Your First Homework Assignment: Maximizing Your Cellular Hydration

Do This Everyday for 7 Days

(and then continue for the rest of your life)

  • Drink 2 cups (16oz) of purified water about 15 to 30 minutes before each meal.
  • Drink 1 – 2 cups of purified water each hour between breakfast and dinner. This is my favorite affordable water purifier:
  • To maintain the health of your kidneys and electrolytes, do not exceed 3 cups of water or other liquids per hour; instead, aim to consume 1 -2 cups of purified water each hour.
  • Just as the garden prefers a consistent gentle mist to a deluge of water, to properly hydrate your cells, feed them water hourly between breakfast and dinner.

BONUS: Morning Hydration Reset

What to do:

First thing in the morning, drink 24 ounces of clean, filtered water—before coffee, tea, or food. Optionally, add a squeeze of one whole fresh lemon or two limes. The added fresh citrus juice improves the pH of the body. Add a teaspoon of honey or maple syrup to improve the flavor, if desired.

After drinking your 24oz of lemon or lime water, wait 30 minutes before caffeine. Instead of drinking coffee, tea, or an energy drink right away, eat breakfast and wait until after breakfast for caffeine.

You might find you do not even need the caffeine, but if you do, drinking it after hydrating will ensure you don't crash later in the day because you focus on hydrating your cells before introducing caffeine, which dehydrates your cells further.

Why it works:

After 8 hours of sleep, your body is dehydrated. Proper hydration first thing in the morning helps:

✔️ Flush out toxins that have accumulated overnight

✔️ Boost energy and mental clarity (before you even think about caffeine!)

✔️ Support digestion and metabolism, setting you up for a healthier day

✔️ Improve mood—dehydration can make you feel sluggish, anxious, or irritable

Science-backed bonus: Studies show that even mild dehydration can impact cognitive function, mood, and overall energy levels. Hydrating before anything else primes your body for success and supports your natural healing processes.

Imagine Your Cells

When we become dehydrated, our body first robs our cells of water to keep our blood volume and cerebral spinal fluid (the water your brain floats in) at optimal levels. Your cells shrink like a water balloon with a leak as your body robs the water from them to keep other vital organs functioning.

What does this do to your intracellular health? It causes chaos! Your mitochondrial function decreases energy output by 25% after only a 5% reduction in cellular hydration. Meaning, you experience a 25% drop in energy! No wonder you feel tired!

The thousands of processes in the cell, like synthesizing proteins, are reduced, and cellular detoxification is hindered. Essentially, all healthy functions of the cells in your body are impeded by even imperceptible dehydration.

No wonder slight, chronic dehydration, which we cannot even feel, is the cause of fatigue, brain fog, digestive issues, and more!

“But I don't FEEL thirsty!”

Yes, that's right. You probably don't. Too often, we rely on our mouth being dry as a sign we need to drink water. It is a medical myth passed down from the 1800s that the first sign of dehydration is a dry mouth or thirst. In the last 40 years, science has shown us that a dry mouth is one of the last signs of dehydration, not the first. The body prioritizes digestion over optimal cellular hydration and will allow cells to shrivel up like raisins to sacrifice water for our mouth so we can continue to breathe and swallow.

Think of it: because digestion is so important, our body will rob upwards of 40% of the water inside our cells to redirect hydration to vital organs such as digestion. So, by the time you actually FEEL thirst, your internal organs are dried out! Your insides have gone from a juicy plumb to a dried-up prune!

Do not rely on feeling thirsty. Think of oxygen. Do you hold your breath till you feel like you are about to pass out from lack of oxygen before you take a breath? No! You keep breathing, whether you FEEL LIKE you need that oxygen or not because you don't want to get to the point where you feel like you are deficient in oxygen.

So, just like breathing, make your water consumption something you do regularly and throughout the day.

When you switch to drinking your optimal water intake, In your first 7 days, you will notice you pee more, and you will also drop between 5 lbs and 15 lbs after 7 days of following this hydration challenge. I go deeper into why this phenomenon happens IN MY BOOK. Just know that after about 7 days, things even out, and you'll find yourself not needing to pee as often as the first 7 days.

“I think I drink enough water.”

That's good! You probably aren't drinking at your optimal level because most people overestimate how much they actually drink unless they are tracking it. And not feeling thirsty does not mean you are getting enough.

The old adage of eight 8oz glasses of water a day is far too little water for most people. If you follow this hydration rule, you are probably still chronically dehydrated. Only those who are of petite stature will find that 64oz a day is enough water to maintain optimal cellular hydration.

It's really important to know that thirst is not the first sign of dehydration; it's one of the LAST indicators.

For those who do take hydration seriously, you might be getting good amounts of water in; however, like the gas light in your car, would it be better to put just enough gas in the car to not have the empty light come on, or would it be best to always keep the tank full? In terms of optimal cellular health and function, keeping all of your cells at 100% hydration is key to optimal health.

