Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Quest Water Works: Day 1, Errr...winging it?

I should state that almost as soon as I wrote my last post, I realized that 2+ liters of water isn't really that much. It just looks like a lot when you imagine it in all one bottle. It's because I picked up a bottle of water that I could easily drink, looked at it, and realized it was already 700 ml, very close to 3 cups.

And I held this thing in my hand and felt quite silly. I could easily drink one of those with each meal and take a few gulps from a fountain. That would hit me right around my 2.2L mark and this would be no challenge at all. Or at least one that no longer seemed unreasonable. I might drink that much in a SITTING if I'm at a restaurant and there's some endless glass in front of me. And I know I've easily drank half a gallon while working out in the sun in the past. Which led me to looking up the numbers and that's 1.89 Liters alone.

Silly and sheepish. This wasn't going to be a challenge at all, and I had already hyped myself up for a challenge, with full on dramatics. I do that to half motivate myself, and half just because it amuses me. Oh well. Gotta move forward. I did make a promise to myself and posted that promise on the internet so I would follow through right?

But this soon grew to overconfidence. And before you knew it, drinking was the last thing on my mind. I'd like to say that I didn't set myself up to succeed yesterday because I was testing my will power. A lot of people rely on will power alone to throw themselves out there, and there's a preconceived notion that you should be able to accomplish any health goal just by "going out and doing it". I never agreed with that sentiment, and would have more than enough motivation to make an example of myself using the vague "go and do it" method. But that was never intended, which maybe makes it more appropriate.

I got crap sleep the night before. So I opted for the <7 minute version of my morning routine, which is sadly becoming the "usual routine".* The <7 minute routine consists of putting on clothes that pass the sniff test, brushing my teeth, and swiping deodorant before I start walking to school. That's it. I skipped breakfast and zombied my way into class.

But zombies, fictional or real, only really do a few things. They groan, don't drink any water, and live unnaturally with their body's cry for rest. Of course movie zombies eat brains, and med student zombies just eat sugar...but the brain is mainly fueled by glucose, so it makes sense. Regardless, I wasn't drinking water. And crap...I remembered I needed to, but I hadn't brought a bottle. I was stuck with fountains and no means of measuring my progress.

Later in the day, I attempted to catch up, but also I realized I didn't know how much my glasses could contain. I was back to square one with the whole, I have really bad judgments of volume.

Sooo. I've already learned quite a bit. Keeping your self hydrated is a little paradox with seeming deceptively challenging or deceptively simple depending on where you're coming from. And if you just tell yourself that you're going to "just do it" without setting up a new micro-environment to make that happen will probably set your self up for less than success. I retroactively measured my cups today. My glasses hold 16 oz if you fill them up to the brim. I think I drank a total of about 6 cups, 2/3 of my goal yesterday. All of that was after 12 when I walked home for lunch.

The most important lectures of the day fall from 8-12. Yep. Zombie. Now I'm playing catch up and juggling "Do I catch up on the extra lectures I need to review tonight or do I go out and buy a bottle, and mark it with measurements? Or do I spend the rest of that time catching up on sleep and cooking the meat in the fridge before it goes bad? What about the laundry and the patient video review for tomorrow?" There's a lot I can get done, but as usual, something will give.**

Today is going better, but there's still room for improvement for tomorrow. Oh yet till I reach the coveted accomplishment of clear pee! without trying too hard. That's weird.

Till next time,
Kick Kick.

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*Remind me to tackle sleeping issues for a future quest.
**And that's why the fish tank wasn't cleaned last week.

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