It was a few years ago while vacationing on Kauai, Gina (aka, Billy Goat) talked Jacks and I into going for a “quick stroll” before breakfast. “There’s this really amazing waterfall just up the trail. The book says it’s a 20-minute hike, round trip. Then we can go for breakfast…” Trusting Miss Gina, Jacks and I reluctantly agreed to hold off on our AM feeding frenzy and go on the hike.

Long story short –  Four hours later, Jacks Gina and I were remarkably rescued by a short, barefoot man swinging a machete. The man was cutting his way through the lush Napali vegetation to get us back on the proper trail, he said nothing more than, “you are lost come with me.” You can imagine the thoughts going through our heads, they make TV shows about things like this. Ever seen Gone Without a Trace?  I could hear my mother’s voice reminding me not to go off with strangers (let alone ones that pack a machete). Unfortunately our choices were few. We could perish by bring hacked to bits by a Menehune, or die of dehydration.  You see none of us were smart enough to take a drop of water or crumb of food with us on our “quick stroll.” Not only were we frightened, we were severely dehydrated at this point.

Once Machete Man got us back on the trail we still had about half an hour to hike back to the car/breakfast/lunch. We were cranky and seriously dragging.  At one point I looked back to check that Jacks was still following and what I saw was my best friend sucking the juice out of a lemon scented Wet Nap.  I yelled at her to share but she refused, shouting back “this is mine…you should have brought your own…” Can you imagine? I was near death!

That said, we all know that we need to drink lots of water every day so I’m not gonna push. Think of this as a friendly reminder.

The general rule of thumb has been to drink eight, 8 ounce glasses of water daily. Especially if you’re trying to lose weight. If you’re active in sports, live in a hot climate, at high altitude or are dehydrated for one reason or another (excessive coffee or alcohol) you should drink even more.

The latest conventional wisdom holds that you should drink daily half your body weight in ounces of water. That means, if you weight 120 pounds, you should drink 60 ounces of water every day, or seven and a half cups. If you weight 180 pounds, you should drink 90 ounces of water daily, or eleven cups and another few sips for good measure.

Makes sense. The heavier you are the more water you need to hydrate and flush out those nasty waste products.

Drink up, I’m told Wet Naps don’t taste too good, even the lemon ones…