Now that it’s officially summer, it’s more important than ever to stay hydrated all day long. We know that we need to be drinking at least 64 ounces of water a day, but what about foods with high water content? What makes a food “hydrating,” and how much of our daily water consumption should come from the foods that we eat?

“The higher percentage of water that’s coming from food, the better.”

According to the Institute of Medicine, roughly 20 percent of most people’s water intake comes from food. But is that the recommended amount? Or should we be eating more high water content foods? 

To get an answer, LifeFuels spoke with Nutritionist Dr. Samantha Attard, and author of Happy Health Human. She said it’s a great question, and a topic that doesn’t have a direct answer. 

“The higher percentage of water that’s coming from food, the better,” she said. “It’s a marker of a healthier diet. Whole foods are going to have more water in them” as compared to processed and packaged foods, which are dehydrated to make them more shelf stable. So, unsurprisingly, fresh mango and cut up apple slices are better for you than dried fruit or apple chips. 

But eating celery and cucumber all day shouldn’t be a replacement for drinking water. The key, like with most things, is balance.

“Rather that worry about cucumbers having more water than peppers, look at food groups that have more water,” Dr. Attard explained. Look to fruits and vegetables. “Protein and fat sources are naturally going to be very low in water. You want to balance high carb water foods [like watermelon] with your proteins and your fats.”

According to active.com, “Celery is considered to be a powerful electrolyte food. As little as two to three mineral-rich stalks of celery can replenish an athlete's sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, iron and zinc levels after intense exercise.” 

But just because a food is “mineral rich” doesn’t mean that it’s the best thing to rehydrate your body post-workout.

“If I had to choose, I wouldn’t be feeding people a lot of celery,” Dr. Attard said.

Especially after intense exercise, Dr. Attard explains that celery wouldn’t be providing what an athlete needs. Her personal go-to? An electrolyte powder (She likes Trace Minerals and Ultima). They’re already pre-mixed, so you can be sure that you’re drinking a great balance of sodium, potassium and sugar.

The most important thing to remember, though, is to be recognizing your thirst. Dr. Attard reminds us that often times —say when that 2 p.m. feeling hits — our craving for a snack is our bodies way of asking for water.

“Our bodies confuse hunger and thirst a lot … and actually what our body needs is water, not food,” she said.

Still looking to get some extra water into your desk lunch or summer BBQ? Check out our list below of great water-fueled foods:

LifeFuels Ambassador, lifelong triathlete and former swim coach, Ginger Spansel reveals the story behind why she became a swim coach.  A version of this blog was originally posted on “Living the Tri-Life.”

Why did I become a swimming coach? That's an easy one, Coach Steve Panzram.

I grew up swimming in our backyard pool in southern California, trying to imitate my Dad. He swam when he was in high school, back in 1944 or 1945. I remember seeing the 8mm film of us in the pool: my dad was swimming laps. He was breathing to the side, swimming breaststroke and backstroke.

I wish I still had those films.

I joined a swim team way back in 1978 when I was a junior in high school. My school didn't have a year-round team. But 11 miles away in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, there was a YMCA team that was year-round: The OSY Sea Serpents. My dad's co-worker's kids swam on the team, and we thought it would be something I might like.

(Above) Coach Steve with his Crawfish Aquatics Team. Photo credit: Ginger Spansel.

The team was on their 2-week break after the state championships. I went to the pool every day until practice started back. The coach told me to try and work up to swimming 20 lengths - a "500M" — so I did.

I can still clearly remember my first practice. The coach told us to warm-up with a 400 IM. I remember thinking that I was glad that no one would be able to see how ridiculous I looked swimming butterfly since the pool was filled with kids! The 400 individual medley is 4 laps of each stroke: fly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. I'd never swam one stroke of butterfly in my life, but I got in the lane and did my best.

During the two years that I swam with the team, the coach never gave me any technique pointers nor told me what I was doing right or wrong. I learned by watching swimmers in the lanes next to me and tried to copy the faster people. I made it to states my first year all by learning on my own. I swam on two relays, the 100-yard backstroke, and 100 yard breaststroke. Our relays got medals, but I don’t remember what place.

