Water, water everywhere

May 25, 2006

Water, water everywhere

I’ve known for a while that I need to get my diet and exercise routines back on track.  I’ve gained weight, I have less energy, I’m more tired at night.  Not good things, indicative of an unhealthy lifestyle.  I do my best to drink 64 ounces a day but had been consuming a good deal of that in the forms of milk, as well as some juice and the occasional soda (since I won’t drink diet sodas, I just don’t drink many of them).  And even so, I often fall short of that goal.

A long time ago, before we started TTC P, I did a program that was dedicated to healthy eating and exercise.  It’s not a mainstream one, so you’ve probably never heard of it.  But I was pretty faithful to it, to the point that I was jogging 5 days a week.  Slowly, but jogging nonetheless.  I lost weight, toned up, and felt great.

The first step on that plan was that for the first week, you add water to your diet.  Make sure to get at least 64 ounces of water a day, in addition to anything else you might drink.  If you’re already getting that much, you try to get at least 80.  The result for me the first time I did it was that I lost 4 lb in the first week, by doing nothing more than drinking more water. By the end of the 8 weeks on the plan, I was drinking at least 80 ounces of water a day, often 100.  And strangely enough, your body adjusts very well to that.  When I first started, I was in the bathroom every hour.  By the end, I could drink 100 ounces in a day and still only go to the bathroom a normal number of times.

I’m not going completely back to the plan, though I’m going to incorporate a lot of it into the way I’m changing my diet and exercise, but I am starting with the water aspect.  For the last 3 days, I’ve made sure to get at least 64 ounces of water, in addition to some milk and juice.

Today I woke up earlier than I normally do, even though I went to bed late, and felt pretty well-rested.  My mood is better (the 2 new baby fish helped some, they always make me happy).  I’m already not in the bathroom as much as I was on Monday.  I’ve had more energy than I normally do.  I feel like I could go out for a nice, long walk with P in his stroller–and would, if it weren’t 90 degrees, sunny, and humid (ah, summer in Hotlanta).  Maybe after the sun goes down.  Or I could just get on the treadmill.  Anyway, that’s a major step for me.  I’m usually feeling too lazy to actually WANT to do some exercise.  Now I feel like I really want to get some exercise.

I’m excited about it.  I’m starting to remember the way I felt when I actually looked forward to waking up at 6 a.m. so that I could go jogging, which was the only time to go in South Carolina (where we used to live) during the summers.  It helped me stay happier for the rest of the day because, even if the day went to hell (which, in pre-IF days, was a far more rare occurrence), I had started the day doing something healthy.  I never got home after work feeling guilty about being too tired to exercise, because I’d already done it.  And it was such an easy step to take.  Not cutting anything from my diet yet, but adding something.

If I can keep this up, and start feeling a little better, I think it will drastically improve my overall mood.  It may have some effect on my fertility, but I’m not doing it for that.  I’m doing it for me.  I’m already starting to think that I could wake up at 6:30 tomorrow and go for a walk around the neighborhood.

Such a little change.  And yet, already so big.

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