Health and Fitness, Self Improvement

Drink, drink, drink!

You need to drink water. You are made mostly of water. It doesn’t really taste of anything so it shouldn’t be hard to get your fill. Right?

Well no. I don’t mind water at all. I actually quite like it but somehow can’t drink what I’m supposed to drink, ever. From being a young kid I was under the impression that you need to drink 8 glasses a day. I never knew how big these glasses were and how much you fill the glass etc. After a very little amount of research I found a formula for how much you are supposed to drink. Here comes the (really basic) maths.

Take your weight in pounds. Halve it. Put that number in ounces and drink it.

For example, if you weigh 100lbs, half of that in ounces is 50 ounces and that is the daily amount of water you should drink. For me personally, after calculating my digits, I need to drink about 2 litres a day because you measure stuff in litres 😛

I had the opportunity to undertake this little self imposed Drinking Challenge away from work, which was very important to me, because I knew this little challenge would take a toll on my post-three-sprog bladder. We’re a bit short-staffed at the moment so I didn’t want to inconvenience anyone else or feel the embarrassment of having to explain my frequent absences from the room. I had two weeks off as it was the Easter break and incidentally I was potty training child number 2. This was the perfect time to do it.

Now the reason I wanted to up my intake of fluid was because I wanted to improve my skin, improve my health and improve my hair. There are a crazy number of health benefits such as flushing the toxins out of your body, helping with cell rejuvenation, topping up your natural levels of water and hydrating your skin and hair from within. For a very long time, I have been struggling to drink just 1 litre a day so to double that over night was a little bit daunting but I was determined as it’s a little change that I can make that’s basically free and as a nice side effect it would increase my daily steps!

For my skin, I’m currently cleansing, toning and moisturising (CTM) every evening so any improvements in my skin could be down to that too but I pushed forward to see what I could change with H2O. I said a tearful goodbye to my husband and children as I was pretty sure that I would be spending most of those 2 weeks on the loo.

Day 1 – I was quite surprised I actually drank my full quota and I was more surprised that I didn’t have to get up to go the loo like 5 times in the night, not even once (although I did have to get up early). I was not feeling any better, if anything I was feeling bloated and full.

Day 3 – I completely forgot about the challenge until about 1 in the afternoon and then tried to cram a days worth of drinking into half the time. In the end, I only drank 3 quarters. Note to self, don’t forget to drink during drinking challenge.

Day 4 – How the hell was I still thirsty? Sorry but was I drinking water wrong or something? This made no sense to me.

Day 9 – I had this! Two litres had become nothing to me, perhaps I should up it to 3…or not. Also, not that you need to know but at day 9, potty training had been conquered! Wahoo!

Day 10 – I was eating crap, so much crap. I wasn’t sure if it was some sort of self sabotage while I was trying to do something healthy, I was ruining my chances of success by eating junk food like it was about to be abolished.

Day 12 – I had a major breakout on my skin. Well major compared to how my skin had been since I started the CTM. I also used an activated charcoal face mask a few days prior. My first reaction was that water clears your skin so it can’t be that but after talking to my husband and a quick Google search it turns out that as I’m in a hard water area this could be increasing my risk of breakouts. Please note I said could.

After 14 days, my hair doesn’t feel any more hydrated, I would say it hasn’t changed one iota, not one bit. On the other hand, my skin does feel smoother (the breakout calmed dow very quickly), there is a marked difference in how soft it feels, how much moisturiser I think I need to use and I would say that it looks clearer BUT I have also undertaken a routine of regular cleansing that I have been doing for months and only recently feel the difference, possibly coinciding with my increased water intake. I was also under the impression that dark circles should reduce but I have come to the conclusion that I have panda eyes for life, no amount of water is fixing that.

So basically, I don’t know if it has made a tangible difference in the 2 weeks but because there is so much scientific evidence backing drinking water and also if I’m full on it, I shouldn’t eat so much *hmmm* so I will continue on trying to drink more. I don’t know if I can fulfill that 2 litres a day though but I will drink more and may invest in a water filter too. My husband did tell me at the end of the 2 weeks that he wouldn’t have thought that I’d notice any change in only 2 weeks. Wish he’d told me that 2 weeks earlier.

Let’s keep growing wetter together! Or not, that doesn’t sound how I wanted it to sound.

xx Lee xx

Comments welcome below. How do you make sure you drink enough?

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