So, follow the above challenge for your water consumption for a week and see how much and which of your symptoms improve!

If you are on medication, speak with your doctor and have them monitor you. Optimal hydration makes everything in the body work even better, so your doctor might need to lower a dose of a medication or take you off of it completely after you achieve and maintain optimal hydration. An example would be blood pressure, which is directly affected by dehydration. Proper hydration can restore healthy blood pressure for some individuals because the cause of their BP issue was dehydration in the first place!

Is Drinking Water Boring?

I have some studies that will spice up the topic of hydration! First, understand that we, unlike camels, do not store water well. So, you NEED to drink throughout the day to stay within optimal hydration levels.

Research indicates that increasing daily water intake can contribute to healthy and wanted weight loss and offer various health benefits, including more energy, better digestion, and increased mental clarity!

Here are some key findings:

1. Pre-Meal Water Consumption Enhances Weight Loss

  • Study Overview: A 12-week randomized controlled trial involving overweight and obese middle-aged and older adults examined the effects of drinking water before meals. Both groups ate a healthy diet.
  • Intervention: Participants consumed 500 milliliters (approximately 16.9 ounces) of water before each of their three main daily meals.
  • Results: Those who drank water before meals lost about 2 kilograms (approximately 4.4 pounds) more than those who did not increase their water intake. The increased weight loss was attributed to a reduced meal energy intake, as water consumption led to greater feelings of fullness, thereby decreasing calorie consumption during meals.
  • But hydrating before a meal also maximizes digestion and absorption of nutrition as well as increases mitochondrial function and insulin sensitivity, leading to far better health outcomes that support natural, healthy weight loss and more active metabolism.
  • Another possible benefit to increasing water consumption for weight loss is when you are fully hydrated, you have fewer aches and pains and more energy and endurance to move your body, which helps you balance blood sugar and burn excess energy instead of storing it as fat.

2. Hydration and Cognitive Function

  • Study Overview: Research has shown that even mild dehydration can impair cognitive performance and mood.
  • Findings: A body water loss of just 1–2% can lead to decreased concentration, increased feelings of fatigue, and heightened anxiety. Maintaining adequate hydration supports optimal cognitive function and overall well-being.
  • So, just a slight reduction in hydration can lead to brain fog! Most people drink coffee to give them a sharper mind, but caffeine just increases anxiety and dehydration further, making us feel worse in the long run!
  • By staying topped off and fully hydrated, you can stave off the anxiety and mental fog from even slight dehydration! This is why drinking one to three glasses of water each hour is so important, depending on your body weight. I get into specifics about how much to drink for your optimal hydration IN MY BOOK.

“How much water should I drink?”

Get my book to learn more about the science of optimal hydration. In Chapter “Week Two” of my book, you'll learn the perfect calculation for when and how much you should drink to create optimal hydration, detoxification, lubrication, and energy production to optimize your mood, hormones, digestion, mitochondrial function, and more!

Don't bump through life bouncing off empty. If you feel thirsty, you are chronically dehydrated! Take on the hydration challenge for one week, and you'll never give up on the water habit! to learn how you can make hydration your healthy addiction.

Important Links:

My favorite affordable water purifier:

Understanding the importance of structuring your water:

The science and health benefits of structured water:

This one small habit can change everything— start right now! And remember to begin drinking 2 cups first thing in the morning, at least one cup each hour between meals, and 2 cups before each meal. It's important to not exceed 3 cups per hour but rather sip throughout the day. Try it for a week and notice how much better you feel! Making your cellular hydration a priority will lead to amazing health outcomes in the short and long term, so stick with it!

Let me know how it goes, and stay tuned for more simple, powerful ways to support your body's natural ability to heal.

To Your True Health!

Ashley James
Integrative Health Coach, Author, Podcaster, Anxiety Cessation Expert

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Logo of the Learn True Health Podcast with Ashley James featuring a smiling woman’s photo alongside colorful text.

Ashley James

Health Coach, Podcast Creator, Homeschooling Mom, Passionate About God & Healing

Ashley James is a Holistic Health Coach, Podcaster, Rapid Anxiety Cessation Expert, and avid Whole Food Plant-Based Home Chef. Since 2005 Ashley has worked with clients to transform their lives as a Master Practitioner and Trainer of Neuro-linguistic Programming.

Her health struggles led her to study under the world’s top holistic doctors, where she reversed her type 2 diabetes, PCOS, infertility, chronic infections, and debilitating adrenal fatigue.

In 2016, Ashley launched her podcast Learn True Health with Ashley James to spread the TRUTH about health and healing. You no longer need to suffer; your body CAN and WILL heal itself when we give it what it needs and stop what is harming it!

The Learn True Health Podcast has been celebrated as one of the top holistic health shows today because of Ashley’s passion for extracting the right information from leading experts and doctors of holistic health and Naturopathic medicine

 

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