Drink water like a boss

Water, water...everywhere? Nope, not in America. Seriously, have you ever heard somebody talk about their favorite beverage and use the phrase, "I drink it like water". When someone tells me that, I want to say "No you don't, because nobody drinks anything 'like water' anymore". Mostly because no one drinks water, period.

Although, I am being a teensy weensy hypocritical here, because I use to be the exact same way. I drank Diet Coke "like water". Every single day, I had to have it. Oh and juices! Mmmm, we use to stock up on apple and grape juice in our house all the time. Milk? My husband alone will get through a gallon of milk in 3 days. Basically, my family drank anything but water. I hated the taste of water, mostly because it was tasteless. I need something with more fizz, more of a kick! Well that's great and all but it certainly was not helping me lose weight, so I put myself on a water-drinking program. Meet my program director:

BAM! The big guy to the left, check him out! The idea for this actually came from my best friend, Alyssa. She came to visit me one week and brought one of those huge things with her. She filled it with water and drank it all day long. I was jealous of her big bottle and decided to get one for myself.

So we all know the rule about water right? You need 2 liters a day. Yup, one 2-liter bottle of your favorite soda should instead be filled with water. So big guy up there is a 1.5 liter bottle. Little dude next to him is your standard 16.9 oz bottle of water. By the way, 16.9 oz is also 0.5 liters. So those two (with their powers combined! A little Captain Planet for you there) get me to my 2 liters every day. Four of those standard bottles would be the same thing.

You must have noticed the little black markings on big guy. Allow me to explain. I like small little goals to help me reach a big goal. So instead of telling myself to drink 2L a day, I had to drink a little bit of water by 9 am. And then 10 am. So on and so forth until the bottle was empty (at about 5 pm). I would then drink the little bottle for my beverage at dinner. That way, I'm finished drinking water a couple of hours before bedtime so I'm not running to the bathroom during the night. That's right, I own those 2 liters!

Here's another advantage to drinking 2 liters of water a day. It barely leaves time for you to drink anything else. I tell myself every day that until those 2 liters are gone, that's the only beverage I can have. Well by the time that's done with, I'm usually too full to drink any of these:

       Juices- stocked full of sugar, even the "100%" ones
       Milk- fat in a drink mostly. (Don't hate me for this, I love my milk and cereal just as much as the next      guy)
       Sports drinks- just as bad for you as soda if you're not exercising. And even if you are exercising, unless you are doing moderate-to-vigorous exercise (not softball-like sports) for more than 90 minutes, water is all you need.
       Soda- Do I really need to explain why these drinks are unhealthy?


Also, water fills you and is a hunger suppressant. I'm dead serious. Whenever you think you're hungry and need a snack, chances are that you're actually thirsty and need to drink water. So, more water = less snack food = weight loss. Water mostly runs right through you, while Chex Mix does not (ask my former hips about that).

If you're having trouble with the tastelessness, like I did, try putting lemons and lime in your water. That gives it a little something. Before you know it, you'll be drinking just plain water in no time.

I feel that by being a good truthful blogger, I must warn you of one of the consequences to drinking 2 liters of water/day- your bladder pretty much feels like it's exploding. When I started doing this, I was in the bathroom once an hour pretty regularly. Even now, after a few months, I go pretty often. Dave mocks my bladder to this day and says that a man would "just hold it". Yeah well, a man also hasn't delivered a child and had his insides turn into a sort of sick contortionist dance. So I feel his argument is pretty weak.

And even though I've lost all the weight I wanted to, I STILL drink 2L a day because my body needs it. And yours does too!

Boring Scientific Note: Being a nursing major, I have this insane need to spread my knowledge of the human body to others even if they don't ask for it. So if you want to skip these notes, no offense taken. But in case you want to know why water acts as a hunger suppressant, here you go. There is a part of your brain called the hypothalamus and it regulates your appetite. When your stomach is empty and growling, your hypothalamus tells your brain, "Get me some food man!" So you eat. When the food hits your stomach and digestion starts, the hypothalamus calms down and stop sending you the hunger message. So imagine if water took the place of food. It will still expand your stomach and turn off the hunger signal. It's like you're tricking your own brain! Now those are some great hunger games! (I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that pun was awful).