In 1985, I started racing triathlons. To help me train, I joined masters swim practices. Masters swimming is governed by the USMS (United States Masters Swimming), there are programs available all over the country. Masters programs are coached by certified coaches, and there are competitions or meets available for the athletes. In Jackson, Mississippi, it was just a group of us that would get together and swim. In Baton Rouge, I joined Crawfish Masters. But still no one ever helped me — I swam the strokes they said and tried to keep up.

When I moved to Dallas, I joined DAM: Dallas Aquatic Masters. This is Jim Montgomery's program. Jim Montgomery is a four-time Olympic medalist, and a former record holder. He was the first man to ever break 50 seconds for the 100-meter freestyle. He started Dallas Aquatic Masters.

Here I finally had a coach tell me something. Bobby Patten, the Head Coach with DAM told me, "Ginger, we don't swim looking forward anymore, look at the bottom of the pool and let the water hit you in the middle of the top of your head." Bobby was a five-time NCAA division 1 All-American, and holds Masters World and American Records.

(Above) Swimming in the Mississippi State Games. Photo credit: Ginger Spansel. 

One of the other DAM coaches told me, "When you take your first pull off the wall, use the hand that is on the bottom."

That's it...that was the extent of the coaching I received in 30 years of swimming.

In 2010, we moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and I started swimming with the HubFin Masters. I was told that I would like Coach Steve. I think it was either the first or second practice that he told me, "I'm going to completely change your freestyle."

During the year or so that Steve coached me he did completely change my stroke; he focuses on technique. I went from 24 strokes per length to 17. I swam much faster, and using a lot less energy; I learned a ton of drills and why they improve your swimming. I finally experienced the effects of being coached. Someone that wanted me to get better, get faster. Ah, so this is what a good coach looks like!

I was finally with a coach that cared.

A time came when he needed a new assistant coach, he asked if I would be interested. Of course, I was! It was kind of a lightbulb moment: Coaching swim? Well, I love to swim, so this would be perfect! It was an opportunity to not only work with an amazing head coach, but to learn from one of the best coaches out there. Unfortunately, Steve left for Nevada shortly after I joined the staff. I will never be able to thank him enough for the opportunity. To this day, I stay in contact with him, mostly to ask questions about swimming — he responds immediately.

(Above) Last Day with the HubFins. Photo credit: Ginger Spansel.

If you haven't noticed by now, I have an incredible passion for swimming. When we moved from Hattiesburg to Shreveport, Steve reached out to Butch Jordan, the Head Coach of COSST –The City of Shreveport Swim Team, and told him that he had a coach coming his way and that he would be crazy not to hire me, that I had passion.

At COSST I got to work with JV1 and JV2, the U11s. I had the best experience there, the kids soaked up the information I gave them. Every single one of them will never be forgotten. I have memories that will last a lifetime. Seeing kids that can barely swim a 25 when I first started working with them, make it to State. Looking at the eager faces watching you on the pool deck as you give the next set. Seeing them learn to respect their coaches, “Shhh… Coach is talking.” Workday Wednesdays, when JV2 just killed it in the pool working so hard, they knew that we had the entire pool on Wednesdays, and that they had better come to work!

I got to work with a coaching staff that all had the same goals. We were all on the same page. It was my dream job.

(Above) COSST Coaches. Photo credit: Ginger Spansel.

I've told others before that being a swim coach is the only part time job that feels like a serious career. As a swim coach, or any coach for that matter, you're not just helping them to athletes to be better in their sport, you have an opportunity to teach them so much more. You have the opportunity to teach them about respect and integrity. Teach them about hard work, and the pay off they get from their efforts. Teach them about teamwork, and about being a team.

(Above) Cake I was given when I left COSST. Photo credit: Ginger Spansel.

One thing that I will never forget: At COSST we go from the 25-yard indoor pool to the 50-meter outdoor pool every spring. My first year there I had a long talk with my swimmers about integrity. How I can’t see them when they are way down the pool, so they need to do the right thing and swim correctly because in their hearts they know it is the right thing to do. About a year and a half later, one of the moms told me this story. She was driving, and speeding, and saw a police officer and slowed down, my swimmer was in the backseat and the mom told her, “Whew, I’m glad he didn’t see me and give me a ticket.” 

“Mom,” the swimmer said, “You should have integrity and do the right thing even though no one sees you.” 

This will stay with me forever.

