I love water. This love; however, was not always there. Growing up I drank milk, chocolate milk, strawberry milk when my mom would let me, apple juice and orange juice...and the occasional soda (always a HUGE treat growing up).
I fell in love with water when I was in college because...well, because I had to. I had no money. Water was free and I needed every dime for food.
I do not like my water flavored by fruit or veggies. No cucumber, lime, lemon, strawberry slices for me. None. I can drink my water with ice cubes or with out. I can drink it cold, room temperature and sometimes I can even drink it warm or slightly hot (gotta be really thirsty though).
The only time I don't like water is when I am sick. Especially when I have a cold. Ugh, water tastes so gross when I have a cold. Then I want something with a strong taste - I usually go for orange juice or hot chocolate, but sometimes I will drink soda.
Since 95% of my life is now spent drinking water, I have (smugly) felt that I was pretty healthy. I mean drinking water is on like every advice list on how to improve your health. So, I'm good, right? Um, yeah, nope, not at all, not even close.
For the last two weeks I have been a participating in a clean eating challenge. The first week, the focus was on eating 5 or 6 small meals and making sure every meal was as clean as possible. (Read clean to mean as whole & unprocessed as possible).
It was a hard week for me. Breakfast, snack and lunch I can eat pretty clean, but dinner through me every single time. When I couldn't figure out how to make something more "clean", than I just ate a smaller portion with more veggies. Pretty good compromise. I really liked how I felt at the end of that first week.
The second week, the focus was on drinking a gallon of water a day. I did not drink a gallon of water a day, I was shy by 8 oz (2 cups) each day, but I still drank a ton of water! And I love water!
I'm sure everyone else in the challenge did a great job of eating clean AND drinking water, but for some reason I didn't. At first, I felt really guilty, but now I am glad for the mistake. Why? Because I got to experience for myself in a short amount of time the difference between eating healthy with some water and eating not so healthy and drinking a ton of water. Want to guess which week won? Which week where I felt my best?
Yup, you guessed it! The first week. With all that water I drank in the second week, I was forced to eat smaller meals, but the meals were not healthy and I felt (feel) like crap.
Huge wake up call to me that eating healthy trumps everything - trumps sleep, trumps drinking water, trumps exercise. Now, I know I have to do all of those things together, but if I am having a rough day and can only put my time & energy into one, then it needs to be my food. Clean, healthy, unprocessed food.
Happy Journey!
Interesting!
ReplyDeleteI like my water crisp and clean, too, but I am terrible at drinking it. I go through terrible hydration before I can be bothered. Unlike my hubby who substitutes his water with soda, I find if I quit drinking soda, I don't drink anything at all. It's a problem I've struggled with all my adult years... but I still try. As you say, water is on every list so I need to continue to try!
I read somewhere that if you're craving sweets, try drinking water instead - that you're actually thirsty sometimes.
I have the same problems... the clean eating? That's my thing with trying to eat healthy that I've mentioned before goes out the window in the evening. We must be getting tired throughout the day or something.
But I think it's really interesting you made that connection with water and healthy eating. I don't think I do that, but now I'm going to be more observant with myself...
I really think the challenge is what helped me make that connection. Even with that connection, it is still hard work to drink enough water, eat clean and not lose steam by the end of the day... trying to see each day as a drop in the bucket that will eventually become my over all health. Love that we are in this together and our blogs give food for thought!
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