We can use acute stressors at very low doses to help improve resilience, cold-water exposure is a tool we can adopt.
The body however works on balance, too much, and unexpected is damaging and detrimental. The concept of ‘what kills us makes us stronger’ needs to be reconsidered. Mild triggers help to influence physiology and strength. Context is everything, if your bucket is too full mild stressors may be too much.
Resilience and hydration in practice
Drinking enough water improves mood, memory, reduces anger and fatigue. Immersion into water and acute exposure to cold water can also have profound impact on how well we function and feel, helping build us to better deal with what life throws our way.
Cold showers are the best way to start. Begin your shower as you normally would, turn the hot water off at the end for 10-20 seconds working up to a minute and learning to feel comfortable with the uncomfortable, and not to do this everyday, only on the days you feel stronger. If you have any health concerns, heart or cardiovascular conditions, adrenal fatigue, or are pregnant I would advise against cold showers and speak to your health care provider before taking a cold shower.
Let’s not forget the simplest of things and start with really hydrating well. The body can’t store water, we cannot survive more than a few days without it, and we need a fresh supply every day to make up for the losses that occur during our daily functioning. Poor energy is often related to dehydration.
Its important to filter your water to remove unwanted chemicals, unfortunately our tap water can carry many toxins, filtering can help reduce the load on the liver and improve energy.
How much? Approximately 2 litres.
As soon as you wake drink a large glass of water to start your day well.
We can also eat our water; a few glasses of our daily water intake can be obtained from water rich foods.
When it comes to food, eating well doesn’t have to be complicated, nature has done the hard work.
I’ve devised a salad with the most hydrating vegetables and fruits, its fresh and zingy with a little natural sweetness and the nuts provide texture.
Watermelon reminds me of a hot summer’s day, it holds a chill so feels really refreshing and contains 93% water, I’ve combined this with cucumber, they are relatives and share similar flavour characteristics. Cucumber contains 96% water.
I’ve added courgette, raw (tastes amazing raw and adds texture) and thinly sliced. Courgette contains 95% water.
I’ve served the salad with an antioxidant pesto made of rocket, mint, lime, chilli, garlic, pumpkin seeds and olive oil with a touch of maple syrup. The pesto brings everything together, from a flavour perspective as well as balancing the dish with healthy fats, vital minerals, nutrients, particularly electrolytes to support hydration this summer. The rocket also contains potent compounds that enhance detoxification and antioxidant levels.
I’ve included cashew nuts and black beans as they contain a good amount of magnesium and the black beans provide plant protein to balance the meal. I love black beans too; they are my favourite bean.
Enjoy and stay hydrated.
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 0 min
Serves 2
1 courgette thinly sliced
½ a large cucumber chopped
½ a small watermelon sliced
1 cup of black beans (pre-cooked)
2 small handfuls of cashews
½ a block of vegan style feta or feta (optional)
Rocket Pesto
40g of pumpkin seeds
40g or rocket leaves
5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 x garlic
1 ½ limes
½ a red chilli
10 mint leaves (extra to top the salad)
1-2 teaspoon of maple syrup (to your taste, you may need extra to sweeten)
To make the pesto place all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth. Taste, and add salt and pepper to your liking. If the texture is a little too thick add a little water to loosen. Add more lime, chilli and/ or maple syrup to your taste. Set aside. There will be extra to use another time.
Thinly slice the courgette using a potato peeler and add this to your serving dish.
Chop the cucumber into strips. Add to your serving dish with the courgette.
Peel the watermelon and slice into half-moon slices, bite-sized pieces, add to the serving dish.
Drain and rinse the black beans and scatter over the dish.
Crush the cashew nuts, you can chop these or bash in a pestle and mortar. Sprinkle over the dish.
Spoon over the pesto to your liking, top with mint leaves and serve.
Sarah Bayliss