Drink More Water – Why The Body Needs It
I’ve been very focused on mindfulness in living a healthy life lately. And one of the things at the top of my list is to drink more water.
In our society image is such a huge factor. People of all sizes and ages are feeling that they’re never “good” enough, “pretty” enough, or “skinny” enough. Let’s swap all that for a little while and focus on are we healthy enough?
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I feel like everyone I know is dieting…and I hate that word. It makes it seem like something temporary. What we should be doing is less dieting, drinking more water, and making more lifestyle changes. Changing your lifestyle can be hard and seem overwhelming at first, but let’s take it in “baby steps”. That’s the phrase my house mate Peter keeps telling me…about absolutely everything. “Baby steps, Jess, baby steps”.
Sometimes I forget, because I want everything to be perfect, and immediate. But life just doesn’t work that way. And neither does getting healthy.
So how do we start to get healthy?
What’s the first step? I suggest that we drink more water!
Why should you drink water
There are lots of reasons to drink water. Here are just a few of them.
- To help with weight loss.
- To promote healthy skin.
- Drinking water fights infections.
- Eliminating toxins from the body starts with water.
- Water leads to a healthy heart.
- Those who drink water have less joint pains.
- Water helps to boost energy.
- Plenty of water helps keep constipation away.
- Water reduces the risk of some forms of cancer
- And water just makes you feel better!
The body needs water to protect the joints, muscles and spinal column. We can go without food for quite some time, but this is not the case with water.
So let’s start small in getting healthy. I believe the first baby step is drinking water. Water is so good for us and makes up 60% of our body. Everyone knows that though..but something that might shock you is that 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
I read this at first and was shocked! Really, 75 percent?! But the more I thought about it, the more it makes sense. The body sends signals when it needs things, and if you’re thirsty you might confuse your body’s signal for thirst, for hunger…leading of course, to the dreaded overeating.
Getting healthy starts here. It starts with drinking more water.
How much water should we drink?
The 8 glasses of water per day rule has been discussed a lot, and people are wondering if we really need to drink 8 glasses of water a day. Unfortunately there’s not perfect rule, or amount of water that you’re supposed to have.
I try to stick to the 8 per day rule though, even though I know it’s not necessarily correct. If I’m not aiming for that, it’s amazing that when I start to keep track it, I realize how much water I’m not actually drinking.
I want start being healthy again, and as much as I could write a million ways to change my life to do it, I’m going to focus on baby steps. I don’t want to overwhelm myself (or you either!). Let’s take this slowly, and make some real changes.
My goal for this week is to drink more water, and that’s what I’m going to focus on. NOT how much weight I need to lose, or how I should be there already, or how I can exercise the best or how I can eat the best, or how I should go on a juice cleanse.
I’m going to start with drinking water, and think over the next week what the next step will be. I’m going to slowly add challenges on, and I hope you do them with me.
This Week’s Challenge: Drink More Water!
Now if you’re an overachiever and want to toss in some exercise too, read this article to find out which fitness machines are the best (and most accurate) at the gym!
Admin note: This post for drinking more water first appeared on the blog in October of 2013. I have updated the post with more benefits of drinking water and all new photos.
