The Water Experiment: Part 2

Let's just say I'm glad I didn't go out and buy the pretty drink bottle.

Day 1 started strong. I consistently sipped water all day and covered my 4L goal by dinner. From about the 3L mark though, I battled a killer headache that seemed to get worse the more I drank. Was my body ridding itself of toxins? Would I be a pure, cleansed goddess come morning? Or was my Google search accurate? Was my blood really flooded with so much water that my diluted sodium levels were causing my brain to literally expand?

On Day 2 I drank less than two litres, mainly because I completely forgot and partly because drinking 4L had made me pee like a racehorse and gave me a headache.

From Day 3 my intake seemed to level out. While I wasn't covering my 4L aim, I was definitely more aware of how much I was drinking. I was able to pinpoint that it was the mornings that I wasn't drinking. I was busy getting organised for the day (and helping 23 kids get organised for theirs) and I was forgetting completely to drink. This was an area I could easily up my intake in and, with any luck, I'd be on my way to consistently consuming my recommended 3L per day.

After one month, I have learnt a few things about water, and interestingly, about myself.

1. I have learnt (or rather I heard on the grapevine) that our bodies can only absorb about 300mL of water per hour. So, sipping slowly all day is the way to go.

2. Drinking too much water can be bad for you but you really would need to be smashing down huge quantities to do any real damage.

2. I am not one of those people who are motivated by writing my goals down. In fact, I can publish them in the public sphere of my blog and still not stick to my guns. This reinforced what I already knew about me and exercise and clean-eating goals...writing them down unfortunately had absolutely no impact.

In conclusion, I guess my aim is to drink more in the mornings and aim for a minimum of 3L per day, consistently. Maybe that level will increase when the weather warms up and I finally sort myself out and find a way to get my exercise motivation in check. Maybe I'll start exercising on Monday so my body starts craving more water. See photo below for a flashback to when I was exercising regularly and was happy with how I was progressing. I will be referring to it Monday morning when I don't want to drag my butt out of bed. Maybe I should write that down *insert sarcasm here*.