Drinking too much water can mess with your diet!

I don't mean the amount of water that will literally make you sick (hypernatremia) which can be fatal.  I mean following the 8oz eight times a day rule.  I've never been much of a water drinker.  When I was a kid, I drank mostly milk.  Once I started working out 25 yrs ago, I started incorporating water into my diet.  However, it wasn't until the last 5 yrs, and especially the last 12 months, when I started drinking 100-150oz of water a day.  I was feeling bloated, and lots of blogs and websites say to drink more water, it'll flush the bloating away.  Well, that doesn't work, when the reason you are bloated is the excessive amounts of water!

My weight just wouldn't go down the first few months of this year, and the bloating was a serious problem.  I sometimes looked like I was 6 months pregnant, and my lungs and other organs were compressed, so that I felt like I was having a severe asthma attack.  The fact that my weight wasn't budging was so depressing, and with the bloating making me so uncomfortable, it was all I could do not to stuff my face, because after all, why bother trying? 

Fortunately, in February I took a trip with my family to Belgium, where I wasn't able to carry ridiculous amounts of water around, and drank ale once every day.  I was shocked when I realized that my bloating vanished!  When I came back after our 6-day trip, I went right back to drinking tons of water, and the bloating returned immediately.  Hmmm.  I decided to do what worked in Belgium, so I stopped drinking lots of water and started having an ale a few times a week.  I felt so much better!  I was a little worried, so I ended up seeing a urologist on Friday, to make sure there wasn't anything wrong, and that I could continue my current regimen.  She said that most people are drinking too much, and that's why her business is booming.  Most of the time, if you drink only when you are thirsty, you are going to get enough liquids from your foods.  She told me that my body reacted the way it did because it was trying to tell me to stop drinking so much water.  Thankfully I listened. 

Currently this is what I am drinking M-F:

Black tea (w/Zero sweetener): 13oz
Nettle tea (herbal): 12oz
Black tea (w/Zero sweetener): 13oz
Lemon balm tea (herbal): 12oz
One glass of water at night: 12oz

Total:  66oz (going up to 78oz when I have a 12oz diet soda or add'l water)

Black tea is somewhat dehydrating for me, and on days after having the ale, I will try to have an additional glass of water during the day to normalize things.  On some days I will also have a diet soda, but I try to mix it up by having one with aspartame, and then having one later in the week with sucralose.  In the past, I found that if I drank a lot of diet soda, I would plateau, so I don't drink one every day, and I try to drink only 12oz, not a 20oz bottle. 

If you are constantly bloated, consider that the problem might actually be too much water, and cut back.  If your bloating goes away, lucky you, an easy solution!