The Water Challenge | Four Weeks On

Picture Credit

Well folks, I have done it. I have come to the end of my month-long water challenge. And do you knot what? It really wasn't that difficult. There's me labelling it as a "challenge" but after a week it really did just become a habit and I really didn't need to write myself little notes any more. So I am very, very proud of myself and I am actually now drinking more water per day than Rick. He used to be so smug about how he'd drink loads of water and I didn't. Who's laughing now?! Hmmm?!

I jest...we're not that competitive...

The dark circles are not completely gone from under my eyes. This is one of the things that I was looking forward to the most, but it hasn't happened. They have certainly reduced, I'll give them that. Maybe there's another change I need to make for helping to rid me of these! I'll do some research...

Rick says that I definitely appear more alert than I did a while back. There could be many contributing factors to this, but I'd like to think that the intake of more water has helped my brain function!

I don't have to use lip balm anywhere near as much I used to. I used to get quite a lot of dry skin on my lips, and that has significantly reduced.

So what have I learned from my challenge?

• Water is so much more important to us than I have ever previously thought. The changes that I have seen over the past month have basically told me that I was severely dehydrated. How was I still functioning despite depriving my brain of this essential liquid? We all get by just about because there is water in fruit, tea and other every day things that we consume; we don't consume anywhere near the amount that we need to thrive from these things. I am now consuming more than two litres of water daily and I can immediately tell the difference if I forget to drink water for a couple of hours. That's how quickly it happens.
• Listen to your body! Your body is screaming out, telling you what it needs. Certain signs tell you that you are not drinking enough and you need to listen to them. Dark circles under your eyes, headaches, dizziness, sleepiness can all be signs that you are dehydrated. Drinking water is not difficult or time consuming, Just do it!
• Drinking a lot of water is stereotypically seen as a "fitness type thing". When telling certain people that I was aiming to drink more water, one of the responses I got several times was "oh right, are you on some health kick or something?". I hate that! Drinking more water should not be something that you do on a health kick, or something that fitness people do. Drinking enough water should be a part of every day life. It's something we should instil in our children. It's sad that it has this kind of "only for fit people" stigma attached to it.