why you need to drink your water and mind your business

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]this straight. You are confused why you have a massive headache. And spoiler alert, you probably haven't had one glass of water today. Hell, one sip of water. Hey there, it is your favorite nurse, yogi, Leslene. I am a registered nurse with 12 years of healthcare experience and I'm also a certified yoga instructor with 5 years of teaching experience. We are going to talk about dehydration and how it is taking the girls out. This is completely unacceptable, y'all. Especially cuz I know y'all got these Stanley's. Are we just getting these Stanley's for the sake of I got a Stanley and to be showing off? I hope not. So, let's get into dehydration and how if you do not hydrate yourself, you can end up in the people's hospital. I have seen this firsthand as a nurse who used to work in the hospital and I now work on the insurance side. And as I'm reading these charts, y'all, people just going in the hospital for a little bit of dehydration. Come on, we can prevent that because spoiler alert, it's not going to be covered. Most likely the insurance is not going to cover it.

[00:01:01]Going to go a little in the insurance case management utilization management side of things. All that means is the insurance will not pay it because it's seen as an observation status. If you do not go upstairs, so to speak, into a room and you're just in the emergency department, most of the time you're going to foot the bill. Okay? And I don't want you to have to foot the bill.

[00:01:22]Okay? I'm here to save you money when it comes to your health. Okay, so with dehydration, it's really important to stay hydrated because the opposite of hydration is dehydration, right? And just a point, a rule of thumb before you click off my video, you need to be drinking half of your body weight in um in water. So what that means is if you weigh 120 lbs, you would cut that in half and that's 60 o. So when I tell you all I I don't consider myself a type A person, okay? I say I live between type A and type B. I'm going to explain, right? When it comes to my health, I need to know numbers. I need to know numbers. I need to have the data so then I have something to work towards, right?

[00:02:10]I'm not just going to exercise for the sake of exercise. I need to know why I am exercising. What is it doing for my body? What is it doing for the different systems that are in my body? So, let's get back to this glass of water. If I'm telling you that you need to drink half of your body weight in water and say you weigh 120 lbs, that means I need to drink 60 ounces of water. What does that really look like? That's five of these.

[00:02:31]You need to drink five mason jars a day.

[00:02:33]And you're like, five? That's it? That's not bad. It's not bad. But for whatever reason, we get so caught up in being a new mom, in your job, in all of the other things that you have to do, taking care of your aging parents. There's so many different things that I know that you have to do. But let me tell you something. You cannot take care of any of those people if you are not drinking water. And that sounds so minimal or trivial, but it it really goes down to that. Drinking your water is self-care.

[00:03:06]Self-care is not just the manicures and the pedicures and the massages. And I love those. I'm actually going to try to book one this weekend for Mother's Day.

[00:03:15]All right? It's more it's simple things.

[00:03:18]Like so many times we say, "I don't have time for self-care." What you're really saying is like, "I don't have time for me." Right? So simply just drinking five of these if you, you know, weigh 120 pounds a day is how you can show self-care to your body when you're like, "Girl, I'm broke. I ain't got no monies.

[00:03:35]You got water. You got water. You have clean drinking water. At least I I would hope that you have that, right? So that's So when I say I'm a type A, type B. I don't know if I've said that yet cuz this is like take three or four of me recording this damn video. But with my type, you know, sometimes I live in the type A side of things when it comes to my health. And so I like mason jars.

[00:03:56]And why I said five of these is because the full to that the fill line is 12 oz.

[00:04:02]So, it tells you the ounces on mason jars, which I love because then I know, okay, I have to drink I have to drink like about eight. I have to drink about eight of these, right? Um, so that just puts things into perspective. And since we're talking so much about hydration, let me drink some water.

[00:04:20]And if you have your water next to you, do that at this time. I know it's super hard to remember, especially if you are not used to taking care of yourself. And that's why I created my 12-week preventative health care program because I show you how to to do these things. I show you how we set up reminders for yourself. Doing things simply as putting a reminder on your phone every 15 minutes or every 30 minutes to take a sip of water, right? We all have Stanley's now. Let me just get into that. We all have Stanley's, right? And with these Stanley's, are we just having these Stanley's for the sake of having the Stanley? I know they're cute. I know they're cute, but the Stanley's typically are about 40 ounces, right?

[00:05:02]And I know these these ounce spec spec specifics because I am very a stickler when it comes to my water intake. And so that's why I'm very like I just I be like, girl, how you know it's 40 ounces? I just I know that. So like you want to drink at least one of like it depends though because it's a weightbased thing.

