This is something that's very, very common and specifically the amount I'm going to say. Here it is: "Help, Jill! My doctor told me to drink 100 ounces of water a day.
There's no way!" There's no way I can do that. This is a very generic order from doctors. It is a daily thing I hear.
It's extremely common. Now, let's just give an example. And this is why we, as healthcare professionals, really need to be careful about giving generic advice.
It's so important to me personally as a patient and as a healthcare person. So, 100 ounces of water is a hell of a lot of water if you haven't had a glass of water since 1922. I mean, and so all the patient hears is, "I got to wake up tomorrow and drink 100 ounces?
There's no way I can do that." And so what happens is they won't even start because they feel hopeless immediately. What a healthcare provider should say is should go like this. When people come to me, this is what I say.
This is the scenario what I hear every day. "Jill, my doctor told me to drink 100 ounces of water a day." I'm looking at their urine collection and they peed out maybe a liter. So, they ain't drinking no 100 ounces.
They're probably not even drinking, you know, three cups of water a day, okay? So, so then they say, "So, what am I going to do? I don't know how to do this.
There's no way I can do that." What I will tell them is this. I'll ask, "How much are you drinking a day?" " three glasses." Okay. So, this week continue on three glasses.
Next per day. Next week, I want you to add one glass of water for a total of four glasses of water a day. The next week, five, and so on up until you get to the point where you're peeing out at least 80 ounces.
"How do I know if I'm peeing out 80 ounces?" Well, you can save your hat or your jug from your urine collection if you've done it. And a lot of my patients do this, so don't think I'm nuts or drunk. People do this.
They save their collection material so they can once in a while to see, "Hey, I think I've fallen off track," see where they're at with collecting their urine. Another good way to know if you're pretty hydrated, a simple way is look, turn around, or if you're a man, just look down in the toilet bowl and see, does your urine look like water coming out of you?
If there's some kind of tint, drink a little bit more. Does it mean you have to drink, drink, drink? I don't want people, you know, going crazy.
I want you to slowly increase your fluids. When you slowly increase your fluids, your bladder is a muscle, it will adapt. Now, even when it adapts, you're definitely going to be peeing more than you did when you didn't drink any water, folks.
That's just the name of the game. And we want to be pour- we want to be peeing more because we don't want these crystals to be sitting in our urine. We want to flush them out.
The kidneys are filtering your blood and the excess, all the waste, all the things they don't need, they're sending out to the urine. The body doesn't want that stuff. It's waste.
It's not going to be utilized. So, you want these things to come out of you. So, you want to slowly increase your fluids.
That's very important. Now, I'm 5'2" and 117 lb. I walk in the office, the doctor says, "100 ounces." He doesn't ask me if I'm eating a lot of vegetables, if I'm a vegan, vegetarian.
He doesn't ask me any of that. He doesn't ask if I have CKD, chronic kidney disease. He may know if he's, dealing with the, you know, kidney stone, he may know that.
But there's other thing could be going on with me why I'm not urinating. Maybe I'm drinking tons, but I'm not I'm not I'm eating way too much salt and sugar. When we eat too much salt and sugar, we will pee less.
Some people say, "I drink all this, but nothing's coming out," cause you're eating too much sugar and salt. So, it's not coming out. Or maybe you have prostate problems and you just pee a little bit, a little bit, a little bit.
That's another medical reason why we want to slowly bring an increase of fluids to people. We need to tell patients when they're trying to make lifestyle changes, number one, they're hard. So, manage their expectations.
Number two, you practice the changes we're asking you to make. Nobody's doing this stuff overnight. If you haven't done what you're being asked to do in decades, how in God's name are you supposed to do it tonight?
It's not going to happen. So, you must manage your expectations. Now, maybe Jeff and I drink the same amount of water.
I may pee more than Jeff simply because I eat a super low salt and sugar diet. I know Jeff does, too, pretty much. But I'm just saying my diet will depend how much fluid comes out of me, like I just said.
So, is 100 ounces the I'm 5'2", like I was saying before, 118 lb. I eat a lot of vegetables. I may not need 100 ounces of fluid cause I'm getting a lot of fluids in my a vegan diet.
I'm not a vegan, but if I were. And maybe I only need to drink 75 ounces and I'll get to where I need to be. And the output should be 2.5 to 3 L of urine a day.
A lot of urine, a lot of 24-hour urine reference ranges will say you only need to pee out 2 L. We want it to be 2.5 and above. So, that's really important, too.
Honestly, the more you pee, the better off you are. There's that. Now, what about, and maybe we save this for another video.
I won't go into that right now, what I was going to say. But so I will say, we have to be careful giving generic advice about fluids. It's not easy to increase your fluids.
I just want to put that out there. You slow your roll when you're doing it. And also, it could be a day where you're, you know, going to Target and the grocery store and all that, you may not you may not drink what you normally drink.
That's okay, just get right back on track when you can. Not a problem. Don't drown yourself in fluids when you get back home.
Just start back to your normal lifestyle. Don't worry about it. You can't make up for that time cause you were already dehydrated for those 6 hours.
So, I don't want anybody, you know, I've had people say, "I drank so much when I got home cause I didn't drink all day, I threw up." Don't do that. Or they're not eating cause they're so filled with water. You guys would be shocked to hear what I say.
So, I'm So, I always make sure I hit it all in each video, but water takes time to increase. Fruits and vegetables will also increase your urine because they're mostly water. All fluids count, water is best.
"Oh, Jill said I could drink soda all day for my water." Jill did not say that, folks. I've had people say that, too, so I'm very clear. All fluids count, water is best.
And, quite frankly, juices, you know, I have coffee every day, but I'm not drinking it all day long. You know, have all those other things in moderation. A soda, I'm not a fan, obviously.
There's almost 40 g of sugar in a can of soda. Try a diet, no problem. All fluids will count, but pay attention to those fluids that have excess sugar and salt, okay?
And, fruits and vegetables, you want to eat your water, too. Fruits and vegetables, your best friend, and you can have all of them on a low-oxalate diet. Just watch the portion of the really high ones.
Spinach I'd take away cause it's almost 700 mg a cup, okay? So, that's about it. I think it's very important that you may not need 100 ounces of water to get where you need to go.
So, just know that. That's very, very important. A 6'2" man and a 5'2" woman are getting the same generic advice from a doctor, it doesn't make sense to me.
So, but you know, they're busy. They're busy. They don't have time to hold your hand and wipe your brow and talk about all this with you.
So, that's why we do these free videos so you can get a little bit more, extra love and support and handholding. That's why Jeff and I do what we're doing here. So, that sums it up for the water.
Do your best.
