A Week in Review: Water

Over the past year I have written weeks in themes, with measured breaks in between.  I have had my eyes on weight loss, vitamin intake, pantry un-stocking, vegetable finding, organizing, motivation and exercise, but some some of you have not had your eye on me long enough to have seen these thoughts. This week I am going to spend in review of some of my favorite (and maybe most important) thoughts. 

From January 15. 2013:

Let's start with Water~ by Anna Burrill

Water.  I don't drink enough of it.  Coffee?  Three cups a day.  Wine?  A few glasses a week, a few more on the weekends.  But water?  As a 135 pound female I am suppose to consume, without any other factors considered (like caffeine and alcohol) 70 ounces per day.   With those other factors involved I am suppose to drink 102 ounces a day just to break even!  Three liters of live giving H2O.

I started trying to accomplish this requirement on the 27th of December, 2012, with my brother while standing at his kitchen sink.  We both were slightly hung over so we were starting in the red, but we agreed;  before anything else entered our bodies we were to drink water.  I filled a two liter bottle, grabbed two glasses from the cabinet, poured equal glasses of water and down it went.  Three and a half glasses of water each, or about a liter, in only a few minutes.  Every day since then I have measured out my liter of pre-coffee water and I drink it!

So, Why Water?  Daily, we breath dirty air, we drink unfiltered water, and we eat food that has been sprayed with pesticides.  The human body not only ingests toxins from the world surrounding it, it creates toxins in the form of metabolic waste.  When we have a cold, more waste.  When we are under stress, more waste.  When we do not get enough sleep, our toxic waste production increases.  Can you guess how we get rid of that waste?

An interesting article gives us a few very simple instructions: take out the trash, pee, poop, and perspire. Without water, none of these things are possible.    The same water that cushions our joints, flushes our liver.  The same water that protects our organs allows our cells to breathe.  The same water that brings oxygen and nutrients throughout our bodies flushes our kidneys clean.  When I looked at water as a solution to health instead of only a solution to thirst, I felt the need to drink.

I learned something else just now about toxins.  Breath is also a detoxifier.  "Breathing deeply and fully, called pranayama, will oxygenate your brain, body, and spirit, transforming your health in the process."  Now, take a deep breath, go, eat real food, take your vitamins, drink oodles of water, and remember to wash your hands.