water. who knew?

Posted on January 13, 2010. Filed under: Looking & Feeling Vintage Awesome | Tags: cholesterol, water |

Really, people – you have no idea how I never thought I’d be writing this . . . which is exactly why I’m writing it.

I grew up being told to drink 8 glasses of water a day and I pretty much did that. We drank water or juice at my house – almost never soda.

At some point I got derailed. I decided I hated water and that it tasted like “liquid steel”.

Then I used the differing opinions about water intake to validate my resistance: “8 glasses of water a day is a myth“, “drink 10 glasses of water a day,” “you can drink too much water!” etc. I also whined about how far away the water cooler was, how many times I’d have to trudge to the ladies’ room, how nocturnal “loo” visits interrupted my sleep and presented a health hazard.

In the past several months, Wendy Battles has enthusiastically encouraged water drinking, which got me up to a glass a day . . . maybe . . . when I saw her tweets . . .

Then, as you know, my doc told me I had a total cholesterol count of 258 and gave me 6 weeks to “get religion” about my health or start taking Lipitor. During the course of my research and planning my JUST SAY NO TO LIPITOR program, I read that dehydration can contribute to high cholesterol (or at least doesn’t help). Besides, excess weight is a contributor to high cholesterol and drinking water reportedly aids in weight loss. That meant I had to give up my refusal to drink water or wonder if I did everything possible to avoid cholesterol medication.

Day 1. I drank 2 whole glasses of water. 200% more than usual.

Day 2. I experimented with simply doubling what I’d done the day before. 4 glasses of water imbibed.

And so it went until I found myself having drunk (drunken? . . . drank?) 8 glasses in a single day.

To combat the gripes listed above, I got a lovely, cobalt-blue 16 oz. glass so I could I’d feel the victory of having consumed “2 8-oz. glasses” with every refill while minimizing trips to the water cooler and drank most of my water before 6 or 7 pm to avoid sleep interruptions.

While I don’t get retested for my cholesterol until January 20, I have lost weight; but that could be because I now also eat breakfast daily, never going more than 3-4 hours without a healthful snack, cut out all the junk, and exercise more.

So, what’s that got to do with water? Nothing. Here’s what does: my ability to distinguish thirst from hunger and my unwillingness any longer to ignore my body’s signals. Those are BIG! I’d been ignoring my body for so long I couldn’t even tell if I was hungry or thirsty, both of which I mostly ignored until I could stand it no longer and sat down with a big bucket-o’something-unhealthy. I’m back in tune with my systems and that certainly has me feeling healthier and more grounded.

Do I know whether I need 4 glasses or 10? Nope and I probably don’t even care. I’m doing all I can to avoid cholesterol medication and actually feel better for it. We’ll see what the doc says next week, but now that I’ve turned the faucet on, I won’t be turning it off again.

“When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” ~Benjamin Franklin