Hydration when wearing a mask

Yesterday was my body’s final warning about staying hydrated when wearing a mask while shopping. It had enough and very clearly expressed that I need to be mindful of taking hydration breaks and regulating my temperature when indoors with my Winter apparel. Last night was brutal; from migraine to vomiting, I had a full-blown dehydration episode.

Of course, I nerded out on it and discovered that it doesn’t take much for the blood’s water to drop and trigger headaches and other problems. The cause of the symptoms predominantly is due to the low blood pressure since circulating fluids are reduced. Erroneously, I previously deducted from some of my mother’s explanations about her health issues that a muddy gallbladder was to blame for nausea when not drinking enough. Rectifyingly, now knowing that I’m on the lower end of the blood pressure spectrum, my body falls into a blood pressure deficit faster than most and it explains why I so quickly feel the effects of dehydration within less than 4 hours of not drinking my normal amounts of water — which is typically more than most drink, but as much as one -should- drink according to most experts.

With that new knowledge in hand, I’m now exploring ingenious solutions to keep drinking water when wearing a mask for multiple hours. A hiking water bag with a drinking tube seems my favoured solution so far though I’m concerned it may taste bad since it’s contained in a plastic-like pouch. I may look into different straw systems from a regular glass bottle. Once more, to be continued.

I’m feeling much better and had a very productive me day. I beautified my new place and ate wonderful food including homemade salmon sashimi, yum! I drank 1.5 times my usual amount of water with electrolyte. I also made sure to eat a lot of high potassium foods such as avocado, raw sweet potato and figs. I also indulged in some nori leaves for a boost of salt and iodine. An impressive feel good day after having been so incredibly sick the night before.