[00:05:23]Okay? So, I need you to figure out how much you weigh. And we go through this in my program. I help you calculate, do all of these things. So, the reason I am so concerned about the girls being dehydrated, it's not cute. Like, it's really not a good look, is because dehydration can turn into what is called acute kidney injury. Your kidneys, and just so you know, you might at the end of this, you might be like, did I just go through an anatomy and physiology class? Yes, it's jokes. It's jokes, please. It's jokes. But we're going to go into this now. So, the reason I'm concerned about you becoming dehydrated is because after if you do not hydrate your body, right? Your body can compensate. Your body's actually beautifully and wonderfully made, but it can only compensate for so long. And when I say compensate, you may have noticed you go, you may have been years, you're like, I always have this headache every day at 3 p.m. or whatever. Like, I wake up with a headache, right? Like for example, say you drink, right? You you had a great night out and you drank and you wake up the next day and you have a severe headache. That's because you are very you are dehydrated. Your kidneys, which your kidneys are in your lower back and they actually look like kidney beans. So, you know, my Caribbean people already know what's up, but they are red kidney beans. Okay? So, they you have one on each side of your back. So, they sit in your lower back. So going back, you have that headache and the kidneys are pretty much screaming at your head.

[00:06:55]That's how I think about it. Like, hey, we are severely dehydrated. I need you to drink all of the water and hell, go get an IV, right? Cuz now there are those places where you can get IV fluids like, and you don't even have to go to the hospital. Um, so the reason the kidneys are yelling at your brain is because your kidneys, they filter.

[00:07:18]They're your filtration system, right?

[00:07:20]So, what that means is, you know, a brida, like you have a brida in your fridge or maybe you have a fridge that has a filter that is your kidneys for your body. So, your your kidneys are your brida. Your kidneys are your filtration system. And what they do is they filter your blood. But if there is no blood to filter, meaning that like you're not drinking enough water to to let the blood swoosh around in your body, your kidneys are going to be like, "What what's going on?" And then over time, this is not an overnight thing.

[00:07:53]And I know a lot a lot of us, we live in this microwave society or and we live in this thing, this society too of like that's for that's for um future Leslie to deal with, right? But we need to worry about these things from now. Your body is your body I'm slowing down. Your body is talking to you every single day.

[00:08:12]It's just a matter if you are gonna listen, right? I don't know if I said this because again, this is take three or four of doing this video. I have pimple patches on my face. So, if you're like, "What's on your face?" It's pimple patches. Okay. So, with that, that's just a little uh anatomy of where. So, anatomy is like location, right? Of where organs are in your body. So, your kidneys sit in your lower back. So, another way um that kidney like injury can can show up, you're like, "How do I know if I'm having kidney issues?" You can maybe have lower back pain, right?

[00:08:48]And lower back pain is so interesting, right? Because a lot of the girls were sedentary. What does that mean? You're not exercising regularly. You rarely stand up. Um you don't stand up every 15 minutes if you have like a a a desk job, you know? Um you're just we're sitting a lot. And also you have to think like way back years and years like thousands and thousands of years ago we were hunters and gatherers right we're not that anymore. So our body does adapt. Yes.

[00:09:16]But at the same time our body still and will forever more till kingdom come require movement. Your body you have to move. But going back to being sedentary the more that you are sedentary and the thought left the building. The thought left the building. But the more that you are sedentary, the more that your blood is going to be sluggish in your body, right? Oh, so that's what I was getting at. So, if you're not drinking water, right? Say you don't remember to drink water till like 3:00 p.m. cuz that's when all your meetings are done and you have to go pick up the kids now. And then you're like, "Oh my gosh, it's my first cup of water for the day, right?"

[00:09:53]You probably haven't even peed. Maybe you peed once when you woke up.

[00:09:57]Prayerfully, you did. And I want you to notate what does your P look like, right? Um, I didn't realize this is just a little tangent, but shout out to my friend Merlene, who's also my business strategist, but she's like, "You always are talking about pooping." Yes, I'm always talking about pooping because like I already said, your body is always speaking to you, either good things or bad things or neutral, right? Your body is always giving you clues as to, hey, I need I need some more water or hey, I need some more fiber. Right?

