It is day #4 for our Be Intentional Baby Steps! How are the steps going for you so far? See the full list of the 30 Baby Steps that will change your life HERE.
Well, we hope that just after the first 3 steps that you are already feeling much more energized as we move through the steps to live a Be Intentional life!
Remember that Be Intentional means to live a more focused, productive, efficient and happy life! We have 30 baby steps to help you accomplish this in 5 areas of life. We are nearly done with the first of the 5 areas – SELF.
We really, really feel it is very important to get YOU physically on the right track before adding any of the other 4 areas of life to the equation!
So…. this next one is intended to continue on with the Self goal!
Baby Step #4
Drink the Daily Recommendation of Water
This is a very important one. It is not an easy one for us to do. Drinking water is a chore!
But let me tell you a recent story….. You see, these baby steps that we have been sharing have been things we are doing and have done for a long time. Water is one I have always struggled with.
This past fall, I was starting to get very sick, terrible headaches every.single.day, horrid sleep, exhausted and winded. I was trying to figure out what was wrong with me.
Over the course of a couple of weeks, I ruled out many things and I still couldn’t figure it out! Then one day, I had a big glass of water and it hit me…….”My water consumption has been at an all-time low!”
I don’t know what happened. Perhaps is was that one of my favorite cups broke, or too busy to notice I wasn’t drinking water… etc.
So I had the goal the next day to drink half my weight in water (nope, not sharing how many ounces that was :)) and that was the problem!
My headaches went away (this was the biggest nuisance to how I was feeling!), I started sleeping, I had energy and it was like a 180 turnaround.
I then had a friend who was complaining of a lot of the similar problems. I said, “drink water!”
She too had a 180 turn around in how she was feeling!
Think about… water is nature’s perfect everything.
Our bodies are 70% water.
So if I ever start feeling not quite right, I know what to tackle first.
Both Alex and I have to remind ourselves constantly to drink water.
Several hours will pass and both of us will have realized that we haven’t drank water for many hours in a row.
Even the MayoClinic (along with thousands of others) talks about the importance of water:
Water is your body’s principal chemical component and makes up about 60 percent of your body weight. Every system in your body depends on water. For example, water flushes toxins out of vital organs, carries nutrients to your cells and provides a moist environment for ear, nose and throat tissues.
Lack of water can lead to dehydration, a condition that occurs when you don’t have enough water in your body to carry out normal functions. Even mild dehydration can drain your energy and make you tired.
So how much water should you drink? Well, it is going to be different for each of us, but there is a Hydration Calculator on About.com:
So… after figuring out how much water you need, then you are either thinking…
- “I can do this easy!”
- “This is definitely going to be a challenge!” (This would be us!!)
Here’s some things that we have found help us:
- Invest in a bottle that you actually enjoy drinking out of. We have bough cheap ones with deals and they end up collecting dust! We finally just decided to get the ones that we are really going to drink from even if they cost us a little more. I had to replace my favorite, but it is more than worth spending a little more if I can actually feel good to get more done!
- Add lemon, cucumber or other natural flavors to enhance the taste to help.
- Consider adding citrus essential oils. You will need to buy the “expensive” oils as these are the ones that are consumable (can be eaten safely) but I LOVE lemon and grapefruit essential oils in my water. They also naturally cleanse and detox my body, so extra benefits. Now they may seem “expensive” but a 15ml bottle contains 300 drops. You only use a drop or two each time you refill your water, so we are talking a few cents a day for an added health benefit.
- Have good tasting water. Invest in a Brita or other filter system so that you can get good tasting and healthy water.
Photo Credit: extension.usu.edu
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