This is part of “90 Days Transformation” series – Week 2 & 3 Taking this journey of transforming myself is not the easiest thing I have ever done. Being disciplined is hard, but without it we wouldn’t be able to progress in our lives. The scriptures tell us to “apply our minds to discipline and our ears to words of knowledge.” (Prov. 23:12) In order to get anywhere in our lives we must be disciplined. We must diligently move forward in our endeavors because “the diligent get their desires filled.” (Prov. 13:4b) Listening to words of knowledge can literally save our lives. Although my trainer told me to drink lots of water, I ignored him, falling back into my old habits of barely drinking. This caused me to have some problems with being dehydrated.
Dehydration can be Serious
Dehydration is when our bodies don’t have enough water or fluid in them. It can range from mild to severe, with the possibility of death. We don’t realize that most people are mildly dehydrated. We lose water every day through sweating, urine, bowel movements, and tears. So we need to drink enough water to replenish these activities. When we add daily exercise we began to sweat excessively, thus requiring more water than usual. This is where I went wrong. I didn’t increase my intake of water. Below are some symptoms of dehydration, in which case, I had enough of them, but because several of those symptoms can be attributed to my other health issues I didn’t think it was dehydration until a friend started talking to me. Naturally, I began to drink more water.
Symptoms of Dehydration in Adults1
The signs and symptoms of dehydration range from minor to severe and include:
- Increased thirst
- Dry mouth and swollen tongue
- Weakness
- Dizziness
- Palpitations (feeling that the heart is jumping or pounding)
- Confusion
- Sluggishness fainting
- Fainting
- Inability to sweat
- Decreased urine output
Urine color may indicate dehydration. If urine is concentrated and deeply yellow or amber, you may be dehydrated.
Dehydrated in our Spirits
Just like in the natural we can be dehydrated in our spirits too. Sometimes, we don’t pray or read our scriptures like we used to. Instead we spend our time watching the latest TV shows, week in and week out. We make sure we are on time for our jobs and important meetings. We buy the latest styles in fashion. We listen to the hottest music day in and day out. We don’t spend any time worshiping the Father who created us. We don’t dig into his Word for ourselves, allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us. Instead we spend our time listening to others teach us, becoming parrots, repeating what our teachers told us without knowing for sure if that’s what the Word of God actually says. Without realizing it, we are losing our living water slowly. It’s so slow we don’t know when the brook dried up until we go looking for the water. That usually happens when some tragedy strikes. We have to begin to put the Father first. We have to let him know he is more important than our most important meeting. He deserves more respect than our most cherished pastors. He’s more worthy of our time than our most intimate lover. We should not let other things in our lives over shadow him. We ought to cry out like the writer did in Psalm 42:1-7,
Just as a deer longs for running streams, God, I long for you. I am thirsty for God, for the living God! When can I come and appear before God. My tears are my food, day and night, while all day people ask me, “Where is your God?” I recall, as my feelings well up within me, how I’d go with the crowd to the house of God, with sounds of joy and praise from the throngs observing the festival. My soul, why are you so downcast? Why are you groaning inside me? Hope in God, since I will praise him again for the salvation that comes from his presence. My God, when I feel so downcast, I remind myself of you from the land of Yarden, from the peaks of Hermon, from the hill Mizar. Deep is calling to deep at the thunder of your waterfalls; all your surging rapids and waves are sweeping over me.
Let’s not become dehydrated in our natural bodies or our spirits. Both are important to our Heavenly Father for we are, after all, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now for my transformation summary. Hope its inspire you to get fit.
My Second Week of Transformation
I did pretty well this week. My calorie count was down. I worked out six days, three days with my trainer and three days by myself. I don’t do any exercise on Shabbat. It’s my day of rest. I felt good this week. I couldn’t weigh myself because my scale seems to have a mind of its own. I would get on it and it read some outrageous number. I know I didn’t lose that much weight in a week because I could see it in the mirror. So I stepped on it again and it read another number. After trying about five times I gave up. So I don’t know what I weighed that week.
My Third Week of Transformation
This past week was hard for me. I had a few health challenges which caused me to only exercise three times instead of the normal five to six times. I only saw my trainer once. I barely ate and my energy level was low. I had pain all over, especially in my lower back. At first I thought I might have pulled a muscle, but then I noticed it was my kidney. After talking with a friend of mine I realized I was dehydrated. I thought back to the past two weeks. Sure enough, I haven’t been drinking enough water. I was dehydrated and it was starting to show. Between sweating so much from exercising and staying in a hot house I lost too much water and I didn’t replenish myself. So now I am more conscious of my water intake. I have been feeling a lot better too. On the upside of things I did weigh myself this week at a friend’s house. I lost almost six pounds. Yea me!!!!!!!! Also, I haven’t had to use my inhaler lately. Usually, when the weather changes so does my breathing. Not since I started eating better and exercising. Praise YHVH! I am so happy about this improvement. I hope you are doing well in your health endeavors. Let me know how you are doing – good or bad. Maybe we can encourage each other. May YHVH bless you and keep you. May he shine his face upon you and show you his salvation. Shalom. References 1 “Dehydration in Adults” http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/dehydration-adults