Marching Into The Peace Corps, pt 10: Drowning On A Dry Kitchen Floor
by In the last two segments, I have talked about dietary factors from my own hard experience. You can’t learn everything the first half a dozen diets around, but you can learn where you screw up and take the lessons into the next diet. Water intake proved to be a dangerous lesson I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.
I spent the next six hours fighting to stay awake, afraid I was going to relapse and die alone in my sleep. Eventually I stopped clutching my Bible and trusted in God to see me through to the next morning if it was His will for my life.
The next day I did wake up, but I had horrible all over body cramps. I called another friend of mine who has potassium problems and started to pick her brain about what happened to her when her potassium got too low. She described many of the same symptoms – the most recognizable one was not being able to keep my head up and nearly falling over onto the kitchen floor more times than I care to remember. So I went out later that day and bought some magnesium and potassium, but turns out it was almost a shock to my system and I developed a lot of the same symptoms from the night before. Unfortunately, I was in for another long night by trying to overcompensate.
Potassium, sodium, and magnesium…all had been seriously depleted with the advice of a diet guru who probably never stopped to think about the damaging recommendations he was giving out. Potassium controls the electrical impulses the brain sends to the muscle. Magnesium controls the ability of the muscles to contract and relax. Salt is a necessary evil that helps to control blood pressure and used in the muscles.
I have since set a rule for myself that seems to be working well on this diet. I suggest you find the largest cup you can (or buy one) that will contain no more than 40 ounces of water. Fill the cup up twice, and when you’re done, that’s it! Do not consume any more water. This will give you the recommended 64 ounces of water, and then a little bit more, but not enough to get your body into trouble. I’m also assuming you’re eating a sensible, balanced diet and your doctor has okayed you for it.
There are some diet plans out there that have said you should drink 100 ounces of water a day, but from experience, that’s not exactly easy to do – and I’m a water fiend! I’m not a doctor and your health is your own responsibility, but I’m conveying this information to you so you don’t end up making the same mistake I did. There are a lot of quacks out there dispensing advice, but I recommend you do two things:
- Investigate the supplements you might want to take
- Bring them to your physician and discuss your own ability to health issues that might prohibit you from taking them.
Also ask your physician if you can keep a bottle of Gatoraide in your house and consume it without screwing up your body. It contains a high bit of sugar that could be a problem for a diabetic. If that is the case, ask your provider for an acceptable alternative that won’t send your sugar soaring and your body into shock.
If you don’t like trying to find all the segments of this series, you can locate the links to them here and they will return you the exact spot on the socyberty.com site.
quazen.com articles by this writer can be found here
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relijournal.com articles are here
picable.com photographic images are here
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