I'm not coaching here in Tuscaloosa, it just didn't work out with the local team. But I miss coaching daily. I miss the kids.

About a month ago, LifeFuels Chemist, Justin, accepted the #FuelFamTested Challenge and set out to revolutionize his workouts by using a Mio Global heart rate tracking band. 

Since then, he’s improved his weightlifting routine and runs three times a week. He uses the Mio FUSE band to calibrate with PEAR, a companion app that talks you through workouts to help you reach maximum performance by tracking your heart rate. 

Mio Global segments a users heart rate into five different “zones,” which Justin had previously used while running. According to the different zones, PEAR told Justin when to speed up, slow down and for how long. In the words of the LifeFuels Chemist himself, “Instead of the treadmill automatically speeding up when it’s time, I’m in control of my speed. Sounds like a win-win-win to me!”

These are his thoughts: 

1. Ok… warm up time. Let’s do this.

2. Is it ‘karaoke, lunges, kicks’ or ‘kicks, lunges, karaoke’?

3. Just gotta start the workout on my band…

4. GO 

5. Turning on the PEAR app.

6. I’m so connected.

7. Zone 1? I can do this all day. I’m practically walking! I wonder if I could run a marathon at this pace? Nope.

8. How about a half marathon? Still never going to happen.

9. Zone 2 already... No problem.

10. No longer walking, but I’m still feeling natural.

11. Apparently my breathing should still be deep and controlled… hmm. It’s only been 5 minutes?!

12. Zone 3 is just above comfortable apparently?

13. Dipped back into Zone 2. Oops. Push it!

14. Today is so nice… I’ll just focus on that.

15. I mean come on! The sun is shining and it’s 75 degrees!

16. Yeah, thinking about something else makes running easier...until you realize your breathing isn’t as deep and controlled as it should be. Focus!

17. Zone 4. Now I’m pushing myself. I can’t sustain this for long at all. This is how I know I’m out of shape.

18. If this is Zone 4, I don’t want to know what Zone 5 feels like.

19. All things considered, this pacing system will keep me out running longer, because I won’t ever push to a 4 or 5 right away. That’s good!

20. Zone 5 in one minute. I’ve got this. I’m sure it’ll only keep me there for a minute or so. I can sprint all out for a minute.

21. Zone 5 now. I’ll just pretend a cheetah is chasing me!

22. I bet I look so ridiculous to people driving by… I could probably go without the nervous looks behind me to check on the imaginary cheetah chasing me.

23. Phew! Right back to Zone 3! I deserve this.

24. Back to Zone 2 for two minutes, and the run is done. 

25. That wasn’t too bad at all!

Two weeks ago, we gave both Dave, a senior iOS Developer and Justin, a Chemist, their own Mio FUSE heart rate monitor. They set up their heart rate zones, downloaded the app and were then on their own to explore how tracking your heart rate can affect workouts and health. Click here to catch-up. 

Read their thoughts so far below: 

It can always be a little daunting to spend $100+ on a piece of technology that claims to make you faster, better, and stronger. Luckily, LifeFuels employees are a bunch of health & fitness nuts, and use just about every fitness tracker under the sun. So we’re bringing this experience to our followers with the FuelFam Tested Challenge.

A collection of our media mentions from around the world.

One thing that the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) does very well is gain a new company lots of media exposure. It's one of the main reasons that companies like LifeFuels and so many others attend these shows, and for us in 2016, it did not disappoint. 

The CTA does such a great job of promoting CES that it attracts tens of thousands of media from all over the world. We were very prepared for that, but we didn’t truly appreciate how worldwide of an audience we’d get until the articles started to appear.

If you ever wanted proof that CES truly is a global meeting place for the most innovative products from around the world, look no further than the screenshots below: A small sampling of the over 60 international publications that LifeFuels was featured in.   

HUNGARY

EGYPT

CZECH REPUBLIC

HONG KONG

CROATIA

HOLLAND

LATVIA

CHINA

DENMARK

FINLAND

KOREA

FRENCH

GERMANY

JAPAN

NORWAY

RUSSIA

SPAIN

POLAND

UKRAINE

BRAZIL

TURKEY

ITALY

MEXICO

PERU

Ryan Dunn, Strategic Operations & Partnerships Manager, tells his story on why nutrition is important to him. A version of his story was originally posted on the World Food Program’s blog on February 2, 2016. 

