For the next two weeks we are going to work on your hydration and how you can change your habits and change your life.
This two week coaching plan is a guided support in a daily format to help start creating habits for health. The biggest key to your success is consistency and it is the daily habit routine that helps you get there. These daily reminders are me on your shoulder empowering and coaching you to positive change
Habit Challenge: Drink fresh water with every meal
For the next two weeks, I challenge you to drink fresh water with every meal.
The first thing to say is that, when I say water intake, I really do mean pure water. The best source of water is water. Not energy drinks, not coffee, not juice, and definitely not alcohol.
If you need a drink, get some fresh water.
Water is the most important nutrient in your diet. Nothing else comes close.
It is a truly vital resource for the human body.
We know it is indispensable for life itself and provides essential functions for good health. In fact, it is the most widely used nutrient involved in the process and makeup of the body.
Daily water intake is extremely important in helping to replenish water lost through bodily processes including urination, sweating, and breathing. When the water is not replaced, we become dehydrated. Even a small amount of dehydration can hold us back from being our best. It is time to get hydrated.
So how much water should you be drinking, the 8×8 rule is a great way to do this – meaning 8 glasses of 8oz (240ml) per day which is just under the 2 litre mark this being on top of all the other drinks you have.
Today, after completing your habit for the first time, I want you to answer these two questions:
These questions are so important that I want you to reflect on them every day.
A typical male is made up of around 60% water, a woman around 50% and our brains (regardless of gender) around 75%.
When water is not replaced, we become dehydrated. Check out these scary stats:
1% dehydration – we become thirsty with reduced concentration
5% dehydration – we become hot and tired with decreased performance
10% dehydration – delirium and blurred vision
20% dehydration – may result in death.
It’s clear that even a small amount of dehydration can hold us back from being our best. As a performance seeking person, being dehydrated is never a wise option.
Water does plenty aside from simply quenching our thirst.
Water plays many major roles within the body. Making up around two-thirds of our body weight, water carries nutrients and waste products around our bodies, regulates our temperature, acts as a lubricant and shock absorber in our joints and plays a role in most chemical reactions happening inside us.
Transports nutrients through the body.
Once a substance is dissolved, water becomes vital for transporting it throughout the body. Blood – 83% water – transports oxygen, CO2, nutrients, waste products and more from cell to cell.
Urine – another important transporter – is also mostly water and removes waste products from the body.
Can help maintain pH and electrolyte balance and so water is essential to maintaining electrolyte balance within our bodies.
Water is involved in many processes and pathways of the body.
We use it to digest food in the gastrointestinal tract, to access stored energy for muscles and organs, and for countless other reactions.
As you can see, it is important stuff
Heading into the weekend.
Over the past few days, you have been learning how to create new habits. Instead of revamping your entire diet all at once, you have been making small yet consistent changes, and slowly, gradually, your entire diet changes.
It is gradual, so you barely notice the difference, and your mind or body hardly objects.
Today, think about how easy you can make this current habit for the weekend ahead.
How are you going to drink fresh water with every meal this weekend?
One question asked is “which type of water should I be drinking?”
Here in the UK, most drinking water comes from the tap, it is 100% safe enough to drink, as it has been ‘treated’ before use. So, drink up.
But you might find bottled, filtered, or mineral water tastes better and gives you a higher level of minerals for improved hydration levels. Bottled water is big business, and many people buy it because of perceived health and safety benefits, for its improved purity, or for ‘taste free’ factors.
There are no existing guidelines requiring bottled water to meet higher standards for quality than standards imposed on public drinking water supplies.
As a matter of fact, it is suggested that anywhere between 25-40% of bottled water comes from the same municipal supplies as tap water and has only been filtered to remove chlorine to improve taste.
When you complete the habit today, take a minute to reflect on the past week or so of doing the habit.
What has it been like, as opposed to the fantasy you had about it before you started?
What have you learned?
What do you appreciate?
What obstacles have come up, and are there ways to overcome them for next week?
Treat habit formation as a learning process, to learn about yourself, your mind, mindfulness, resistance and more.
I hope all went well last week, and you did not struggle or skip the habit for more than a day, I recommend that you lengthen the habit this week.
If you have struggled, keep it the same and try and drink the minimum amount of water with each meal, then try increasing the amount this week.
Never make too big an adjustment so that it becomes too difficult.
This slow change process of expanding the habit a little at a time helps overcome the resistance of the mind to change and discomfort.
Gradually the habit becomes your new normal and you can expand a bit more, pushing your comfort zone a little at a time
The amount of water you need will depend on your age, health, activity level, environment, and diet.
Water leaves the body through several routes – the evaporation of sweat, in the moisture of exhaled breath, in the urine and in the faeces.
This amount equals between 1.4-2.8 litres per day
When recommending daily water intake, these general guidelines work very well:
Get hydrated ASAP in the morning
Continue to sip throughout the day
During high heat and exercise, drink enough to compensate for lost fluids
Listen to your body – it will tell you when it needs more water.
Do not wait for thirst cues, that’s your body’s way of saying it has been too long. If you are feeling thirsty, that does not mean you will need water soon, it means you have needed it for a while.
You can also check your pee: a pale-yellow colour means you’re optimally hydrated, and a darker yellow colour means you need some more water.
Today I want you to pause for a moment to remember your intention for this habit, your deeper reason for doing it.
It is good to connect with this “why” before doing the habit each day. Think back to the first week of the programme, when you set your new habit:
What was your intention?
Why was this so important to you?
New habits allow you to focus and move forward, they allow goals to be set and reached. Often new habits break old ones which are sometimes difficult to change.
It is a good idea to look at what is going on in your life – do you have a big work project, a lot of stress, travel, illness, family crisis, busy-ness with your family or friends?
Are you overwhelmed or stressed out? Any one or more of these factors can cause you to have lower tolerance for creating new habits and messing up on habits in this case does not reflect on your discipline levels.
So, let us set you up to win this weekend and achieve your habit with ease.
Today, think about your super easy, almost effortless version of the habit for the weekend.
How and when will you do the habit this weekend?
Over the last two weeks you have completed the ‘Drink fresh water with every meal’ habit challenge – nice work!
Today, take a minute after practicing your habit to reflect again on the past week of doing the habit.
What has the habit been like and how have you done?
What have you learned?
What parts or how much of this habit will you continue to do?
Consider writing a short journal entry about these reflections, to solidify your learning. Treat habit formation as a learning process, to learn about yourself, your mind, mindfulness, resistance and more.