#SDCC letter of the day W for Water

Half your weight in ounces.

That’s a magic formula by the way.

You are supposed to drink that much water a day. More if you are drinking soda and coffee to replace the water the caffeine is removing from your body.

Are you working out? Doing intense cardio? You might end up doubling that.

Did you just fly into San Diego?  Airline recycled air is very dry. Just breathing is removing water from your body during a flight. Go ahead and drink some water right now.

The math – half your weight in ounces.

Well, I weight 240. I should be drinking 120 ounces a day for just being alive and sitting at a desk all day.

There are 16 ounces in a pint. That’s 7.5 pints a day. Almost a gallon.

Most of the water bottles you buy are ½ liters.  16.9 ounces is a ½ liter bottle. That’s just a little over 7 of those bottles a day. 

That’s a lot of water. It’s more than those 8 cups of water a day you were taught as a child. It means drinking water when you really aren’t thirsty. Being thirsty is a sign of dehydration. We want to avoid that.

I’m walking around and sweating at SDCC. So I need more water than that.

So let me dump 10 of those half liter bottle is my bag for the day.

A pint a pound the world around.  Another magic formula.

Those 10 bottles will be 10 pounds of extra weight.  I’m NOT going to carry an extra 10 pounds with me.

I bring 2 bottles and refill them throughout the day.  Many of the panel rooms have water coolers and I go in and sit for a few moments and drink. Then I’ll refill my 2 bottles and go my merry way.

So why am I pushing water?

What happens when you dehydrate? 

Your skin loses its glow. (But hey, I fit in that latex costume better!)

The muscles tire quicker and you can get cramps/Charlie horses.  (Look, I’m not sweating anymore!)

The cartilage starts to contract.  (I’ve lost 3 pounds by attending ComicCon!)

Think of cartilage was a sponge. As you dehydrate that sponge shrinks. That sponge is between 2 pieces of bone to act as a buffer. When that sponge shrinks the bones start pounding each other harder.  Pounding is not good.

You now have an ache in your knees and your back. That ache is slowing you down. You’re irritable. You are not enjoying yourself.  You’ll take aspirin and that ache is still there. You won’t sleep well that night and morning comes too soon.  You slowly get out of bed and feel hung over.

Hung over is not how you want to feel at SDCC, at least when you haven’t partied all night.

I did some rounding of the numbers but if weigh:

100 pounds - drink 3 of those ½ liter bottles

120 pounds - drink 3.5 of those ½ liter bottles

140 pounds - drink 4 of those ½ liter bottles

160 pounds - drink 5 of those ½ liter bottles

180 pounds - drink 5.5 of those ½ liter bottles

200 pounds - drink 6 of those ½ liter bottles

220 pounds - drink 6.5 of those ½ liter bottles

240 pounds - drink 7 of those ½ liter bottles

260 pounds - drink 7.5 of those ½ liter bottles

280 pounds - drink 8 of those ½ liter bottles

Be a good fanboy/girl and drink your water. Treat your body right and your body will drag you all over the convention floor and the Gaslamp District afterwards. 

AH