Yes, this is yet another post about why we should drink water and how to get enough of it. We’ve all read a gazillion of them already.
But don’t make the assumption that I have nothing new to share. Because I do. I have a really easy suggestion for how to get enough water every day, one that I have not read about anywhere else. But you’ll have to read the rest of the post to find out what it is. Muahaha… Don’t worry; you’ll get there soon enough – and I think you’ll decide it was worth it. 🙂
OK, so just as a quick recap, why do we need to drink water every day? In my own life, I have several issues that improve when I am well hydrated. See if any of these apply to you:
1) I can wear my contacts more comfortably because being hydrated means my dry eyes are now well-moistened.
2) My hormone swings are less severe, because my liver is being flushed out constantly. The liver is where excess hormones go to be eliminated. If the liver is not functioning well, hormones can build up in there and cause problems. Believe me when I tell you this.
3) The muscles of my neck and upper back, which are notoriously tight, loosen up and are better lubricated. And less painful or sore.
4) I have fewer sinus headaches, because my sinuses themselves don’t get as stuffed up. The sinus fluid is much more, well, fluid, so it drains better and doesn’t back up the system.
5) This one is new as of this summer – I help prevent kidney stones from forming. I did not know I was prone to have them, but the one I passed a couple months ago convinced me that I don’t want to have another one. If you’ve had one, you know exactly what I mean. If you haven’t – then drink water so you won’t ever need to experience that kind of pain. (Mine happened during a time when I was NOT using my supercalifragilistic method of drinking water — which you will read about SOON! — I hope not to make that mistake again.)
6) Toxins are not given residence in my body for any longer than they have to be. This is important to me, since I had breast surgery due to a “suspicious” section of tissue a few years ago. The biopsy came back as “abnormal” – which is the level right below pre-cancerous. I don’t want those cells to progress down the danger trail; drinking a lot of water is a great way to aid in that effort.
7) I am less hungry. Water fills up the space in my tummy that was looking for munchies.
8) My brain isn’t foggy. Or maybe I should say it isn’t AS foggy, lol. The brain is made up of BEAUCOUP water. When it doesn’t have enough, those pesky synapses don’t fire like they should.
9) I have more energy. Let’s face it: EVERYTHING works better when I drink water regularly.
So yes, I make an effort to get the water that I need. How much is that, you ask? I’ve read recently that everyone should drink half of their body weight in ounces of water. In other words, if you weigh 150, you should be drinking 150 / 2 = 75 ounces of water. That can seem like a lot – but with my wonderful system, it doesn’t have to be difficult to drink that much every day.
It seems like everyone struggles to drink enough water on a daily basis. We’ve all seen the pictures on Pinterest of the gallon jugs that have the times of day on them, so that we know that by 11am we should have drunk so many ounces. I’ve never tried that system, because to me it looks discouraging. Who wants to see how much water they have to drink all at once like that?? Pretty daunting!
My system is EASY (because my motto is “I’m too lazy for complicated.” Life’s too short to be making things more difficult than they need to be!!) and takes no expensive equipment. And it works. And did I mention how easy it is??
The only preparation you need to do is get an 8-10 ounce cup and put it in your bathroom. And that’s the worst part of the whole thing. After that, there’s not much thought or effort involved. I got a hard plastic one — but it’s pretty and looks nice in the bathroom — at W-mart for about 97 cents.
OK, now it’s finally time to tell you what I do to get enough water each day. This is my fancy-dancy, splenderifous system for drinking water. It’s going to sound a little awkward, here, but until you’ve actually tried it, don’t knock it. Here goes:
Every day, first thing when you get up, you go to the bathroom, right? Admit it, it’s what we all do. It’s just part of being a human being. Well, when you’re done doing your business, drink a full 8-10 oz. cup of water. Just chug the whole thing down. It’ll take you about 10 seconds. Big deal. Then go about your day.
Guess what? That cup of water you drank upon waking is going to make its way to your bladder over the next hour or so, and you’re going to need to go potty again. So, again after you’ve done your business, drink another full cup of water. Don’t waste a lot of time; just fill it up and drink it down.
And you guessed it; the cycle will happen again, and you’ll find yourself back in the bathroom in short order. And you’ll drink another cup of water… and so on and so forth throughout your day.
Trust me, it doesn’t take that long to get 8-10 cups of water into your system – or however many cups you need to get to your desired amount of water. I’ve usually accomplished it sometime before dinner. (If you get my free weekly calendar planner, you can easily keep track of how much water you’ve drunk for the day, because there is a specified place to check off up to eight glasses for each day of the week.) Once you’ve reached the number of cups you require, then you can be done for the day. This gives your body a chance to process all that water before bed, so you don’t have trouble with needing to make trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
For me, this is by far the easiest way to drink enough water. I don’t like carrying around a water bottle – I always lose them. I don’t like the gallon jug idea, because it takes up space in my fridge or on my counter, and I don’t like living by a clock. This system just happens naturally, and I barely have to think about it. If I’m out of the house for the day, I just don’t drink as much. Then when I’m back home, I start right up again. No worries.
And now you’ve read even one more post about drinking water! But I bet you’ll find yourself a cup and put it in your bathroom. And that’s probably how you’ll remember me — as the lady who told you to drink water after going pee. Oh well, we can’t all be nuclear scientists.