My journey into the world of nutrition began in Tiantergou, a small Fulani village in Western Niger.

As a recent college graduate and rookie Peace Corps Volunteer, I was expected to leverage my problem-solving skills and outside perspective to tackle food security challenges faced by the community.

Food security is a major issue in Niger: The country ranks last on the United Nations' Development Index and most rural communities face a dizzying array of challenges, including desertification, an increasingly unpredictable and unreliable rainy season and anemic transportation networks. The result is shrinking arable land, regular crop shortfalls, and an annual hunger season in which most of my community members were limited to a single meal every other day.  

(Above: My tree watering team from the local junior high school/Ryan Dunn)

Every Peace Corps Volunteer’s assignment begins with three months or so of problem assessment. This can be very daunting for an outsider. How could I even begin to tackle problems faced by my new friends and neighbors?

But from the beginning, I was drawn to issues surrounding malnutrition, particularly among younger community members. Teachers complained about children sleeping through class, too tired and hungry to focus. With their help, I worked with students on tree-planting projects, planting cash crops like mango and avocado as well as nutrient-rich ones like moringa, a super-food grown in West Africa.

We also developed secondary-income projects like chicken-rearing, which provided a stable source of protein with meat and eggs. I couldn’t promise more rain and I wasn’t an expert in agronomy, but by working with the community to improve the diversity of their food, I could help them lead healthier lives that made them more resilient.

My time as a Peace Corps Volunteer instilled in me a newfound passion for nutrition and health. I came away with a far better understanding of hunger and poverty than anything I could have ever learned in a textbook. What I came to understand is that empowering communities with the right education and resources is all it takes. That might sound simple, but it's a job that will require everyone in the world to do their part, from educating our own families and communities about eating healthy to donating our time and support to organizations like WFP that are helping hungry families overseas.

(Above: Primary students showing us how easy it is to plant mango seedlings/Ryan Dunn)

“The only limits we have are the ones we place on ourselves.”

We are excited to introduce LifeFuels Brand Ambassador, Certified Personal Trainer, and Natural Body Builder, Matt Muller.

BASICS

Age?

26

Located?

Phoenix, AZ

Significant other?

Girlfriend, Kristen

Bragging rights?

Graduated top 25% of my class

Received my BA in IT

Certified personal trainer

Field/industry?

Fitness and nutrition

Day job(s)?

Software Engineer

Pump-up song?

“Lose Yourself” by Eminem

Post-workout drink?

25g whey isolate, 25g casein

Biggest app addiction?

Instagram

Fitness trackers?

MyFitnessPal and Jawbone UP

What vitamin do you always need more of?

Vitamin C

We are excited to introduce Equinox Manager and Group Fitness Manager Jenn Blackburn to the FuelFam! Not only is Jenn a Manager at Equinox, one of the leading sports clubs in the country, she is also a mother of four which is her proudest achievement.

BASICS

Nicknames?

Jenn

Age?

43

Located?

Rockville, Maryland

Significant other and/or pets?

One significant other, four kids, no pets

Bragging rights?

Mother of four is my proudest achievement ! And providing the most kick ass group fitness program in the county surrounded by the most kick ass people! 

Field/industry?

Manager at Equinox

Day job?

Group fitness manager

Pump-up song?

Run This Town Remix

Post-workout drink?

Lifetime Fast Fuels Band

Biggest app addiction?

Groupon

Fitness trackers?

Nike and Garmin

What vitamin do you always need more of?

Omega 3

FAVORITES

Favorite meal?

Dinner

Favorite snack?

Almonds

Favorite movie/ TV show?

The Holiday

Favorite color?

Purple

Favorite way to hydrate?

Drink!

Favorite weekend activity?

Sleep!

THIS OR THAT

Chocolate or vanilla?

Chocolate

Land or ocean?

Land

Salad or steak?

Steak

#FINDYOURFUEL

How do you #FindYourFuel?

By lifting heavy as hell!

What is your advice on being the best you can be?

Life is short! Never back down!

What do you love about LifeFuels?

The amazing people the passion they have and the community they have formed! 

Welcome to the FuelFam, Jenn! Keep up with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.