Just took a drink out of the water bottle that Ava gave me.

Game changer. It's actually not what we're going to be talking about today during the walk, but I do want to mention it.

Hi, I'm Dave. Welcome to Walking is Fitness. This is a daily podcast, new episode every day that I record while I'm out walking,

provides you with a little added motivation to get out and take the walk.

Today's 10-minute walk starts after this.

Two years ago I got serious about hydration.

Told the story, it started when my neighbor was taken to the hospital in an

ambulance. Turns out he was dehydrated and in the course of either a conversation with him or his wife,

or maybe it was Ava. I learned that as you get older, your sense of thirst declines.

And so it's not a real good indicator of when we should drink.

We should be drinking even when we're not thirsty. Now, I get there are dangers on the other side of that.

Most of us, though, are probably trending closer to the dehydration part of this spectrum than overhydration.

By the way, you know what's coming? I'm not a doctor.

Okay, I think I just got a bug.

It might be a first.

Too much information? I think I just swallowed a bug.

I don't know what kind, but that's one less bug to annoy humanity.

Anyhow, not a doctor, nothing in this episode should be construed as specific medical advice

for you. Instead, I'm a guy who loves walking and

also understands the importance of hydration. And so two years ago made a commitment to hydrate.

And the experts are all over the place on how much water we should drink. I landed on the half my

body weight in ounces formula. I'm not a big guy, so it's not like I'm drinking, you know,

...