The stress in some fitness messages

I saw somewhere... a spoof of some fitness posters.  It was really pretty phenomenal how the message of the original posters was along the lines of "work harder", "do more", "look in the mirror to assess where you are"... all things that seem to me to say "you're not good enough, you should do better than that".  I guess that sums up why I have trouble getting on board with most fitness programs.  It's always some type of "whip you into shape" kind of attitude that I don't go for, myself.  In fact, those kind of messages, about how I'm not good enough... really just stress me out.  

Anyway... then I got to the end of the list of posters... and one said something about the goal being clear urine.  Now there... you just went beyond "you're not good enough" into "dangerous".  It seems to me that fitness AND nutrition types are often pushing water.  They act like there's no upper limit.  Oh... but there is.  Your urine should NOT be clear.  It also should not be dark yellow.  If your urine is clear you are in danger of flushing out critical minerals... some that could cause your heart to beat improperly (potassium comes to mind first).  

The truth is, I can't think of anything that the body uses and NEEDS that can't become too much.  Some things are harder to get too much of than others, but it can be done.  The whole thing with the body is finding a BALANCE.  Not too little, not too much.  

Let's go back to the water thing.  I've heard lots of formulas and such about water.  I wonder why we don't teach people to listen to their bodies?  Why don't we train ourselves to monitor for signs of too little water?  I realize that means that we are already off balance... but if we monitor ourselves for a few days or weeks, I imagine you'll get a pretty good idea of how much water YOU need.  That is to say... based on YOUR exercise, body composition, diet, and metabolism.... how much water do YOU need every day?  This provides you with no less than two strengths that the "clear pee" goal doesn't.  1) You can respond to changes in weather, activity levels, or body conditions that might require a change in the amount of water you are drinking.  2) If you're self-monitoring this way you are training yourself to be conscious of your body's needs, you are responding to its feedback, and you are building a relationship with your body.  You are doing what's right for your body based on the feedback you get... not following someone else's idea (or ideal) that isn't applicable to you.

My goal is that we all learn to listen more to our bodies... there is so much wisdom to be found there.  The body can connect us to our emotions, our experiences, and truly enrich our lives.  But it can't do that if we're constantly forcing it to do things that aren't supporting it.  Too much water can be very hard on the kidneys.  This provides a physical stressor, in addition to the messages that we aren't good enough as we are.  I have more coming up soon with regard to stress... but long-term ongoing stress is certainly one of the things that underlies many hormone imbalances.  More on that soon...