Looking for your favorite electrolyte drink recipes!

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Dragonwolf
Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
Alright, so I've run into a problem where my electrolytes get all wonky during a workout and I've had to resort to Powerade to keep from collapsing. Not a good thing, obviously.

The other obvious thing is to eat more dark, leafy greens and other high potassium and magnesium sources of food (I've recently been playing around with real, fermented root beer, which incorporates molasses, which helps on the nutrient front). However, the foods the in the "Top 10" lists are either a. not Paleo, b. a little too carby for my goals (bananas, potatoes), and/or c. of a taste profile that makes me want to gag (damn gene that makes me able to taste the bitter compounds in foods!). I'm working on item c, and am willing to work in some from item b if really necessary, but that takes time, so I'd need something in the meantime.

I'm also not entirely convinced that doing that alone would be enough, as what I do is pretty high intensity and lasts for 45 minutes with only short "active rest" breaks between peaks of exertion. That's a lot of fluid loss in general, especially when being lower carb and not having as much in the way of dietary carb-induced glycogen stores.

So! That leaves me with the purpose of this topic -- electrolyte drinks. While I'm not opposed to drinking Powerade (or Gatorade) once in a while, when it's either that or collapse, I'd also rather prefer to avoid the crap that's in it (to be fair, it's not the worst out there, most of the ingredients are actually for electrolyte purposes, but I could still do without the Red 40/Blue 1 and artificial sweeteners), and with that in mind, I'd love to hear of any recipes you might have. Yes, I know, parts of them will be the same (after all, you need the electrolytes, themselves), but drinking salt water isn't all that appealing, so I'm sure there are things that can be done to change the flavor.

Replies

  • 17JayR
    17JayR Posts: 77 Member
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    Would coconut water be too carby for you? It has a good amount of electrolytes.
  • aliciap412
    aliciap412 Posts: 170 Member
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    Idealy, I would cut up some fruit (lemons, limes, strawberries, mango, oranges etc) or sometimes cucumbers and add them to my water bottle. It tastes amazing and I'll just refill water over the fruit/veg for awesome tasting water and eat them after my workout. My favorite combo is definitely strawberry, lemon, and cucumber.

    When I run out of fresh fruit, I've done this with frozen fruit, which actually works better for heavy exertion or hot yoga since ice cubes don't keep the water as cold as long as frozen fruit. It also lasts for hours of refills.

    When I'm totally out of fruit, I'll resort to Smart Water.

    I get dizzy and light headed if I sweat and don't replenish my electrolytes. For a while there I was buying those Mio additives that had electrolytes in them, but they definitely have artificial sweeteners and artificial coloring in them and I never felt as hydrated as I do when I add fruit or drink Smart Water.
  • butterbear1980
    butterbear1980 Posts: 234 Member
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    I do a bit of maple syrup, lemon juice, and pink salt; works really well!
  • jakejacobsen
    jakejacobsen Posts: 595 Member
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    Never thought to put anything in my water as I like plain water. I have also been experiencing some light headed moments after an hour or so of working out. Today I added some lemon juice to my water and had no issues, granted I also added a banana 1/2 way through when I felt I had no energy left, but the lemon water helped..

    Thanks so much for posting this, I never gave it any thought, I just figured I was too out of shape..