[00:10:32]Right now, we're talking about the kidneys. And the kidneys, they live in your geno to geno woo, I'm trying to be all fancy here. They live in your urinary system. Okay? So, your urinary system is your kidneys and your bladder, right? So, let I didn't know I was going to go here, but if you have kidney injury, acute kidney injury, and you don't take care of it, it will then um trickle down to trickle get it trickle down to bladder issues. Okay? And then you can get a bladder infection, which then can turn into things like urinary tract infection, right? And this is so interesting, right? A lot of women have urinary tract infections for multitude of reasons, right? And if you are constantly getting these urinary tract infections, also known as UTI, and you're not properly treating them, that urinary tract infection can trickle up and turn into kidney issues and other things. But we're focusing on kidneys.

[00:11:31]can turn into your kidneys getting messed up because if your urine if you're having an infection in your urinary tract. So literally urinary tract. So the track that the urine flows down is if if that gets affected and doesn't get treated it's going to start go up and then you go up there's the kidneys. Okay? Because they're the kidneys and the and the bladder they're in the same house. They're in the same they're in the same room if we will cuz you have to think of your body. Your body is your house and then you have multiple rooms in your house, right? So, we're opening the door to the urinary system. The kidneys are there. Hey, kidneys. The bladder is there. Hey, bladder. And if you're not treating this is going to turn into infection. Okay.

[00:12:15]So, with that being said, going back to your urine, if you only peed once today, right? I don't know when you're watching this. At time of recording, it's May 5th. Happy Cinco de Mayo. you celebrate um when you okay transparently I'm working through this this this wording so that I can just be better of getting my message across because when I tell you I am so passionate about helping you be well and I I've been learning as I'm continuing to put myself out there with my business Leslene does wellness where I show women how to put themselves first through yoga that I really need to get into my medical bag.

[00:12:59]And so I I'm stopping at times because I don't want to say something wrong, but I know that God is guiding me through this video and that you that are watching are getting what you need. And if you have any questions as to what I'm saying, please ask me below so then I can clarify because I'm trying to give all of the information and I'm like, "Okay, break it down." So the peeing, I want you to look at your your pee. So before you flush it, I need I do this every time I pee and poop. I'm like always looking because again, your body's always giving you signs. And it's free.

[00:13:35]It's free.99. So the next time you pee, I want you to look at it. And if your pee smells, that's that's a concern.

[00:13:43]Okay. What would we say? That's a red flag. Okay. So if your pee is smelly, that's a red flag. If your pee is amber, so it's like dark amber, like a dark yellow, that's a concern. And that dark yellow, that's where I'm we're getting to. That means that you're not drinking enough water. And your kidneys, they they don't have enough to filter. So they they just won't give what they can, right? And on top of that, if you only do a little, we getting real real, okay?

[00:14:14]If you only doing a little a little squirt, you get what I'm saying? like you just a little in the toilet and like barely anything like gets into the bowl.

[00:14:23]That also means you're not drinking enough, right? And just to reiterate, how much is enough water? Because too much of anything is not good for your body cuz so too much of anything is not good for your body. You need to drink half of your body weight in ounces of water. And if you're like, I don't know, start paying attention to that Stanley.

[00:14:41]I want you to flip over that Stanley and I'm pretty sure it says 40 ounces. Okay, you're going to that's how much. So you you 40 ounces. So dependent on your weight is how many Stanley's I need you to drink. If you work from home like me, I just be using my my mason jars, right?

[00:14:56]So look at your urine. I want you to notate what your urine looks like and what it smells like cuz if you can smell your urine when you stand when you sit and you smell, you need to go to the doctor. Okay? And this is I'm not shaming please. I don't want to shame you at all. this is, you know, it's just you and me. It's just you and me. But that's of that's that's of concern. So, continuing this talk, because like I said, this is anatomy and physiology jokingly um class.

[00:15:26]Another way that you can get kidney injury is if you have type 2 diabetes. I have notes because I have statistics because I need to be better with statistics. So, let me get to that part.

[00:15:42]Do I have it? Almost 50% of people develop um so 48.6 of patients with type 2 diabetes are at risk for acute kidney injury. So what that means is this. A lot of people like personal story, my mom when I was like middle school, high school was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

[00:16:08]a like a major like you in the black community let's just call a thing a thing we call diabetes the sugars right because of our diet also genetically meaning it's passed down from family so my mom she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes years and years ago it was part of the reason I became a nurse right and with her having type 2 diabetes I'm more at risk for developing type 2 diabetes as well so I make sure to get my blood work done I get blood work done specifically the hemoglobin A1 1 C. This is the indicator to tell you if you are at risk for type 2 diabetes, right? So, I do things like that because I know that I'm at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. I also exercise regularly. I drink my water and I do my best to eat protein, fiber, all of that. Okay. So, what I'm getting at though is if you do not treat your type 2 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, signs of that is you're you're so opposite of peeing a lot, you're peeing too much or you're like always thirsty. Okay, those are like two off the top of my head. But what I'm getting at, if you don't treat the diabetes, the type 2 diabetes specifically, cuz that's the one that's preventable, it can turn into kidney injury because you have to think you have all this sugar in your blood, right? And all I want you to think of your blood vessels like hoses or like a pipe. And with pipes they in order for them to flow properly they have to have nothing blocking so that the pipe the water can go from point A to point B.

