Water -- My Best Friend

So yes, today I'm all about water. Actually, I've been all about water for a few weeks now. I know... for you fitness freaks out there, you're thinking -- only a few weeks?? But see, I'm a serious fan of caffeine. (head hangs in shame) I start my day out with two cups of coffee. You'd think that would be enough, right? But my habit had always been to switch from coffee to some form of diet soda. I've had several different favorites over time, but my ultimate appears to be Diet Mountain Dew. Of course once you've had coffee and Dew... then water doesn't taste like much. So perhaps a switch to some Crystal Light was in order. (I know, I know... sounding kinda bad, right?)

But I've been on this muscle building kick. And I discovered something wonderful. WATER. Our bodies are made up so much of water and I had been living my whole life mildly dehydrated. Wow. Who knew that drinking lots of water would actually help to boost my energy levels? (Yes, I know... the fitness freaks did... but who else?) The water doesn't flow out of my tap into a special container with a label to sell me on it, so how was I to know?

Okay, no I'm kidding. I really can take more personal responsibility than that. I knew darned well that our bodies are made up of around 60% water (on a good day). Some poor teacher with the very difficult job of teaching the likes of me probably imparted that info to me in middle school. And credit where credit is due, my mother has told me my whole life to drink water instead of soda. It was always a simple matter of me not wishing to give up a habit that was detrimental to my well-being and health.

Don't get your undies in a bunch, though. I'm not giving up soda entirely. I still have the occasional can of Dew. And as much as I'd like to imagine otherwise, I'm quite aware that paleo-man probably didn't have a cooler of Mountain Dew while he was hunting the wild beast of the North. So while I'm all about trying to eat in a more paleolithic fashion, I'm still quite interested in being reasonable here. :)

But back to water. Did you know that we can actually train our body to crave something? Seriously. It's true. I've done it, both with broccoli AND water now. (I'm working on fruit -- I don't know why that's so difficult for me.) I seriously crave water. I walk around now all day with a water bottle that I just keep refilling, and I am drinking on it all day. I'm up to about 96 ounces.

Water. For building muscle, for staying alert, for more running power... it does a body good.