Quest Water Works: How I finally drank my daily water requirements.

I'm going to make this post quick. I'm in the thick of studying for exams.

A whole week went by and every morning I found myself too rushed to go out of my way to find a bottle. Eventually, I got bored of the whole quest all together, and was ready to call it a wash.

Honestly, the only difference in today was that I had to go to my car to retrieve a belt before walking to class. And behold! There was a tumbler. (That's a plastic, reusable, cup and straw combination. I never knew of such things until I got into medical school where people buy them from starbucks and apparently hand them out at events.)

And oh yeah. I might as well drink water today. I took it.

So despite that I was running late and the morning was looking grim, the rest of the day I was well hydrated thanks to my adult sippy cup. Just like going to a restaurant where you drink out of boredom.

When I went home, I measured my cup and it held 24 ounces, or 3 cups. I made it through 6 cups of water during the day, and lost count after 9. Mission accomplished.

Apparently, I need to make things ridiculously easy for me in order to follow through with them. SUPER ridiculous easy. Better tuck that thought in my back pocket and save it for a rainy day.

So Reflection Time:

1. I wont do anything without it being easier than not doing anything. That's like...extreme ease or something.

2. I have to make my goals measurable. And even if they seem to be measurable, it isn't enough unless I take the time to figure out what those measurements are.

3. I get bored very easily. I probably have a 3 day window before I'm mentally off the wagon. Best to make my moves before the motivation fizzles out. And by making my moves, I mean making it extremely easy to do whatever I want to do.

4. Sometimes you've gotta appreciate random opportunities. Take 'em.

5. Some unhealthy practices of mine are road blocking others. While I only want to focus on one thing at a time, the process makes you realize all these other issues. For example: I'd skip drinking because poor sleep would cause me to rush in the morning. I'd didn't drink enough water because I hadn't packed my lunch and went to a free lunch provided by an interest group meeting instead...but they only had cola. I'd skip drinking because I wasn't eating regular meals. Lots of reasons that ultimately make you realize that you're treating your body like a forgotten house plant.

6. Even the simplest things are not so simple. My quest was just to drink more water. But to do this regularly, I have to take care of other health issues, reorganize aspects of my life, and then do it under a time crunch before my motivation wanes.

7. Finally, yeah you've got to pee more when you drink more. But! Urinating really dilute urine is actually a good, comfortable feeling. When you compare it to peeing concentrated urine that has been stagnating in your bladder all day, it makes pissing the dark stuff feel down right brutal in comparison. Peeing stale urine is mildly uncomfortable. It's like spidy sense for UTI's. Body awareness superpowers, Baby.

8. Ok, finally again. Being used to coping without food, or water, or sleep, or any other basic need isn't something special to be proud about. It just means that you've lost your ability to tease out what your body wants and needs to function at it's fullest.

Once I started realizing what it was like to be fully hydrated, the special kind of drain that comes with being dehydrated became more obvious. I had been confusing that recently with being tired, but they layer on top of each other. Being tired alone is definitely much better than being dehydrated and sleep deprived...and maybe hungry.

And I think once we lose that power to tell what our bodies want, we lose the power to give them what they need before its too late. Then you're just getting mysterious headaches and the like.

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Ok. Back to the grind. I'm not picking any new quests yet, though I'll probably tackle my sleeping issues next. For now I'm going to bask in my small victory of craving out a new routine. Become friends with my sippy cup and stuff. :D