[00:17:41]But if you add sugar that sugar and into the the pipe your blood gets sluggish.

[00:17:47]And as your blood gets sluggish that turns to less blood flow to the kidneys.

[00:17:54]Right? This all happens over time over time. But I am seeing more and more as I am doing the people's job of people younger and younger developing kidney injury and when I tell you this can all be completely preventable and as I was doing like um re like I was doing research to get you know um statistics for you all. I found this one um website that was saying that after COVID that there was people more at risk for acute kidney injury because with COVID that puts you your immune system lower.

[00:18:31]You're now immuno compromised with COVID. So now your body is more at risk for developing things like kidney injury and what that so yeah. Okay. So with that that's why I want to talk about this.

[00:18:47]this. I'm like, "Dang, where am I going with this? It's okay, Leslie. I'm I'm like shooting myself in the foot, but it's all good. We're getting it out.

[00:18:53]We're getting it out." So, we talked about acute kidney injury. We talked about diabetes and how diabetes is the leading cause of kidney damage if you do not treat your diabetes. Right?

[00:19:07]Hypertension is also another di uh disease process that's very prevalent in the African-American community. If you do not treat your hypertension, that can de that can um turn into kidney injury. And what's so interesting unfortunately is when people h diabetes and high blood pressure is so common. Every time I do a chart review, like I read people's medical records, which I read hundreds and hundreds of medical records, they the the main past medical history that type two diabetes, high blood pressure, and then if that patient comes back, god forbid, within say they come back to the hospital two years later, now they have kidney injury. Okay? So, you see, do you see where I'm going? And then also UTI.

[00:19:53]Like if you're somebody that has a lot of UTI, you need to be really aware of like your your kidney um function. Okay.

[00:20:01]So reverse engineer this, right? Why are we more why why is hypertension like I'm going to close with this. Why is hypertension and diabetes like the top two diagnosis for black people? Right?

[00:20:15]Genetics have a lot to do with it. Okay?

[00:20:18]And so if you're like me, genetically you're more predisposed for high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes cuz your parents, grandparents, you know, you need to do things such as exercise, drink your water, make sure you're getting adequate sleep, making sure you're eating nutritious meals that encompass the macronutrients, which are protein, fats, carbs. Do you see where I'm going? And if you're like, "Girl, this is a lot of information."

[00:20:48]It is. And that's why I'm like pausing as I'm talking because it is a lot of information. And that's the reason why I created my 12week preventative health program specifically for women that are at risk for diabetes. Women that are at risk for type 2 diabetes. Because if you're at risk, that means you have there's hope for you. There is hope.

[00:21:13]Because like I said to you all, type two diabetes is completely you can modify the out of it. Okay? You can modify you can um what do they call it? Biohack it through lifestyle changes. Okay? And so that's why I created my 12week preventative health program because it encompasses everything I just said. I teach you about diet. I teach you about exercise. I teach you about mindset. I teach you about nutrition. Okay? I teach you about sleep. Okay? And I educate you this same way, but I'm like really holding your hand, but not I'm virtually holding your hand cuz I don't know y'all. Do y'all be washing your hands?

[00:21:49]Anyways, so that is an all-encompassing thing of why you need to stay hydrated.

[00:21:57]I don't want you ending up with kidney failure. Kidney failure all is not cute cuz then there's just all these other things that can happen to you. You then have a bag, you know, a um a Foley bag.

[00:22:09]You don't want those things, right? We only want to be carrying our Stanley lip gloss and maybe a beaded bag, okay? Like those three and your phone, right? I don't want you to have to be lugging around a Foley bag before you're 40 years old. And if you're like, "What the heck is a Foley bag?" It's a bag where then your urine your urine goes into the bag because you over you weren't taking care of yourself. Okay. Wow. Anyways, that closes this out. Please, please, please let me know if you have any questions and I'll see you same time, same place tomorrow cuz your girl is doing 100 days of YouTube straight. I think today's day 90 or day 91. We're almost done. But this video made me realize I could do like three or four more videos within everything I talked about. So, I will see you later. Okay, bye.