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Homemade electrolyte drinks are cheaper than store bought. They are also free from added sugars, artificial sweeteners, and other ingredients you may not want in your body. Electrolyte drinks are used to replace what’s lost when someone becomes sick or to help stay hydrated while working out.
What the heck is an electrolyte?
Our bodies are full of electric charges called electrolytes–we run on them. Electrolytes that might sound familiar to you are sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Electrolytes can be lost when we exercise (through sweating), after we become sick with a stomach flu (or any other time when our body rapidly loses liquids), or if we haven’t been getting proper nutrition.
Why do I need an electrolyte drink?
Honestly, you probably don’t need one. Our bodies do a great job of balancing themselves so that we don’t really need to drink anything but water.
You might want to supplement your water intake with electrolytes for several reasons–maybe you have the stomach flu and can’t keep water down. Maybe you feel dehydrated, or feel really thirsty during your workouts–those are times when drinking a homemade hydration drink might help you.
Why should I make a DIY electrolyte drink?
Even the best store bought electrolyte drinks and powders can be full of a ton of ingredients and usually none of them are good for you. Added sugars, artificial ingredients, and preservatives are what you’re usually getting with these “commercial electrolyte” drinks.
When you make these drinks at home, you’re getting a natural electrolyte drink that’s full of what your body needs and nothing more. This recipe is for an electrolyte replacement drink made with real food–raw honey, lime juice, fruit, and coconut water–in the perfect delicious ratio.
Ingredients in this Cherry Lime Electrolyte Drink Recipe:
Each of these ingredients were chosen for a reason, so I’m going to explain why each of these ingredients is helpful for these drinks:
- Watermelon:
Contains Vitamins A & C, is one of the most hydrating fruits, and also helps with muscle soreness because it contains certain amino acids. I could go into some science about this but I’ll just let you know that you can find solid information about which acids and why they work at this link.
Also, I chose to add watermelon to this drink because blending cherries, limes, and honey doesn’t produce much of a juice to mix with coconut water. I needed to find something with substance that would help make more of a juice to mix and watermelon was perfect!
- Cherries:
Contain Vitamin C and are anti-inflammatory. They contain a natural source of sugar, but don’t trigger blood sugar spikes. And they taste delicious.
- Limes:
Besides tasting delicious when mixed with cherries, limes contain potassium which helps your muscles work harder. Limes also contain magnesium, which is required for energy production.
- Honey:
Provides natural sugars for energy and helps with the sweetness we generally look for when consuming hydration and energy drinks.
- Coconut Water:
Drinking coconut water is a way to provide your body with the electrolytes is needs for hydration. It’s got a naturally salty flavor, and you should try several brands before deciding against it–I say this because it doesn’t taste the best on its own. O.N.E. brand is the one I’ve found tastes most palatable on its own.
If you by chance get a coconut water that you don’t care for, you can still get the benefits of this drink by using a smaller amount of coconut water and replacing the rest with regular water.
In addition to electrolytes, coconut water has some hearty nutrition facts–per cup, it contains 2 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber.
Just a quick note–if you run into a recipe for homemade sports drinks that calls for sea salt, check the sodium content of your coconut water first. Adding salt can make a drink like this undrinkable.
How to make this homemade sports drink:
- Squeeze the limes and measure out the pitted cherries, watermelon, and honey into a blender or food processor.
- Blend well–the cherry skin never seems to blend nicely, so I always leave this in the blender for a minute or so.
3. While your juice is blending, get 2 10 ounce portions of your favorite coconut water ready in bottles (the ones I use are here), mason jars, or other containers.
4. This recipe yields two drinks, so the juice you’ve just made needs to be divided in half between the two jars. This recipe makes two 12 ounce natural sports drinks.
5. Shake well and store in the refrigerator for up to five days. You can also freeze either the juice by itself (I’d separate it into 2 ounce portions before freezing) or the entire drink.
Is this a Keto Electrolyte Drink?
It’s not–the coconut water itself contains about 10 grams of carbohydrates, and even though the amount of fruit is minimal, it adds up. I’d recommend replacing the coconut water with regular water with a 1/2 tsp of salt, and cutting the honey in half to help make this a lower carb electrolyte drink.
Is this a Weight Watchers Electrolyte Drink?
One serving of this homemade hydration drink is 4 Blue, Green, & Purple Points and the 2023 Points are 3, because of the coconut water and honey. Reducing either of them, or reducing your serving size will lower your points.
How about the 21 Day Fix and Ultimate Portion Fix?
One serving of this drink counts as 1 sweetener teaspoon and the following fruit: 1/2 cup watermelon, 3 cherries, and 1 squeezed lime. That comes out to about 1/2 purple container. Your coconut water counts as 1/2 yellow container for 8 ounces. I’d replace two ounces of coconut water with regular water for this recipe. If you want to reduce the yellow containers to 1/4 container, use four ounces of coconut water and six ounces of regular water in this recipe.
Looking for an equally delicious homemade energy drink?
Check out this post for directions about how to make a delicious and easy homemade energy drink.
Cherry Lime Homemade Electrolyte Drink
Equipment
- Vitamix Blender
- Glass Milk Bottles
Ingredients
- 2 lime squeezed
- 6 cherries pitted
- ¼ c watermelon
- 2 tsp honey optional
- 20 ounces coconut water
Instructions
- Squeeze the limes and measure out the pitted cherries, watermelon, and honey into a blender or food processor. 2 lime, 6 cherries, 1/4 c watermelon, 2 tsp honey
- Blend well–the cherry skin never seems to blend nicely, so I always leave this in the blender for a minute or so.
- While your juice is blending, get 2 10 ounce portions of your favorite coconut water ready in bottles (the ones I use are here), mason jars, or other containers. 20 ounces coconut water
- This recipe yields two drinks, so the juice you’ve just made needs to be divided in half between the two jars. This recipe makes two 12 ounce natural sports drinks.
- Shake well and store in the refrigerator for up to five days. You can also freeze either the juice by itself (I’d separate it into 2 ounce portions before freezinor the entire drink.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Make This Recipe?
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This is a million times better than the store bought ones that are full of chemicals. So refreshing!
I had no idea that coconut water contained electrolytes! My husband buys expensive electrolyte water, we will now be drinking this delicious cherry lime water!
Yay!! So glad you know this now!