Healthy Homeschool Living: Drinking Water

Drinking Water.  Easy, right?  Well, yes it should be.  I mean there’s nothing hard about running the cold tap into a glass and then downing its contents.  Yet, when I think about how little I have drunk over the past few years, I am appalled!  I don’t know about you, but there have been way too many Diet Cokes and cups of tea.  And, far too few glasses of water.

Drinking Water: Why is it Important?

Primarily, it is because sixty percent of the human body is made up of water, and what with breathing, sweating and toileting, we are constantly losing that water.  Even a 2% decrease in our body’s water leads to sub-normal performance in everyday tasks.  Bottom line is that water makes a big difference!  Here are some other ways water matters:

• Mild dehydration can impair memory, mood and brain performance
• Drinking water is an important preventative measure for head aches
• Drinking plenty of water can treat and prevent constipation
• Metabolic rate and therefore weight loss can be increased by drinking lots of water

Drinking Water: How Much?

Apparently, 8 lots of 8 ounce glasses are just about right although there is very little scientific reason for this 🙂  It’s funny how much perspective changes.  When I used to drink anything but water, eight glasses seemed a little excessive.  I stopped drinking any fizzy drinks a couple of months ago (apart from carbonated water on occasion), I now only drink the odd cup of tea, and of course, I still drink a couple of cups of good strong coffee each morning.  But having decreased all my other drinking habits, I find myself more and more turning to water naturally.  And eight glasses is a cinch to drink!  In fact, I can’t seem to get enough of it.  I take water everywhere with me, and I realise now that the headaches I have been having for the last few years were down to very unhealthy imbibing habits.

Drinking Water: What Type?

There are so many waters on offer these days that an individual can be spoilt for choice.  I make it easy.  If I am going to drink water, I only want to be drinking water and not all the colour, preservative and saccharine drenched  options.  If I drank those, I may as well go back to drinking Diet Coke.  No, it’s just water for me.  I also rarely drink carbonated.  It erodes the teeth, costs lots of money and damages the earth in plastic leftovers.  So that leaves plain ol’ still water.  Much of the argument applies to bottled still water as bottled carbonated, so I choose tap water.  Plain and simple.  I should maybe have started with that 😉  However, the water which comes out of our taps is very hard and very chlorinated, so we have invested in a filter jug.  Therefore, I drink filtered tap water.  It is delicious, cool and very, very good for me.

Drinking Water: What in?

What in?!  Have I finally gone nuts?!  In a glass of course!  Well, no actually.  I like my water fresh and I like my water cold.  Did you know water goes stale?  I didn’t until recently.  Oh, I knew my night-time water did not taste good the next morning, but water going stale?  Surely that wasn’t possible!  It was and it is.  Now I use a couple of incredible, lockable, unbreakable flasks, which keep the water cool and fresh, even over night.  In fact, if I pop some ice in overnight it is still there the next morning.  The flasks can be bought here. I fill these flasks and have one by my office, one in the car and one in the bedroom.  They fit in my handbag, so I always have one nearby.

My water habit is cheap, nutritious and very good for me.  I feel quite virtuous 🙂

For more Healthy Homeschool Living Posts Click the Icons Below