"Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty."
Derek Zoolander
I drink a lot of coffee - no. I drank a lot of coffee - but I am trying to cut back. Instead of coffee all day, all night and intravenously as I sleep, over the last week, I made the switch to a cup in the morning and then, water for the rest of the day. At the moment, between 8 and 4, I am drinking about 2-3 liters, which is about the same in quarts. So far, I have noticed a significant difference -
I piss a lot more.
Other than that, I am not sure I notice much difference at all, but hey, it has only been a week. Also and even though I know it is not the best thing to do because of pH levels and stuff, I am mostly drinking carbonated water from a Sodastream, as while I don't drink a lot of fizzy drinks, I find it hard to force down 3 liters of still water. This way, there is no force at all.
Since it is already mid-March and I haven't been to the gym since the start of the year (2020), I think it is time I did something to get into a little better shape. So, I decided to start with water. The reason is that I don't just have one, I have a full set of sweet teeth and I find myself snacking a lot. Even if I don't eat junk food, I am hungry and since I am up about 19 hours of the day and 4 or 5 hours after my wife goes to bed, I end up eating all the time. Eating often and doing nothing isn't conducive to being in shape.
However, this is something that I have noticed over the last week since drinking so much water - I am less hungry. I think there might be two sides to it, as on one hand it feels like I am eating something so it tricks my brain into thinking it has been fed, and on the other it is literally filling up my stomach, but with nothing that contains carbohydrate, or anything for that matter.
As long as I keep drinking throughout the night a little, I can survive on far less food than I was eating previously and my snacking has almost stopped - even though the craving for sweet food is still there. I suspect that after a few weeks of this though, my habitual need for sugar will be broken a little and it will become easier. Obviously, the problem with drinking throughout the night is, once I go to bed, I am more likely to get up - so I have to stop drinking earlier and risk feeling uncomfortably hungry.
Well as you can see, my relationship with food isn't exactly healthy, but overall, I have been able to control myself relatively well, since I have the body type that has the potential to pack on the kilos quickly. The other day, I cleaned out my closet of dress shirts that don't fit and will give some to charity and some to my wife's brother-in-law, who is the size I was. It is sad to see years worth of careful shirt purchases go down the drain, but I don't see myself ever fitting into them again and if I do, I will "treat myself" to a couple new ones.
This week, I turn 43 and I feel what I imagine a 60 year feels like. Sure, it isn't all my fault, but a lot of it is. The exercise part of the equation is easy for me, it is the diet side that is the difficulty. Normally, I start exercising first and then look to improve my diet, but this time, I am going to go the other way and improve my diet before jumping into exercise. I think that while counterintuitive in my head, reversing the process might enable me to be more successful.
Now, while you might have a picture in your head of some fat, middle-aged, wheezing lump that looks like trash, that is not actually the case, I am really only two of those things. I am middle-aged and I do have asthma. While not in very good practical shape, overall, I look relatively in-shape physically. Compared to many of my peers I might even be considered in "somewhat" decent shape. However, comparison to others is meaningless - if I feel like shit.
And I do.
And I don't like it. I can't imagine what it must feel like for some of the people I know who are twice my size to get around in life. Is it their choice? Partially, but we are also conditioned in many ways to have the attitudes and habits we do, so unless we actively look to unlearn the conditioning, we are trapped into a process that slides us away from where we likely want to be, and how we want to feel about ourselves in this world. It isn't about how we feel when we look in the mirror only, it is how we feel when we tie our shoes, put on a pair of jeans, walk some stairs or even think, as the condition of our physical body impacts on all parts of us, like it or not.
Will drinking a bit more water solve all of my ills?
No.
But it can't hurt.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
