I have never drank a lot of water. I loved flavor and fizz but couldn't stomach the many varieties of flavored or sparkling water available on most grocery shelves. I was lucky if I drank one 16.9 oz bottle of water--plain, sparkling, and/or flavored, etc.--a day. Over time I became chronically dehydrated, especially after I quit drinking so much Pepsi and Cherry Coke (because of reactive hypoglycemia) and was unable to adequately replace the fluid contents with other less sugary beverages. With that chronic dehydration came a slew of issues: dry and wrinkly facial skin, sunken eyes with deeper hued circles, quasi-shriveled and dry fingers and toes, awful orthostatic hypotension and increased episodes of pre-syncope symptoms from having low blood volume, brain fog, short-term memory troubles (I would forget words mid-sentence, blank on why I went into a room, mix up my words much more than I already do, etc.), higher than normal fasting blood sugar, constipation, dry and bloodshot eyes that always had a yellowish tint, chapped lips... I even stopped sweating as much.
I was browsing Facebook last week and saw an article in my feed about ways to stay better hydrated. It touted all the tips from getting more creative water bottles to apps that help you remember to drink more water, which I had already tried and failed at using. Then came Nuun Hydration tabs. I stopped scrolling when I saw it was an enhancer with electrolytes and flavor to make water more quenching and replenishing. After reading some reviews, I decided to try it because I already knew how important electrolytes are in both making water taste better and making it more nourishing for the body... but didn't want to resort to drinking a lot of Gatorade or Powerade again, with all the added sugar. I also knew I needed to try SOMETHING to get my blood volume back up because the orthostatic hypotension and pre-syncope symptoms I was experiencing every day were NOT. FUN.
I s**t you not, I have had 51 ounces of water alone every day since I got my Nuun Hydration tabs. I usually drink two 16.9 oz water bottles with one or half a tab of Nuun Hydration then refill the empty bottle with cold water and drink the remnants. For someone who has had a lot of trouble even downing one 16.9 bottle of water in a 24 hours, drinking three in 13 hours is a HUGE achievement. The best part is, even though I love drinking Nuun'd water, I'm finally beginning to think of water by itself as a good thing as I'm seeing the benefits of staying adequately hydrated in real time.
Pros: heavy on the thirst-quench, medium on the flavor (the Citrus Fruit is very good but I want to branch out on my next order), light on the sugar, has a slight fizz that I was pleasantly surprised by, lacks that very cloying "flavored sweetened sparkling water" aftertaste, and the scored tabs make it easier to cut in half for flavor or bottle-opening size specifications
Cons: price, the tabs are quite large and don't fit into the opening of standard plastic water bottles without being cut into halves, and the fizz does make me a little burpy afterwards
But in all honesty, the cons aren't nearly bad enough to prevent me from purchasing Nuun Hydration again. I'm drinking more water now than I ever have in my 32 years, and more fluids than I have in the year since I gave up drinking so much Pepsi and Cherry Coke. My body and mind are better for it. My face, peri-orbital area, fingers, and toes have plumped up and moistened, the whites of my eyes are a lot less bloodshot and are white and moist again, I'm much less forgetful and foggy-brained, I'm experiencing way less orthostatic hypotension and pre-syncope, I feel a little more energized, my fasting blood sugar readings have dropped by 10-15 mg/dL, my lips are more moist even though it's winter, I'm sweating more (but it doesn't smell as bad), and the constipation is beginning to resolve.
For $19-20 something a month, Nuun Hydration is worth it
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