Water, water everywhere...

I mentioned in one of my previous posts that before I started taking my daily regimen on twenty pills full of vitamins and amino acids (which make my pee the color of that liquid inside a glow stick), I was drinking around 140 ounces of water a day. That's the equivalent of about 15 cups of water. Thas a lotta water! I monitored my hydration level by looking at the color of my urine. If it was anything other than clear, I chugged the water. And, like I stated in my post on rebirth, this strategy helped me maintain a relatively positive mindset.

I'd started this sort of fanatical water consumption back in the mid-90's when a fellow teacher recommended that every morning I drink two big glasses of water first thing. His reasoning sounded, um, sound. If our bodies truly are over 60% water, and each of us spends the entire night without a drink of water, then we all wake up dehydrated.

Drinking a couple of glasses first thing in the morning really does help! If you're not doing it, you should try. Do this little experiment. For the next week, when you wake up, drink two glasses of water before doing anything else. Chug them down. For many of you who are unaccustomed to drinking water on a regular basis, the water itself might not taste good. Make sure you're letting the pipes clear out of the stagnant water that's been sitting all night. Get that good cool water for your first glasses. (My first night in a new home, I had a few too many beers in celebration. Waking up the next day I chugged two or three large glasses of water straight from the tap. Within moments I was retching in the toilet, my body rejecting the copper laden water that had sat in the pipes all night. *ugh*) I think you'll find that the more you drink water, the better it tastes. I also think that as you start your day rehydrating yourself, you'll find some interesting changes in how you approach your day.

Be aware of your body and your mind. Do you feel any different having imbibed those two glasses of water? Do you feel more awake? Is that morning headache miraculously gone? Do you have more energy? Are you more cheery and flexible in your mindset? Is it easier to smile and let the little things roll off you back rather than obsess on small irritations.

Tomorrow, I'll expand on this idea of water as an incredible curative power in our lives. I'll also detail what happens in extreme cases of dehydration. It's not pretty.

Check out the link for some current research into the amount of water we should be drinking. Like most science, there is no clear consensus. What is clear is that we should be listening more closely to our bodies and the needs our bodies work to communicate.

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/NU/00283.html

Be well my friends.