There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
I recently read an article about over-hydration and how people have been systematically programmed into doing something harmful. The article talks about "Drinking When Thirsty" is a mechanism your brain and body has finely tuned since the beginning of time and that the propaganda of recommend x-cups-of-water-per-day or forcing yourself to drink water before exercise is actually something that sports drink companies have been shovelling down everyone's throats without any medical evidence.
Take a look at these articles and Google all the multitude medical journals that talk about this issue: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/296081.php https://wolterskluwer.com/company/newsroom/news/2015/06/drink-when-thirsty-to-avoid-fatal-drops-in-blood-sodium-levels-during-exercise.html
Basically your brain has several mechanisms that activate during exercise that divert water to where it is needed. Organs such as stomach and kidneys shut down, blood is diverted to muscles/limbs that need it, and urine production is reduced. Naturally when exercising your urine will be darker and yellow. In this state, if you force yourself to drink more water than necessary, it will put unnecessary strain on your body to get rid of the water, potentially causing life-threatening issues.
Furthermore, for millions of years, animals and humans have been relying on their thirst to tell them when to drink and if the species hasn't died off then we must be doing something right. Also apparently dehydration doesn't occur for hours after the thirst signal begins, you would have to ignore the thirst for hours and continue doing exercise before dehydration sets in (assuming you're not losing a lot more water due to heat/sun-stroke/humidity). Dehydration also has not been shown to have any statistical correlation with muscle cramps so that myth is blown out of the water.
So, please, do yourself and favor and only drink when thirsty. Don't over-carry water, figure out how much water you actually consume doing regular exercise, extrapolate for future hikes/excursions, and consider just carrying a water filter and drinking directly from the source.